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The first part of this book is set in South Africa, the woman's country, while the second is set in Abu's no-named but Arabian underveloped country. The first part of the book is pretty conventional, but it does get much better - I thought that the first part was in truth stage-setting for the second part.

At the end of the book, I was left wondering if the two main characters were looking for love in each other or looking for means to fill their lives with true meaning. I was also left wondering why the most appropriate choice is not always what it seems from the outside.

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I can't imagine what led Edward Said to call this novel "a masterwork of creative empathy" that "opens the Arab world to an unusually nuanced perception." Say what? In my opinion, Gordimer simply reinforces Orientalist prejudices -- and makes them look virtuous.

The main character, Julie, is a spoiled rich kid, who is alienated from her family and stereotypically rejects her well-heeled past for a bohemian lifestyle and left-wing politics. When she meets Abdu, an illegal immigrant in her country working as a mechanic, he is ideally suited to her habit of self-analysis and quest for self-fulfilment. So, when the authorities catch up with him and Abdu is deported to the unnamed hell hole that is his home country, Julie becomes his bride and follows him.

While Abdu struggles to get a visa to another Western country and dreams of the hard work and sacrifice that will eventually grant him access to a Western middle class life (we're dealing in stereotypes here, remember), Julie gets in touch with her untapped "traditional" side. She discovers the value of a close family, the benefits of the Ramadan fast (though she conveniently neglects the prohibition on sexual relations during the daylight hours), and she learns the true value of her trust fund ("why hadn't she taken more interest in learning these things about money! All very well to scorn them, turn up your nose at the bad smell, when there's nothing you really want"). She also discovers the mysteries of the desert, which the local people wisely steer clear of.

So, what happens when Abdu finally gets the visa he's been waiting for? Will Julie follow? I wouldn't want to spoil the ending for anyone, so I'll only say that it merely confirms Abdu's observation earlier in the novel: "Too indulged and pampered to understand that's what she is, she thinks she can have everything, she doesn't know that the one thing she can't have is to survive what she's decided she wants to do now. Madness... I thought she was intelligent. Stupidity. That's it. That's final."

We needed 250 pages of annoying drivel to learn that?

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Required reading for any sophisticated reader and non-Muslim women that are involved with, considering involvement with or have been involved with "the other", in this case a Muslim man.

The main female character, Julie, is adrift in her middle class life. She is annoying, self-centered, independent yet vague. She and her friend spend many hours at the EL-AY Table in a cafe somewhere in a cosmopolitan South African location. Here, these folks bide and chat away their time while claiming each other as family. Involved in each other's lives, they are liberal, artist, freedom-loving, accepting and kind of vacuous. Abdu is working illegally, in a nearby garage. His Arabic country of origin remains unnamed throughout the book. We are given a sense of his physicality, his respect for authority and wealth and his incredible desire to flee his own country for a better life.

The characters on their own.....bore. "She is aware of having to learn in a circumstance she, in all her confident discard of conventional ones, finds she had no preparation for. He, her find; it was also this one, to be discovered in herself." Together, the characters intrigue. Their relationship launches from the land of great chemistry.

Casually, Julie "picks up" Abdu, or does he pick her up? The question subsides as what sometimes happens with people, happens, they fall in love. The sexuality and love-making are very tastefully and elegantly described. "That night they made love, the kind of love-making that is another country, a country of its own, not yours or mine."

We are unassumingly lead down the path this relationship follows. Ms. Gordimer's voice of the white South African female, circa the mid 1990s, agilely tiptoes into inter-racial, cross-cultural relations without being too self conscious or too precious. The author's style is aloof and occasionally dry while maintaining impeccable style. This winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature describes events, emotions, and interactions as though they are playing out behind a gauzy silk veil, with light, catch-a-glimpse-if-you-can elusiveness.

The two lead characters progress to an unpredictable place, in such a way that usually only happens to real people. The author writes as if the story is being told to her as she tells it to us; this is an unfolding we are experiencing together. Her topics captivate: Human relationship, love, sex, family, country, life path, intimacy, interconnectedness; the rich list continues on.... Whether or not we are happy with the conclusion of this story pales next to being privy to a rich, deep, complex relationship and being invited to visit another country.

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