Thursday Review: The Woman Who Fell From the Sky

Today's review is by BookSpin contributor Rita Hernandez.  You can read her blog at http://ritaliccious.wordpress.com .  Her twitter name is @Rita_liccious .

The Woman Who Fell From The Sky 

by Jennifer Steil

Broadway / Crown / Random House

Hardcover

This is the story of an American journalist who finds herself running a newspaper in Yemen. It really is so much more.  The depth to this story is what isn’t said. This book was interesting on many different levels.  The only thing I knew about Yemen, prior to reading this book, was what I saw on television and from what I knew when a high school friend served for a year in the Peace Corps teaching English over there. My friend video taped the entire experience. She lived in a hut and many third-world details such as that were absent from this book. But perhaps, that is one of the things that I like most about the book.  The author didn’t need to expand on the lack of plumbing to express her frustrations that many first-world Americans would feel. She did include enough details and had an amazing grasp of imagery that allowed me to visualize the small Yemenis village and I have never left this side of the Atlantic.

Reading this book made me realize that many of the things that I complain about really are third-world problems. The author, Jennifer Steil, managed to adapt to a very misogynistic society by having respect for a culture so very different from ours. Her depictions of all of her reporters and all of the characters in the book made them very real, and while you may not have agreed with the viewpoint of several of them (especially the men) you couldn’t help but empathize for their plight. And yet, while their culture was so very different from ours, the similarities were also clearly shown.

There are also many light-hearted passages where you couldn’t help but almost want to visit Yemen just to see the images that she was able to create with her pen. The sad part about that, is that, according to this novel, many of the population in Yemen are illiterate and many of the countries problems are attributed to this.  In fact, my favorite quote from the book clearly outlined this problem, but could be attributed to our society as well. “The more complicated the story, the more important it is that you make it clear to your readers.”

The underlying story here, is one of friendship. A friendship that transcends culture, space and time. Jennifer and Zuhra, one of the reporters, begins slowly and develops throughout the book that you almost feel as if there are elements of “chick-lit” to this book. That’s one of the things that I enjoyed the most. The narrative was so well-written that as the story unfolded you couldn’t help but turn the page wondering what was coming next.

I really enjoyed reading this book as I am not very familiar with the lands in the Middle East and while there were some very uncomfortable moments for the author, I have to say that it was quite an enjoyable read.

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher to review.

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Rita Hernandez is on the List of Extinct and Endangered Species as she is is a native South Floridian who still lives in South Florida. Proud mom to three beautiful children. She is a bibliophile, an anglophile, a political junkie and a General Hospital addict. Don't let that fool you though as she will read and write about any topic. A modern day Renaissance Woman.