Book Review: Desert Royal by Jean Sasson- All about the Princess Trilogy
About the author:
Jean Sasson is an American writer who is
famous for her books written on the lives of women in the Middle East. She
travelled to Saudi Arabia in 1978 where she met many women whose lives inspired
her to write books about them. As I’ve mentioned a lot of times in my blog
posts and in the book reviews on my Instagram feed, Jean Sasson is one of my
favourite authors and this is the sixth book I read written by the author. She
writes such amazing and inspiring books and her books should definitely be read
by everyone. You can check out her website by clicking the link here.
About the book:
Desert Royal is the third book
written by Jean Sasson in the series of The Princess Trilogy which
describes the life of Princess Sultana who was one of the many princesses of
the royal Al Saud family of Saudi Arabia. You can check out the review of the
first part of the series, Princess on my Instagram feed by clicking here and the review of the
second part of the series, Daughters of Arabia by clicking the link here.
The first book of the series was the first hand life experience of Princess
Sultana from being a child in the Saudi royal family to the time when she got
married. It described the lives of women in Saudi Arabia and brought out the
fact that all women in Saudi Arabia, whether from a royal background or not,
suffer a lot just because of being a female. The second part of the series
threw light upon Princess Sultana’s life after marriage and after having kids. It
focused upon the lives of her children and also brought out the plight of the
women in the country of Saudi Arabia. Finally, the third part of the series-
Desert Royal describes the life of Princess Sultana at a later stage. She is
forty years old when she describes her life incidents through the writings of
Jean Sasson. She describes that how even at this age she has continued to fight
for women’s freedom in her country. The royal life which she has lived has
formulated her life experiences in many ways and she considers herself to be
lucky to be born in the royal family but witnessing the assault- both mental
and physical which the females of as small as ten years suffer has inspired the
princess to form Sultana’s Circle- a group of her and her sisters which works
its best in order to bring freedom to these females who are still suffering by
the hands of their own male family members. The book also consists of an additional
letter by Princess Sultana written seven years after the book was published
which gives an idea about the Princess’s current life and the achievements of Sultana’s Circle.
Review:
Reading the Princess Trilogy has been one of the
best experiences of my life. I’ve been reading Jean Sasson’s books from a long
time and I can’t explain that how much I respect the woman for writing so
beautifully and for bringing out the first hand experiences of the women of the Middle- East in such an amazing way. I started reading this series a year ago
and I finally finished it with the best feeling in my heart and tears in my eyes. This
series has made me so emotional and has made me feel connected to Princess Sultana’s life. Every person who reads this book will definitely feel sad and
will be bound by remorse thinking about the way in which the women in Saudi
Arabia are treated in the name of faith and religion. It’s so sad to read about little girls
being raped by rich men, small girls being married off to wealthy and old men
and girls being kidnapped and exported to Saudi Arabia from all over the world
in order to serve as sex slaves. The basic sufferings of not being able to voice their opinions, of not being able to drive, to cover their faces all the time, to have no say in marriage are also some of the instances
which will make you feel depressed for sure. This series surely brings to light the
sad truth of many countries in the world. It brings out the reality of the
lives of Saudi women which sometimes lead them to commit suicide or to suffer
permanent depression. Reading the Princess Trilogy has made me feel lucky for
the life I’ve been bestowed upon and I feel sad thinking about other girls like
me who instead of being educated, are treated as garbage in a world ruled by
men. It has taught me never to underestimate women and to raise my voice against
female cruelty. I’ve made it a point that I’ll read all the books written by
Jean Sasson because I love her work and her books always teach me and make me
realise a lot of things about life.
This book depicts an incident about Munira (Princess Sultana’s
niece) who at the age of twenty two is married to a man of her father’s age and
who brutally assaults her and rapes her on a daily basis. She writes a poem
about her sufferings which made me cry like a baby:
I have
lived and known what it is to smile
I have
lived the life of a young girl with a hopeful promise
I have
lived the life of a young girl who felt the warmth of womanhood
I have
lived the feeling of longing for the love of a good man
I have
lived the life of a woman whose promise was cut short
I have
lived the life of one whose dreams were dashed
I have
lived knowing tremendous fear for every man
I have
lived through the fears raised by the spectre of an evil coupling
I have
lived to see the devil in the guise of a man, ruling my every action
I have
lived as a beggar to this man, pleading with him to leave me alone
I have
lived to witness my husband have the pleasure of being a man
I have
lived to be ravished by the man to whom I was given
I have
lived only to endure nightly rapes
I have
lived to be buried while still alive
I have
lived to wonder why those who claim to love me, helped to bury me
I have
lived through all of these things, and I am not yet twenty five
years old
To Read or not to Read:
Definitely read this series. Trust me it won’t disappoint you even a little. You’ll love it whole heartedly, it will
make you feel a lot of things and most importantly, it will make you realise
what your life’s worth.
Hit the links below to buy the books
from The Princess Trilogy:
Daughters of Arabia: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B004ASOW16/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Rating: 5/5
Thank you for reading :)
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