I was really looking forward to reading this book and started it with high anticipation. However, it started slow for me and didn't really build until the last 50 pages. And then I had a hard time putting it down. At first I found it difficult to follow the three main characters, and it particularly took me some time to relate to the three main female characters. I never felt really connected.
I appreciated the glimpse this book gave into another culture and the descriptions were beautiful. The writing made me feel as if I were there which made sense as the author based it on her own experience living in Baghdad as a domestic spouse of a diplomat under Hussain's regime. As such, I felt that the situations detailed in the book were most likely true. But I felt the journalistic eye the author gave the narrative may have been too objective which is why I felt removed reading this.
I appreciated the glimpse this book gave into another culture and the descriptions were beautiful. The writing made me feel as if I were there which made sense as the author based it on her own experience living in Baghdad as a domestic spouse of a diplomat under Hussain's regime. As such, I felt that the situations detailed in the book were most likely true. But I felt the journalistic eye the author gave the narrative may have been too objective which is why I felt removed reading this.