This is a hectiv review of the book and not of the writer because I still hope that Nawal Al-Saadawi's fame and reputation as the rockstar feminist of the arab world is not owed to the same writing as in this book, cause boy this was a dull one. The story is flat and shallow and so full of clichés. It reminded me of hundreds of stories you can read in arab magazines, a sort of cheap literature with a redundant style and a supplicant fiminine tone. The story has no soul, I wasn't moved, I wad rather bored, I expected to be amazed, even outraged a bit, but it was a whiny book. Maybe I hated it because I am more keen on advanced fierce feminism, that I am beyond the stage of being just angered about the patriarchal society (feminism 101), I want to read about strong unafraid women, I don't want to read about issues that I have already overcome. But the deal is that in the arab world this story can be quite outrageous and raises questions that women usually don't dare to talk about, like the matter of the husband whom at first is open minded and supportive and later on turns into an oppressive controlling a-hole, this is such a cliché yet it so rootef in the reality of arab women who are most of the times forced to leave their jobs to take care of their husband and kids. So, I won't say that this book is all lies and boring crap, but for me it was plain annoying, and I.learned nothing new from it.