Under the Naked Sky: Short Stories from the Arab World Book

This is no proper review. It doesn't make sense to give a review of a collection of stories by different authors. And I didn't even read all the stories.

I had an ulterior motive: I am trying to get in touch with an Arabic voice, in order to write stories about people in Arabia. There seems to be something strangely formal about all the Arabic I've seen translated into English, this book being no exception. I guess I'll never know how much of that is the nature of the translation and how much is something true about the language itself. But for the record, these stories were all translated by the same guy, Denys Johnson-Davies. Perhaps that's why they all seem to speak with one voice, even though some of them are very different stories. But it's a good voice; I'll totally borrow it.

I feel like I'm missing a lot with some of these, like there's some well-known symbolism to the tale of the old woman who hunts snakes, that I'd immediately get if I lived in the Middle East. Of the many stories, I think my favorite was It's Not Fair by Yusuf Idris, because it illustrates the unique style of corruption I keep hearing about in certain Arab cities.