Arabian Jazz

Very nice. I like the way Abu-Jaber writes. The book left me hanging a little bit, and it was very long for a book that didn't have a more definitive conclusion, I thought. But I liked the characters. At first everything seemed a little unlikely, but by the end of the book I felt every character was genuine and possible.

a light read, a few/some beautiful passages, I've read enough of her books that I can say she uses stereotypes based on race which are insulting and lack creativity.

All first books have to be written, don't they? Such is true with Abu-Jaber's Arabian Jazz. Perhaps if I hadn't been so busy with school and had been sitting on a beach, I could have concentrated more on the characters, story, and development. I just felt that the book lacked a cohesiveness that was so evident in her other works. Perhaps I'll give it another try in the future.