A very readable selection and arrangement of stories from Alf layla wa layla which after the standard introduction brings together both characters of and storytellers of the tales in the home of sisters who have had all sorts of misfortunes at the hands of husbands but who remain in the prime of life. The chosen stories are almost all centered more around lovers and spouses rather than powerful magic and stirring adventure. ( )

Shahrayer’s wife betrayed him by taking part in massive orgies. She was seen by Shahrayer’s brother Shahaman who duly reported it. In an act of retribution, Shahrayer not only executed his wife but vowed to take a new untouched virgin each night, deflower her and execute her at dawn.

Until, of course, Shahrazad volunteered to become one of the doomed virgins. She mesmerized the king with her storytelling who agreed to let her finish her story before she was executed.

Stories within stories within stories. It’s a bit like the Noel Harrison song Windmills of your Mind: “like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel - Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel”.

Author Hannan Al-Shayk chose to beautifully retell nineteen of these stories. According to Wikipedia she chose to leave the stories continuing while the traditional ending is that after one thousand and one nights the stories end, and Shahrazad presented Shahrayer with the three children she had borne during the telling of the tales.

A few quotes:

Foreward by Mary Gaitskill:”The action of the stories in One Thousand and One Nights is dark and full of cruelty – especially toward women who are constantly being accused of adultery and then murdered or beat up. But the animating spirit here is light and full of play, especially on the part of the female characters, who are consistently resourceful and witty”. P.x

Author’s Preface : “I heard that a girl in my class had Alf Layl wa layl, (One Thousand and One Nights) and I hurried with her to peer at a few volumes in a glass cabinet, next to a carved tusk of an elephant. The volumes were leather- bound, their titles engraved in gold. I asked my friend if I might touch one, but she said that her father always locked the cabinet and kept the key in his pocket, because he said he feared that if anyone finished the stories they would drop dead. Of course I didn’t know then, and neither did my friend, that the reason her father didn’t want any of the women of the house to read Alf Layla wa Layla was because of its explicit sexuality.” Pxvii

“I felt as if I had opened the door of a carriage which took me back into the heart of my Arab heritage, and to classical Arab language, after a great absence. I was astonished at how our forebears had shaped our societies, showing us how to live our daily lives, through these tales which were filled with insights and moral and social rules and laws, without the influence of religion, but derived from first hand experience and deepest natural feelings towards every living thing. The effect of Alf Layl wa layl was so strong and real that Arab societies shaped themselves around it; the names of its characters were embedded in our language, becoming proverbs, adjectives and eve modes of speech. I was in awe of the complex society the stories evoked, which allowed relationships between humans and jinnis and beasts, real and imaginary.” P xviii ( )

It's REALLY difficult to figure out just how to rate this. On one hand, the storytelling is masterful; it's bawdy and action-packed, full of demons and lovers and vengeance. Most of the stories end very poorly for everyone involved, which is kind of awesome. However, even though I've become relatively familiar with many of the Arabian Nights stories over the years and thought myself fairly prepared for any old-fashioned notions couched in these ancient tales, I had an incredibly hard time getting over the abject misogyny of many of the stories...so much so that I wasn't sure if I could continue on. I was so enthralled though, curious to see just how the plot might twist in each individual story. This kept me going. al-Shaykh's phrasing certainly helped make it more accessible, too--I may just have to check out more of her own work. ( )

I really enjoyed this. I loved the stories within stories, and all the awesome, clever women in it. I liked that the stories were written in a way that is easier to read and understand. Overall, I would recommend it to anyone who has any interest in folk tales. ( )

I'd been circling closer and closer to this book for a while. I'd never read any version of One Thousand and One Nights, and given my recent reading interests, it seemed inevitable that I do so, but what translation? Then I heard somewhere that Al-Shaykh, one of my favorite authors, had done a recent interpretation (along with another woman, I believe) for the stage. I was of course excited, but I pretty much detest reading plays, so I hadn't gone looking for it. When I saw this translation at the library, I had to check it out immediately.

I had nearly no idea what to expect. Sinbad, Aladdin and his lamps, maybe. Not even The Wrath and The Dawn had really given me much idea of what to expect. At first, there was a lot about this text that I found jarring, largely in the framing story, with its murderous cuckolded kings, whose wives had dallied with strangely racially caricatured slaves. It took me a while to realize that the stories hadn't really been modernized, or sanitized, just translated, and joyously celebrated as the source of so many stories, so much tradition. And the stories seemed deliberately chosen to complicate any ideas of who is the fairer, weaker, more honest, or more lustful sex.

When the stories ended I was sad, not because I disagreed with the way Al-Shaykh somewhat ambiguously concluded them, but just that I wanted more stories, all of the stories, for the book to go on and on.

A wonderful book. ( )