The Occasional Virgin

May 21, 2018
Irony and iconoclasm are the orders of the day in al-Shaykh’s bittersweet tale of friendship and disillusionment. Both Huda, raised Muslim, and Yvonne, a Christian, consider themselves fortunate to have escaped their native Lebanon’s rigid patriarchy and conservative religiosity. During the country’s civil war, each was sent away to the West—and chose never to return. Years later, both women are professionally successful but personally unfulfilled. Huda is plagued by self-doubt and Yvonne is desperate to have a child. Following a weekend getaway to the Italian Riviera that only serves to dredge up painful childhood memories for both women, they reunite in London, where Huda is directing a play. After a series of tense altercations with religious extremists, the two women embark on a revenge plot against a man who denounces Huda for being an imperfect Muslim. This plan quickly backfires—or does it? Dialogue is at times stilted and laden with exposition or doing some heavy ideological lifting for the benefit of Western readers. But al-Shaykh (The Story of Zahra), who has drawn both admiration and condemnation in her native Lebanon for frank depictions of women’s sexuality and criticism of women’s powerlessness in traditional social structures, continues to grapple with these issues in ways both farcical and profound. It’s the small moments—of both absurdity and genuine pathos—that will remain with readers, as Yvonne and Huda struggle to reconcile where they came from with who they’ve become.

Fans of multicultural literature will find much to admire in this novel, which features Middle Eastern characters at home and abroad, portrayed by an enthusiastic narrator. Yvonne and Huda are childhood best friends with complicated pasts. Narrator Soneela Nankani plumbs the depths of their emotional entanglements with dramatic effect. She smoothly switches between the two Lebanese women at the center of the story, the Italians they meet on holiday, and the English in London, where Yvonne lives. Using varied accents, pacing, and pitch, Nankani creates additional verisimilitude for the story's international settings. Will a man come between these friends who have overcome so many other boundaries--including being stigmatized for their religion? Nankani makes sure listeners will stick around to find out. M.R. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine