The Sand Fish, a novel by Maha Gargash of Dubai, apparently written in English, is another of the suggestions for Arabic fiction I picked up from Kutub, the on-line reading group based in Dubai. It’s the story of Noora,  a young woman in the 1950s, from a small mountain tribe on the Arabian Peninsula with an independence in her that is at once a danger and a salvation.

Contracted away in marriage by her brother, after her mother has died and father is descending into senility, she is taken over the waters as the third, and youngest wife of a wealthy pearl merchant.  We see much of a woman’s place in very conservative societies and how she might react to what we, in the west, understand as love and passion — a very dangerous proposition.  And yet, the descriptions are very circumspect.

When the husband comes in to Noora, it is spoken of a “doing his duty.”  The eldest wife, Lateefa, gives this advice to her: “Lie down and don’t move.”

Even in the moment of passion — not with her husband– we go not much further.

And then he leaned closer. She felt his ghitra brush her cheek. And on her bruise, he placed his lips and held them there.

It seemed right, even though she knew it was wrong, and Noora closed her eyes.”

and two pages later:

“Had Lateefa smelled the scent of lovemaking on her skin?”

That’s all we know of it. Hardly the stuff of romance “ravishment,” in the West. Daring enough when such behavior can be punished by stoning.

A good deal of the story has to do with the relations of the three wives, and the competition and jealousy between the two youngest to carry the first child for Jassem, the husband.  Small details of the proper way to do morning ablutions catch our eye; how the burkha is lifted to place food in the mouth, and then dropped; the various kinds of covering, inside or out.  Longer descriptions of the universals of household politics, the use of language to imprison and to find freedom –dressed in their Arab particulars– are interesting to us no matter our own culture.

The last chapters of the book and the mystery of who is the father of the child and who knows,  along with the tension of discovery, add a real page-turner element to the book.

The author, Maha Gargash, is a highly educated, well traveled and much experienced woman — in Radio and Television.  The front pages don’t attribute a translator so for the moment we have to assume she wrote it herself in English.  The language is well crafted, but I had a hard time throughout the book, feeling it might have been written for “young readers.”  Too much was explained that seemed obvious to me, or was explained when it should have been shown.

“As Jassem kissed Shamsa on her forehead, Noora noticed Juma’s thin fingers creep onto his daughter’s shoulder and squeeze it. It was a tiny gesture but was so full of meaning. That was a pinch of support, and suddenly Noora envied her.”

This, along with the very sedate sections about her loving, and having the baby made be think The Sand Fish would be better enjoyed in the U.S. by younger readers.  I’ve sent a copy to a 13 year old niece thinking the exotic locale and  behavior of the characters –two old women whose charge it is to prepare Noora for the bridal interview– a girl older than she is, who knows  less about kissing than she already does, might be a draw.  I’ll let you know.

Kutub, the Dubai reading group can be found on-line.