The Ruins of Us: A Novel

This is a beautifully written novel told mostly in narrative style interspersed with dialogue and stream of consciousness. The characters have distinct personalities that make you feel as if you know each one personally and empathize with their predicaments. The main characters which are an interracial family living in Saudi Arabia during the 9/11 attacks are basically good people, but life is complicated, and they learn their lessons in a most painful way as they try to straddle both worlds.Abdullah is a rich business man and a member of an elite family. He thinks of himself as being progressive but traditional when it is convenient. Rosalie, his wife, is from Texas. She loves Abdullah and the wealthy lifestyle he provides but not necessarily the country’s customs. Faisal, their sixteen-year-old son, is a lonely, confused religious fanatic who feels isolated from his family. Mariam, their daughter, is a modern teenager, confident and reasonable, the antithesis of her brother. Dan, Isra, Majid and the Saudi government, better known as the Royals, provide the external conflict that propels the family’s lives into turmoil.My heart was pumping on every page in anticipation of what would happen next, yet the foreshadowing was unpredictable which added more suspense to the story. I loved the intellectual, creative style of the author and the characters that pushed and pulled my emotions in every direction. This was realism at its best.

The Ruins of Us is a must-read for anybody who has lived in Saudi Arabia and grappled with its ironies. An Aramco kid (okay, the author changed the company name, but we all know what it was...) marries a Saudi, moves to KSA, has children, and then struggles with her identity and predictable cultural challenges.The plot races right along, and gets especially gripping at the end. (no spoilers...)The characters are well-developed and motivated. Descriptions are fantastic, and very accurately capture the feeling of being there. Here's one of my favorites:"There is a trouble peculiar to expatriate children who fall in love with Saudi Arabia. Their visas expire when they leave, and they quickly discover that the place they have loved so long does not want them back. There is no room in a closed Muslim society for nostalgic American children. With no possibility of return, these boys and girls, at first melancholy with their loss, soon create in memory the perfect homeland, a suitable object for all the yearning sadness in their quiet American lives."The only reason that I didn't give this five stars was that I didn't quite believe the way the two main characters felt about their marriage. This, I think, is due to the author being relatively young herself. So we can forgive her if her ideas of what it feels like to be married to someone for 20 years might be a little off. (smile) Otherwise -- great book!

This book is engaging, honest, and hard to put down. I read it last night and although I'm at work right now I find myself pondering over it, recalling the characters and scenes. The book and the characters could so easily have gone to stereotypical- the elements almost beg for stereotype. But there is too much human depth to the characters, too much insight into their individual emotional lives to allow for that. Instead each character is human and struggling with the difficulties of family relationships fraught with political and religious overtones.I'd read a sequel to this in a heartbeat- at the resolution of the book everyone seems to be set off on new adventures, and I'd love to watch these characters grow and develop some more. They are well-written enough to feel like friends or extended family- I'd like to keep in touch and see how they're doing. That character development, more than the particular plot elements or exotic setting, is the real strength of the book.

There are several powerful themes explored through the splendid characterizations of the Baylani family and the their homelands. Rosalie and Abdullah Baylani meet in America when Rosalie is a free-spirited young girl singing in a night club. Rosalie had lived in Saudi Arabia when she was a child and her relationship with Abdullah takes her back to a nostalgic longing for the country of her youth. Their strong love compels Abdullah to marry her against traditions of his own family and he and Rosalie make their home in Saudi Arabia. Rosalie gives her heart to the country and we see the history, topography, climate and culture of this country through her adoring eyes. She also gives her heart to her husband and the family unit that they create, so much so, that "she dreamed in Arabic". And they lived happily ever after. Not quite.Through this one family and an American friend of the family, Dan Coleman, the author explores changes in the family caused by both internal and external forces, including the insidious force of secrets. "Secrets need shadows to thrive, and she would shine a spotlight on the onyx pendant and what lived beneath it." Artfully explored by the author is the birthing process of religious fervor and extremism in some young men, the ties to tradition (Abdullah taking a 2nd wife), forces within a culture that push for change (Miriam, Abdullah and Rosalie's daughter, who creates a blog that seeks readers that, like herself, want changes that allow more freedom for women), and the boundaries of friendship and love. When the book ends, the ties that bind family members to one another have been redefined in heart-rending ways. "Let this be a lesson in love - that you do not always get what you want. That sometimes, you must watch your love across a murmuring sea...."This book is a fresh, revelatory love story and a story of perceived betrayal. At times it is a mystery and at other times a thriller, but above all else it is a story of a family in transition, personally and culturally. It is also painful to read at times, and one scene is particularly nerve-wracking, but the motivations of each character are so well-developed that I felt a genuine understanding of the motivations of all of them. I felt like I knew the characters in the first few pages and now that I've finished the book, I"ll think of them many times over.

I wasn't sure how I would re-act to this novel but it was an amazing insight into Saudi Arabian culture from an author who had first hand knowledge. The fact that Keija Parssinen had experienced the two different cultures of both America and Saudi Arabia meant that we were treated to a genuine appraisal of how different life is in the Middle East. The question is whether an American woman who goes to live in Saudi Arabia can adapt to her Saudi husband's lifestyle and whether their children will be affected by any difficulties that may arise between their parents, due to the different cultures? A brilliant first novel.

An insight into life for men and women in Saudi Arabia and the pressures put onto families from mixed cultures. It showed how easily young people could be influenced to perform extreme acts as well as the problems faced by the son of getting out of the situation he put himself into. Also the lack of communication between the members of the family was highlighted.A very topical book.

Interesting read .offering different ways in which our cultures are so diverse and how tolerance can give us an insight of how to recognise and respect each others cultures in it's diversity.

Really loved this book !

Too many details not enough happening