Virgins of Paradise

Lo empiezas a leer y no quieres parar. El libro es fascinante, exotico. Lo que mas llamo mi atencion fue el gran misterio del mundo de la mujer musulmana, son mujeres apasionadas, amantes de su familia e igual como todas nosotras las occidentales, deseosas de una verdadera historia de amor.

This was one of those absolutely delicious books that I eat up like an exquisite food. Jasmine is an Egyptian woman, banished by her father from his wealthy household when he discovers that Jasmine was raped, and therefore has dishonored the family. This is one of the many injustices encountered by the women characters in this story in a society dominated by men who justify their actions by their religion. Some of the women accept this, but a few struggle to speak out for equality and modernization, often at the risk of their lives. I finished reading this book two months after the terrorist attack on New York, when there is a lot of talk about fundamentalist Islam. The plot includes the ideas of killing for the sake of God, of fundamentalists striving to return Egypt to its old ways, restricting women's freedoms, and beating them if even an ankle shows. In spite of this ugliness, there is much romance, passion, sexual longings, and family secrets that weave throughout several generations of the wealthy Rasheed family, as their lives coincide with changing political tides in Egypt, beginning with the monarchy of King Farouk, and passing through succeeding presidencies. There is gentle suspense and intrigue, and characters to love as well as to hate. All this made for a delicious story, yet because of its setting and focus on Islam, I was constantly pulled to think about the reality of it in relationship to current events. It's very enlightening, and though fiction, an important book for understanding the present time.

I have read some of Barbara Wood's books, but Virgins of Paradise is the crown jewel of her writings. The story takes us back to 1945, to Egypt at the close of the Second World War and a powerful family from the highest circles of nobility, the Rasheeds. They are the friends of royalty, rich and influential, and their every move is judged by the gravitas of their status. But under the veil of wealth and power lies a web of secrets even thicker than blood whose disclosure could spell the downfall of the family. As time goes by and tremendous incidents ravage Egypt, winds of war, treachery, dishonor, scandal, and forbidden love descend upon the once peaceful house of the Rasheeds on Virgins of Paradise Street. Flashes of events and voices echo from the past and as if by the hand of fate toss the family from one predicament into another. The patriarch of the Rasheeds, Ali is dead, but his posthumous influence remains strong. While Ibrahim his son is the nominal head of the house, it is Amira, Ali's widow, who is the eminence grise, the "invisible" hand that guides the family and holds its deepest secrets. Amira keeps secrets of her own and towards the end she embarks on a journey to uncover the mystery of her origins, which has been haunting her for decades. Tradition and Muslim law play a big role in the unfolding of the story's events, and many points in the culture are discussed and compared with Western culture in a fascinating way through the voices of the characters themselves. Although the two main characters are supposed to be Yasmina and Camelia, they are only two of the lively characters (like Alice and Nefissa) who all contribute to the colorfulness of this story. What is most touching though is that no matter how far the characters travel to escape their past (California, France, England, Lebanon...), their fates are always tied to that quaint home on Virgins of Paradise Street, the witness to generations of Rasheeds, throbbing with their memories, their mysteries, their fears, and their secrets. Barbara Wood's writing is exuberant and vivid to the point that for days after reading the book, I felt a sense of nostalgia for a home I had never seen in my life. The exotic smells and tastes and colors that make up Cairo seem to waft out of the book's pages. Barbara Wood's Virgins of Paradise is not merely a book to be read but an enchanting experience to be lived and felt.

Este libro nos presenta no solo la interesante historia de una mujer y su relacion con su familia, sino tambien las costumbres musulmanas y el papel que toma la mujer en un mundo regido por los hombres.

This novel has become a winter favorite for me. Snowed in on dark winter evenings I love to snuggle up with this book and allow it to take me away to another world.Virgins of Paradise, by Barbara Wood, is an exquisitely painted picture of a Muslim family through five decades of love found and lost, war, royalty, loyalty, family ties broken and mended.Though the ghostly presence of the elder Rasheed floats throughout the story, the rock-solid core of the Rasheed household is really Amira, his wife. She anchors the family with wisdom, her devout beliefs, and her healing herbs. Ibrahim, her son, in comparison, is a weak shell. It is the women in this story who seem to have all the strength, though their society has oppressed them.This a moving and intriguing tale of the evolution of a family through its births, deaths, weddings, and daily life. Wood writes with such rich detail, you can feel all the research she did before writing this novel. She whisks you away to the hot, dusty city of Cairo, its narrow streets crowded with peddlars, beggars, and men thinking of a revolution.The reader will want to know Amira's dark secret, find out what happened to the banished Rasheed family member, see if Nafisa will find love across enemy lines, and follow the lives of Camilla and Yasmina to adulthood.It's winter; it's about time for me to visit with the Rasheeds again.