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Small Kingdoms
Set in Kuwait during the ominous years between the two Gulf wars, Small Kingdoms traces the intersecting lives of five people rich and poor, native and foreigner, Muslim, Christian, and non-believer when they discover that a teenaged Indian housemaid is being brutally abused by her employer.
Tensions are high. Just miles away in Iraq, Saddam Hussein is threatening a second invasion of this tiny desert kingdom, which he destroyed six years before, in 1990. Even without a war on the horizon, rescuing a maid employed in a private home is a sticky matter in this rigid, class-conscious society, where the rich protect their own; and any intervention involves great personal risk.
Emmanuella, an impoverished cook from India, risks losing her job and thus her ability to support her family back home. Kit, the young wife of an American businessman in the Gulf, could face grave damage to her marriage. Mufeeda, an upper class Kuwaiti woman, must buck the powerful status quo of her family and her class, as well as her own history.
And there s Hanaan, a rebellious young Arab woman who may have as much to lose as the desperate maid. Having fallen in love with Theo, an American doctor working in the country, she has already faced violent retribution from her family. How much more violence lies ahead she doesn t know. Stubborn, charismatic, and dismissive of her society s strict codes of behavior for unmarried women, she will step forward to help the captive maid.
An Upstairs/Downstairs of the Arab world, Small Kingdoms tells the intimate story of ordinary people facing an extraordinary test in the face of another war.
Tensions are high. Just miles away in Iraq, Saddam Hussein is threatening a second invasion of this tiny desert kingdom, which he destroyed six years before, in 1990. Even without a war on the horizon, rescuing a maid employed in a private home is a sticky matter in this rigid, class-conscious society, where the rich protect their own; and any intervention involves great personal risk.
Emmanuella, an impoverished cook from India, risks losing her job and thus her ability to support her family back home. Kit, the young wife of an American businessman in the Gulf, could face grave damage to her marriage. Mufeeda, an upper class Kuwaiti woman, must buck the powerful status quo of her family and her class, as well as her own history.
And there s Hanaan, a rebellious young Arab woman who may have as much to lose as the desperate maid. Having fallen in love with Theo, an American doctor working in the country, she has already faced violent retribution from her family. How much more violence lies ahead she doesn t know. Stubborn, charismatic, and dismissive of her society s strict codes of behavior for unmarried women, she will step forward to help the captive maid.
An Upstairs/Downstairs of the Arab world, Small Kingdoms tells the intimate story of ordinary people facing an extraordinary test in the face of another war.
344 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
3 people are currently reading
419 people want to read
About the author
Anastasia Hobbet
3 books42 followersEarly endorsements and reviews for
Small Kingdoms, published January 15, 2010, by The Permanent Press
“A gripping book, written with clarity, grace, and insight…a great achievement.”
—Hilary Mantel,
winner, 2009 Man Booker Prize
Chosen for inclusion in January's NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER column, 'New Books that Transport Us'
“Hobbet’s second novel, set in Kuwait between the two Gulf wars, beautifully evokes both character and place.... Hobbet vividly renders both the stark landscape of the Middle East and its class disparity....An eloquent, haunting, and enlightening novel.”
—Booklist, starred review
“compelling…an immersive, authentic novel about Middle East life.”
—Publisher's Weekly
“A story of tangled East-West relations…Hobbet employs a deft touch as she moves into delicate areas of cultural misunderstanding and romantic complication.”
—Kirkus
"A brilliant feat of storytelling, a richly-woven novel that presents an unsparing portrait of life in the Gulf. Anastasia Hobbet offers the reader an engrossing story as well as a deeply humane insight into a culture that is often caricatured."
— Zoë Ferraris
winner, 2008 LA Times Book Award
Small Kingdoms, published January 15, 2010, by The Permanent Press
“A gripping book, written with clarity, grace, and insight…a great achievement.”
—Hilary Mantel,
winner, 2009 Man Booker Prize
Chosen for inclusion in January's NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER column, 'New Books that Transport Us'
“Hobbet’s second novel, set in Kuwait between the two Gulf wars, beautifully evokes both character and place.... Hobbet vividly renders both the stark landscape of the Middle East and its class disparity....An eloquent, haunting, and enlightening novel.”
—Booklist, starred review
“compelling…an immersive, authentic novel about Middle East life.”
—Publisher's Weekly
“A story of tangled East-West relations…Hobbet employs a deft touch as she moves into delicate areas of cultural misunderstanding and romantic complication.”
—Kirkus
"A brilliant feat of storytelling, a richly-woven novel that presents an unsparing portrait of life in the Gulf. Anastasia Hobbet offers the reader an engrossing story as well as a deeply humane insight into a culture that is often caricatured."
— Zoë Ferraris
winner, 2008 LA Times Book Award
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
March 13, 2012
I was excited to find a book about Kuwait, and the first couple of chapters sucked me in. Unfortunately, what followed was a nearly plot-free slog through the mundane lives of Americans temporarily residing in the country, with a few supporting characters adding local color.
Small Kingdoms is advertised as a book about a diverse group of people living in mid-1990’s Kuwait who come together to rescue an abused maid. While perhaps technically true, this is quite misleading. First, there are four main characters from whose perspectives we view events (in order by the amount of page time they get): Theo, a newly-arrived American doctor; Kit, a newly-arrived American housewife and mother, accompanying her businessman husband; Mufeeda, a rich Kuwaiti woman; and Emmanuella, Mufeeda’s teenage Indian cook. The non-Americans get only about 100 pages of this 344-page book, leaving the vast majority to Theo and Kit.
And Kit’s and Theo’s plotlines are stories that could be found in any number of books set in the contemporary U.S. Kit’s chapters are mostly about her crippling timidity. Her problems include things like street vendors frequently buzzing up.... which is a problem because she’s not assertive enough to convince them she doesn’t want anything.... but she doesn’t tell her husband, because he’d just tell her to hire a maid.... which is a problem because she’s nervous about interviewing maids. Theo’s plotline is mostly about an affair with an Arab woman, and about all the annoying complications he faces working in a Kuwaiti public hospital: like being given a tiny office full of other people’s boxes and arguing with his boss about whether they should bother to take patients’ blood pressure. (Granted, there’s also some worry about “Saddam” invading again, but readers already know he won’t.) Sound riveting yet?
And even for what they are, these plotlines are underdeveloped. We see a lot of Kit’s neuroses and the problems in her marriage, for instance, but never learn why she’s so non-functional or how she and her husband Jack got together in the first place.
So about that abused maid, Santana: she’s anything but a focus of the plot. Indeed, she only appears in a couple of scenes, and only toward the end of the book does anyone besides Emmanuella even become aware of her situation. Santana’s role in the book is to provide a climax and some social relevance in a book that otherwise documents the Americans’ lives.
Admittedly, part of my frustration with this book is that I was hoping for a window into Kuwaiti life and culture. Instead, this book provides an expat’s view of the country; it’s telling that the only local family whose inner workings we see (if only briefly) is one that regularly opens its doors to American guests. The author has a foreign visitor’s eye for physical details--like tiny washing machines in kitchens for the towels, and lawnmowers for sale at Ace Hardware even though nobody has grass--but not a true novelist’s eye for what makes a society tick. When I pick up a book about a foreign country, I want to read about that country. Not about Americans going into crisis mode because they forgot to bring the Christmas decorations. Some asides about how badly Kuwaitis treat poor immigrant workers don't change the overall tenor of that story.
And there’s this Americans-to-the-rescue thing going on. True, Theo and Kit do only what we’d expect from good citizens, but there’s something disingenuous about juxtaposing the best of one society with some of the worst facets of another. There’s certainly no mention here of how immigrant workers are treated in the U.S., and the book only grudgingly admits that domestic violence happens here too. Americans in this book are sometimes rude or oblivious, but never the type to take advantage of their power.
In the end, this book read as if the author tried to turn her own experience living abroad into a novel, and the result is entirely forgettable. I give two stars rather than one because it was readable, the writing style and character development were at least minimally competent although not exceptional, and I never felt the urge to throw the book at a wall. But there have to be better books out there about Kuwait.
Small Kingdoms is advertised as a book about a diverse group of people living in mid-1990’s Kuwait who come together to rescue an abused maid. While perhaps technically true, this is quite misleading. First, there are four main characters from whose perspectives we view events (in order by the amount of page time they get): Theo, a newly-arrived American doctor; Kit, a newly-arrived American housewife and mother, accompanying her businessman husband; Mufeeda, a rich Kuwaiti woman; and Emmanuella, Mufeeda’s teenage Indian cook. The non-Americans get only about 100 pages of this 344-page book, leaving the vast majority to Theo and Kit.
And Kit’s and Theo’s plotlines are stories that could be found in any number of books set in the contemporary U.S. Kit’s chapters are mostly about her crippling timidity. Her problems include things like street vendors frequently buzzing up.... which is a problem because she’s not assertive enough to convince them she doesn’t want anything.... but she doesn’t tell her husband, because he’d just tell her to hire a maid.... which is a problem because she’s nervous about interviewing maids. Theo’s plotline is mostly about an affair with an Arab woman, and about all the annoying complications he faces working in a Kuwaiti public hospital: like being given a tiny office full of other people’s boxes and arguing with his boss about whether they should bother to take patients’ blood pressure. (Granted, there’s also some worry about “Saddam” invading again, but readers already know he won’t.) Sound riveting yet?
And even for what they are, these plotlines are underdeveloped. We see a lot of Kit’s neuroses and the problems in her marriage, for instance, but never learn why she’s so non-functional or how she and her husband Jack got together in the first place.
So about that abused maid, Santana: she’s anything but a focus of the plot. Indeed, she only appears in a couple of scenes, and only toward the end of the book does anyone besides Emmanuella even become aware of her situation. Santana’s role in the book is to provide a climax and some social relevance in a book that otherwise documents the Americans’ lives.
Admittedly, part of my frustration with this book is that I was hoping for a window into Kuwaiti life and culture. Instead, this book provides an expat’s view of the country; it’s telling that the only local family whose inner workings we see (if only briefly) is one that regularly opens its doors to American guests. The author has a foreign visitor’s eye for physical details--like tiny washing machines in kitchens for the towels, and lawnmowers for sale at Ace Hardware even though nobody has grass--but not a true novelist’s eye for what makes a society tick. When I pick up a book about a foreign country, I want to read about that country. Not about Americans going into crisis mode because they forgot to bring the Christmas decorations. Some asides about how badly Kuwaitis treat poor immigrant workers don't change the overall tenor of that story.
And there’s this Americans-to-the-rescue thing going on. True, Theo and Kit do only what we’d expect from good citizens, but there’s something disingenuous about juxtaposing the best of one society with some of the worst facets of another. There’s certainly no mention here of how immigrant workers are treated in the U.S., and the book only grudgingly admits that domestic violence happens here too. Americans in this book are sometimes rude or oblivious, but never the type to take advantage of their power.
In the end, this book read as if the author tried to turn her own experience living abroad into a novel, and the result is entirely forgettable. I give two stars rather than one because it was readable, the writing style and character development were at least minimally competent although not exceptional, and I never felt the urge to throw the book at a wall. But there have to be better books out there about Kuwait.
February 24, 2010
This is a brilliantly written novel set in Kuwait between the two Gulf wars. People from varying social and cultural backgrounds are brought together to join in a common cause: to help a young maid servant by the name of Santana escape from a household, where she is repeatedly starved, physically abused, and raped by her employer. In the meantime, tension in Kuwait builds as Saddam Hussein threatens another attack.
Among the characters are Mufeeda, a devout, affluent Muslim woman married to a physician, who finds herself trying to balance her own ancient customs with those of the Western world; Kit, a young, naïve American from rural Oklahoma living in Kuwait with her businessman husband and young family, who attempts to fit in; Theo, an American doctor in love with Hanaan, his beautiful and rebellious Arabic tutor, who is a Palestinian and therefore “an official nobody”; and Emmanuella, a destitute maid from Goa, who sends her meagre earnings home to support her family. It is because of Emmanuella’s secret efforts to help Santana that all the characters come together in an incredible and unlikely act of courage and selflessness.
But as the reader soon learns, Santana’s plight is not an isolated one, and there are hundreds of others just like her, often found dead. Mufeeda’s husband sets out to clarify matters: “Many in the Gulf abuse their servants, and the murderers among us are almost always protected by their status … we consider them so far beneath us … it’s as if we killed a rat or a roach.” Thanks to Anastasia Hobbet’s keen eye for detail and observation, she skillfully brings to our attention this relatively unknown form of violence and exploitation. In the meantime, as Saddam begins to make good on his threats, the dangers and dramas only escalate, and all around.
It is obvious Hobbet has a first-hand knowledge of the social and political complexities of the world she writes about; and indeed, she resided there for several years. Her compelling and powerful novel brings to life an extraordinary and trying moment in Kuwaiti history. With her compassion and piercing insight, she draws us, the readers, into the book so much so that we too want to join in and help free Santana. Hobbet is a masterful story-teller at times humorous, and her writing is both fluidly and beautifully structured. A stunning and gripping novel not to be missed.
Among the characters are Mufeeda, a devout, affluent Muslim woman married to a physician, who finds herself trying to balance her own ancient customs with those of the Western world; Kit, a young, naïve American from rural Oklahoma living in Kuwait with her businessman husband and young family, who attempts to fit in; Theo, an American doctor in love with Hanaan, his beautiful and rebellious Arabic tutor, who is a Palestinian and therefore “an official nobody”; and Emmanuella, a destitute maid from Goa, who sends her meagre earnings home to support her family. It is because of Emmanuella’s secret efforts to help Santana that all the characters come together in an incredible and unlikely act of courage and selflessness.
But as the reader soon learns, Santana’s plight is not an isolated one, and there are hundreds of others just like her, often found dead. Mufeeda’s husband sets out to clarify matters: “Many in the Gulf abuse their servants, and the murderers among us are almost always protected by their status … we consider them so far beneath us … it’s as if we killed a rat or a roach.” Thanks to Anastasia Hobbet’s keen eye for detail and observation, she skillfully brings to our attention this relatively unknown form of violence and exploitation. In the meantime, as Saddam begins to make good on his threats, the dangers and dramas only escalate, and all around.
It is obvious Hobbet has a first-hand knowledge of the social and political complexities of the world she writes about; and indeed, she resided there for several years. Her compelling and powerful novel brings to life an extraordinary and trying moment in Kuwaiti history. With her compassion and piercing insight, she draws us, the readers, into the book so much so that we too want to join in and help free Santana. Hobbet is a masterful story-teller at times humorous, and her writing is both fluidly and beautifully structured. A stunning and gripping novel not to be missed.
January 31, 2010
This is a very interesting book (which I won through Goodreads, yay!) about life in Kuwait between the two Gulf Wars. The book tells four intersecting stories from very different perspectives: an American woman whose husband is transferred to Kuwait; an Indian maid working for an upperclass Kuwaiti family; an American doctor working in a local hospital who is dating a local, outspoken Palestinian woman; and an upperclass, traditional Kuwaiti woman.
The perspectives were interesting and the writing was quite good. However, there were a few things that just tested my credulity. What woman would bring her kids halfway across the world to a place that had just finished a war and not have even heard of Ramadan? She seemed to have read absolutely nothing about Kuwait, even a travel guide. Who would do that? Also, the author goes on and on about this American woman and how she is so sheltered and knows nothing of the world and grew up and spent almost all of her life on a farm in Oklahoma, yet she mistakes a rooster's crow for bombs. What??? My final criticism: I found the Palestinian woman to be just plain annoying. I like strong women, but her irratic moods and temper made it almost impossible to understand what the American doctor saw in her.
Despite these drawbacks, this is a very interesting book that taught me a lot about Kuwait. If you're interested in learning more about that part of the world, I definitely recommend it.
The perspectives were interesting and the writing was quite good. However, there were a few things that just tested my credulity. What woman would bring her kids halfway across the world to a place that had just finished a war and not have even heard of Ramadan? She seemed to have read absolutely nothing about Kuwait, even a travel guide. Who would do that? Also, the author goes on and on about this American woman and how she is so sheltered and knows nothing of the world and grew up and spent almost all of her life on a farm in Oklahoma, yet she mistakes a rooster's crow for bombs. What??? My final criticism: I found the Palestinian woman to be just plain annoying. I like strong women, but her irratic moods and temper made it almost impossible to understand what the American doctor saw in her.
Despite these drawbacks, this is a very interesting book that taught me a lot about Kuwait. If you're interested in learning more about that part of the world, I definitely recommend it.
March 10, 2010
Small Kingdoms is set in Kuwait after the Gulf War and before the American-led war against Sadam Hussein whose shadow is cast over the whole book. But the narrative mainly concerns itself with the lives of a varied number of protagonists: a Kuwaiti husband and wife, an Indian maid, an American doctor, a young Palestinian woman, and the wife of an American Manager of a construction company. There are several threads to the story which intertwine in such a way that a larger picture of life in Kuwait - both local and expatriate - emerges with graphic clarity. Anastasia Hobbet, who lived in Kuwait for five years, has closely brought out the nuances of Kuwaiti culture and, too, the dilemmas of expatriate life. Every page of this novel has been cleverly crafted and although what she has to say is of the utmost seriousness, it is always mediated by a wry humour which helps to palliate some of the more unpleasant truths.
I myself lived and worked in Kuwait for eighteen years and can vouch for the authenticity of her setting. If you want to know what life is like in this small emirate, then you could not do better than read Small Kingdoms. But more than this, you could hardly find a finer novel.
I myself lived and worked in Kuwait for eighteen years and can vouch for the authenticity of her setting. If you want to know what life is like in this small emirate, then you could not do better than read Small Kingdoms. But more than this, you could hardly find a finer novel.
February 18, 2011
Small Kingdoms was one of the best works of fiction I have read in years. The author does an amazing job of delving into the personal life and experiences of a diverse group of people and families in Kuwait and brings them all together in a fantastically believable way. Having just moved to the Middle East, it was wonderful to read about the experiences of a few of the main characters who had also just moved here and to see what I see and think of reflected in their observations as well. A great book.
From a professional standpoint, this is a fantastic book highlighting the challenges of the domestic worker industry in Kuwait and the Gulf. I read this book while reporting on human trafficking and it was both timely and accurate to what I was seeing in my interviews and conversations with government officials and NGO's. I recommend the book to anyone who enjoys human interest novels, and to anyone interested in international relations and international labor migration.
From a professional standpoint, this is a fantastic book highlighting the challenges of the domestic worker industry in Kuwait and the Gulf. I read this book while reporting on human trafficking and it was both timely and accurate to what I was seeing in my interviews and conversations with government officials and NGO's. I recommend the book to anyone who enjoys human interest novels, and to anyone interested in international relations and international labor migration.
January 7, 2012
The intersection of the lives of several women in Kuwait (expat, immigrant, servant, native). Keenly observed, with complex and interesting characters. Unpredictable and wise, well paced. A good read and I learned a lot about Kuwait, (Hobbet lived there for several years as an expat.) Again, her book has heart. This is a writer who is engaged with the world and her material; she’s not just running through the paces.
December 30, 2020
An well-written and gripping story that shows many different experiences of life in Kuwait. An excellent read!
February 10, 2013
"Babies were expected to make noise, as were very young children, and boys of any age couldn't be prevented. But girls of eleven had their wits about them and were required to keep their voices to themselves" (82).
"If Saleh didn't come immediately to this conclusion, his mother could be relied upon to supply it" (83).
"It was a perfect acoustic portrait of edginess, she thought, elbowing its way through every floor and wall of the echoing house" (94).
“ ‘I am not a slave to my religion, you know. I don’t respect all the culture Islam has made. God didn’t say that women must wear black sheets and shut their mouths. Men say this’” (117).
“Their nationalities were nebulous but their desire to exclude Theo was not” (118).
“How spare that look you gave me. No,
not ‘gave’ for there’s no give.
And again you’re gone. Another take
of leave” (120).
“But how did you nurture an attraction into commitment, and how did you seal a commitment with trust?” (120).
“ ‘Dear Dad,’ she said aloud to herself in the mirror as she combed her hair. How flat and lifeless it looked. ‘Yes, you’re right, Saddam is acting restless again and he has a bunch of missiles he could aim toward us tomorrow. But what really worries me is a tea party at my neighbor’s house today’” (128).
“Carla had chosen her own clothes for the outing, and with calm deliberation: a striped blue and white smock with two big pockets on the skirt in which she jammed a Barbie each, both naked” (129).
“Was it a good thing that some of her most gratifying moments as a parent were short, decisive interactions like this one where she pulled rank on her children? She’d hated being on the receiving end when she was a child, all those seemingly negotiable items rendered dead in single syllables: no, no, no” (130).
“She wore a black scarf wrapped with what looked like punishing tightness around her head and neck, but her smile cancelled its severity…” (131).
“…labeled in Arabic with tiny yellow sticky notes during their lessons—table, chair, shelf, floor, wall, window, counter, sink—until her flat looked like a roost for yellow butterflies” (141).
“Her cats gradually recovered from their single-syllable battering in English and were back at the threshold where they sat in mouthy hopefulness, gazing in” (143).
“He relaxed into bonelessness, purring” (143).
“ ‘Do you see?’ she whispered. ‘I must do my own thinking. What’s the purpose of my mind if he fills it with his own thoughts?’” (148).
“…flimsy cartoon greeting cards infected with glittery dander…” (154).
“ ‘We shut off our minds with money. It’s a glorious narcotic, and we want more and more’” (168).
"Sara stared at her in bruised surprise, unused to harshness from her mother" (192).
"Oh, how articulate one could be long after the fact!" (197).
"What a flock of parrots American women were" (199).
"Too late now to impress any modesty upon them. They seemed incapable of thinking without speaking, and incapable of speaking without broadcasting" (200).
“Saleh put some appropriate sentences in order” (217).
“He creased the pages of his letters just so with hard pressure from a clean and trim fingernail; taken from their envelopes they sprang open like machines…” (224).
“She flirted John’s letter at Emmanuella…” (225).
“Politics was mostly hoopla, world-wide” (279).
“It seemed a poor message to send to your patients: I can’t even keep a plant alive” (294).
“Kit gazed at him with a growing wonderment that she’d ever found him attractive. That philodendron was probably his after all” (297).
“…eating like a monk and swimming obsessively twice a day. The staff had grown accustomed to his morning aura of self-satisfaction perfumed with chlorine” (305).
"If Saleh didn't come immediately to this conclusion, his mother could be relied upon to supply it" (83).
"It was a perfect acoustic portrait of edginess, she thought, elbowing its way through every floor and wall of the echoing house" (94).
“ ‘I am not a slave to my religion, you know. I don’t respect all the culture Islam has made. God didn’t say that women must wear black sheets and shut their mouths. Men say this’” (117).
“Their nationalities were nebulous but their desire to exclude Theo was not” (118).
“How spare that look you gave me. No,
not ‘gave’ for there’s no give.
And again you’re gone. Another take
of leave” (120).
“But how did you nurture an attraction into commitment, and how did you seal a commitment with trust?” (120).
“ ‘Dear Dad,’ she said aloud to herself in the mirror as she combed her hair. How flat and lifeless it looked. ‘Yes, you’re right, Saddam is acting restless again and he has a bunch of missiles he could aim toward us tomorrow. But what really worries me is a tea party at my neighbor’s house today’” (128).
“Carla had chosen her own clothes for the outing, and with calm deliberation: a striped blue and white smock with two big pockets on the skirt in which she jammed a Barbie each, both naked” (129).
“Was it a good thing that some of her most gratifying moments as a parent were short, decisive interactions like this one where she pulled rank on her children? She’d hated being on the receiving end when she was a child, all those seemingly negotiable items rendered dead in single syllables: no, no, no” (130).
“She wore a black scarf wrapped with what looked like punishing tightness around her head and neck, but her smile cancelled its severity…” (131).
“…labeled in Arabic with tiny yellow sticky notes during their lessons—table, chair, shelf, floor, wall, window, counter, sink—until her flat looked like a roost for yellow butterflies” (141).
“Her cats gradually recovered from their single-syllable battering in English and were back at the threshold where they sat in mouthy hopefulness, gazing in” (143).
“He relaxed into bonelessness, purring” (143).
“ ‘Do you see?’ she whispered. ‘I must do my own thinking. What’s the purpose of my mind if he fills it with his own thoughts?’” (148).
“…flimsy cartoon greeting cards infected with glittery dander…” (154).
“ ‘We shut off our minds with money. It’s a glorious narcotic, and we want more and more’” (168).
"Sara stared at her in bruised surprise, unused to harshness from her mother" (192).
"Oh, how articulate one could be long after the fact!" (197).
"What a flock of parrots American women were" (199).
"Too late now to impress any modesty upon them. They seemed incapable of thinking without speaking, and incapable of speaking without broadcasting" (200).
“Saleh put some appropriate sentences in order” (217).
“He creased the pages of his letters just so with hard pressure from a clean and trim fingernail; taken from their envelopes they sprang open like machines…” (224).
“She flirted John’s letter at Emmanuella…” (225).
“Politics was mostly hoopla, world-wide” (279).
“It seemed a poor message to send to your patients: I can’t even keep a plant alive” (294).
“Kit gazed at him with a growing wonderment that she’d ever found him attractive. That philodendron was probably his after all” (297).
“…eating like a monk and swimming obsessively twice a day. The staff had grown accustomed to his morning aura of self-satisfaction perfumed with chlorine” (305).
February 17, 2016
Set in Kuwait between the two Gulf Wars, "Small Kingdoms" by Anastasia Hobbet follows the lives of seemingly different individuals - local residents and Americans working abroad - and their coming together to help a maid abused by her employers.
Devoutly Muslim, Mufeeda is the picture of privilege, a Kuwaiti housewife with a successful husband and a villa teeming with servants. But with her mother-in-law breathing down her neck, Mufeeda feels her control over the household slipping. To Mufeeda's dismay and bafflement, the young Indian servant, Emmanuella, who was showing so much promise as a cook is now increasingly clumsy and absent-minded. Unbeknownst to Mufeeda, Emmanuella is risking her own employment to smuggle food next door to the maid, Santana, who is being starved, beaten and repeatedly raped by the couple employing her. Stripped of her documents and denied the wages she was promised, Santana has no other choice but to endure the torment.
Kit Ferguson, an American housewife and Mufeeda's neighbor, silently endures her "exile" to Kuwait in order to support her husband and his high-powered job in the region. She's shy and socially awkward, equally at odds with the wives of other American expatriates and the local women. Inept with local customs, Kit clings to and forms friendships with hired help who relish her unexpected attention. Another American, California doctor Theo, comes to Kuwait due to reasons he cannot explain, even to himself. Working under an older Indian doctor at the country's public hospital, Theo is encouraged to take Arabic lessons to better understand his patients. His lessons lead him to Hanaan, a fiercely independent and beautiful Palestinian woman who risks her family's wrath for a romance with Theo.
As rumors of Saddam's impending attack reach their peak, locals and foreigners alike are clamoring to leave the country for safer grounds. Santana's employers are no exception and they threaten to lock the maid inside the house during their absence. Faced with the desperate situation, the novel's characters are brought together in a selfless act to rescue the girl from a certain death.
Anastasia Hobbet lived in Kuwait during the time she describes in her novel, and her intimate knowledge of the country, its people and customs seeped through every page. Whether American, Kuwaiti or Palestinian, the characters felt as real as if I were another neighbor living down the street and dining at their table. From the beginning, I found myself invested in their lives and eagerly awaited the outcomes of their choices. Hobbet's fluid lyrical writing transcended the obstacles of a foreign culture and the maze of unknown customs to make the subject of Kuwait accessible to all readers. Amidst a barrage of novels set in the Middle East, "Small Kingdoms" stands out as a gem that is not to be missed.
Devoutly Muslim, Mufeeda is the picture of privilege, a Kuwaiti housewife with a successful husband and a villa teeming with servants. But with her mother-in-law breathing down her neck, Mufeeda feels her control over the household slipping. To Mufeeda's dismay and bafflement, the young Indian servant, Emmanuella, who was showing so much promise as a cook is now increasingly clumsy and absent-minded. Unbeknownst to Mufeeda, Emmanuella is risking her own employment to smuggle food next door to the maid, Santana, who is being starved, beaten and repeatedly raped by the couple employing her. Stripped of her documents and denied the wages she was promised, Santana has no other choice but to endure the torment.
Kit Ferguson, an American housewife and Mufeeda's neighbor, silently endures her "exile" to Kuwait in order to support her husband and his high-powered job in the region. She's shy and socially awkward, equally at odds with the wives of other American expatriates and the local women. Inept with local customs, Kit clings to and forms friendships with hired help who relish her unexpected attention. Another American, California doctor Theo, comes to Kuwait due to reasons he cannot explain, even to himself. Working under an older Indian doctor at the country's public hospital, Theo is encouraged to take Arabic lessons to better understand his patients. His lessons lead him to Hanaan, a fiercely independent and beautiful Palestinian woman who risks her family's wrath for a romance with Theo.
As rumors of Saddam's impending attack reach their peak, locals and foreigners alike are clamoring to leave the country for safer grounds. Santana's employers are no exception and they threaten to lock the maid inside the house during their absence. Faced with the desperate situation, the novel's characters are brought together in a selfless act to rescue the girl from a certain death.
Anastasia Hobbet lived in Kuwait during the time she describes in her novel, and her intimate knowledge of the country, its people and customs seeped through every page. Whether American, Kuwaiti or Palestinian, the characters felt as real as if I were another neighbor living down the street and dining at their table. From the beginning, I found myself invested in their lives and eagerly awaited the outcomes of their choices. Hobbet's fluid lyrical writing transcended the obstacles of a foreign culture and the maze of unknown customs to make the subject of Kuwait accessible to all readers. Amidst a barrage of novels set in the Middle East, "Small Kingdoms" stands out as a gem that is not to be missed.
July 19, 2010
Small Kingdoms[return]Anastasia Hobbet[return]Permanent Press[return]344 pages[return]1579621910[return][return]In 1990 Kuwait was humbled in a matter of a few hours when Saddam Hussein invaded and seized control. Small Kingdoms takes place six years later, the people of this tiny country are on edge with fear of another attack. With a daily sense of foreboding and increased tension the people living their go about their daily lives while the bulldozers of Iraq threaten to roll into their land. These menacing machines conjure up memories of the past, heinous crimes buried but not forgotten. [return][return]Hobbet s storytelling takes shape from different perspectives emanating from the lives of her culturally diverse mosaic of characters. As she introduces each one into the story, their unique voice and close-up view will blend together. Their background and different cultures intersect and through them the reader comes to understand the Middle East and the Kuwaiti society in the global arena. Not in isolation, but at the center stage. [return][return]The lives of four women, so alike yet so different, strong, obdurate and struggling to achieve their own goals are paramount to the story. Mufeeda, a married upper class Kuwaiti citizen, Kit, the wife of an American businessman and Hanaan, a recalcitrant single, Arab woman. In a society where servants are expendable, Emmanuella, a cook from India tests the limits of her position in order to save another. Her precarious deeds while working for Mufeeda offer a lesson in the fragility and value of human life. [return][return]Hanaan is full of intrigue and surprise, laughter and sorrow. She will go to great lengths to save a sick cat, and when she steals a cat from the owner, the scene is is rip-roaringly funny. In contrast, the chilling reality of her fate as an Arab women who engages in a relationship with a non-Arab is sobering. This dichotomy of emotion will cause you to seesaw between laughter and tears throughout. The lives of the people in Small Kingdoms feel genuine, they matter, and they touch your heart. [return][return]Through the perspective Hobbet gained from living in Kuwait for five years she unveils the prejudice, stereotypes, history, culture and beliefs. When you finish reading Small Kingdoms, Kuwait will no longer be an enigma. [return][return]
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April 3, 2015
Anastasia Hobbet beautifully crafted a complex, layered story about the abuse of a household servant in Kuwait. This event draws together a wide variety of people who may never associate with each other in Kuwait: Theo, an Indian man from the United States working at a hospital clinic, Mufeeda, an upper-class Kuwaiti woman, Hanaan, a Palestinian female activist, Kit, a rather naïve America living in the relative safety and isolation of an American oil company compound and Emanuella, a cook from India, who risks losing her sponsorship to remain in Kuwait. Moving from character to character and each individual story provides a rich background about life in Kuwait and the complex structure of the Middle East where class divisions remain strong, honor killings happen daily, Americans and British are simultaneously despised [“Americans aren’t exotic. How can they be? Everyone knows American outside and inside. You’re all over the television and movies.”] and coveted [Mufeeda’s children attend a private school where they learn English], arcane laws and customs remain in place yet Kuwait, compared to other Arab nations appears modern.
Small Kingdoms reads part-history, part-character study and part-mystery. It’s an elaborate work of literature. Hobbet enlightens us about the modern day Middle East which still has many flaws and disparity despite its outward appearances, especially Kuwait, an ally of the United States. Hobbet meticulously crafted and developed each character in such a detailed way that the reader begins to understand his or her motives. Each characters jumps off the page so vividly and memorably. Despite being from different social, economic, political, and religious backgrounds, Hobbet makes us empathize with each character and gradually know why each character is how he or she is which make the plot flow with poise and grace. The most brutal event brings together people who might never normally speak or social to solve a vital issue that makes all the difference to someone’s life. Small Kingdoms speaks beautifully about the power of humanity and honesty in the name of justice and fairness, by putting aside religion and politics to help someone less fortunate. Just to take a few moments to quiet down, stop and show empathy and compassion every once in a while. Small Kingdoms is a stunning both: in its powerful story and masterful writing.
Small Kingdoms reads part-history, part-character study and part-mystery. It’s an elaborate work of literature. Hobbet enlightens us about the modern day Middle East which still has many flaws and disparity despite its outward appearances, especially Kuwait, an ally of the United States. Hobbet meticulously crafted and developed each character in such a detailed way that the reader begins to understand his or her motives. Each characters jumps off the page so vividly and memorably. Despite being from different social, economic, political, and religious backgrounds, Hobbet makes us empathize with each character and gradually know why each character is how he or she is which make the plot flow with poise and grace. The most brutal event brings together people who might never normally speak or social to solve a vital issue that makes all the difference to someone’s life. Small Kingdoms speaks beautifully about the power of humanity and honesty in the name of justice and fairness, by putting aside religion and politics to help someone less fortunate. Just to take a few moments to quiet down, stop and show empathy and compassion every once in a while. Small Kingdoms is a stunning both: in its powerful story and masterful writing.
October 2, 2011
This wonderful novel is set in Kuwait between the two Gulf wars. One might expect such a book to be plot-driven with good guys fighting off bad guys. This couldn't be further from such a book. Though fraught with an underlying tension caused by memories of Saddam's invasion of the country in the previous Gulf war & fears that he will do so again, that's very much in the background of a portrait of the everyday lives of a cast of fascinating characters--all of them basically good people--going about their daily lives trying to do the right thing. The novel comes to life most when focusing on the character who is perhaps (?) most like the author (who spent several years in Kuwait): a timid American woman from rural Oklahoma who has accompanied her contractor husband to Kuwait along with their two young children. She frets (endearingly) about her abilities as a mother, her failure to fit in with the other American wives, and her isolation from the culture of the country she's living in. The other characters are almost as engaging: a young American doctor interning at a public hospital; his mentor, a grumpy doctor (& father of the young American's friend back in the US); his Arabic language teacher and eventual girlfriend, a Palestinian by ethnicity but who has spent her entire life in Kuwait; a Kuwaiti ob/gyn doctor and his wife, a devout (but not conservative, let alone militant or fundamentalist) Muslim who, like the American wife, is insecure about her role; a young Indian (Christian) domestic in her home; and several other "guest workers" from other countries. We see injustices spawned by the local culture and others introduced or exacerbated by the American presence, but the author doesn't hit us over the head with them; only the American doctor's girlfriend is passionate about fighting injustice, but even she is a deeply conflicted character, and our reaction to her is also conflicted and not at all always positive. This novel is not particularly distinguished by the quality of its prose (though that's certainly adequate to the task) or the drama of the plot, but by this complexity of its characters as they face the everyday challenges of their lives in ways that make this a richly rewarding--and enlightening--read.
February 15, 2010
This is the story of five people whose lives usually would not cross. This story is set in Kuwait after Saddam Hussein has taken over. We are given an opportunity to view the different lives, prejudices, and cultures that shape these people. For example, Kit is the American wife of a businessman. They have moved to Kuwait with their two children. Kid has built walls around her to keep her safe and protected in this foreign land. She feels like a fish out of water in this strange place and must reach out to total strangers if she is to survive.
Hanaan is considered one of the lower class people. She is Palestinian by birth. She at one time was a linguist at the university. It is because of this we meet Theo. He is introduced to him as he shows up for his first appointment with Haanan to learn Arabic. She is considered an outcast because of her Palestinian heritage as well as the fact that she brings men into her home. It doesn’t matter that it is to teach them Arabic. She is looked down on.
The fourth person is Mufeeda. She is considered to be upper class. Her husband is a doctor so she has a lot to live up to as far as the duties of a wife of this class. She is a devout Muslim and questions her husband’s religious beliefs. She has a servant/cook who seems ill-suited to her job. She is a cook in Mufeeda’s household. It seems that bad luck follows her everywhere. She is from India and she is holding a secret that will involve all of the characters if she is to survive. The stories of each character are intertwined in such a way that we get a good snapshot of life in Kuwait. We see the prejudices based on where the people came from and their religious beliefs. Each of these people will risk everything they have to help Emanuella, the young cook. It could be very costly to all involved. This was a good book. I felt it was well written. It presented you with one character and their point of view.
Hanaan is considered one of the lower class people. She is Palestinian by birth. She at one time was a linguist at the university. It is because of this we meet Theo. He is introduced to him as he shows up for his first appointment with Haanan to learn Arabic. She is considered an outcast because of her Palestinian heritage as well as the fact that she brings men into her home. It doesn’t matter that it is to teach them Arabic. She is looked down on.
The fourth person is Mufeeda. She is considered to be upper class. Her husband is a doctor so she has a lot to live up to as far as the duties of a wife of this class. She is a devout Muslim and questions her husband’s religious beliefs. She has a servant/cook who seems ill-suited to her job. She is a cook in Mufeeda’s household. It seems that bad luck follows her everywhere. She is from India and she is holding a secret that will involve all of the characters if she is to survive. The stories of each character are intertwined in such a way that we get a good snapshot of life in Kuwait. We see the prejudices based on where the people came from and their religious beliefs. Each of these people will risk everything they have to help Emanuella, the young cook. It could be very costly to all involved. This was a good book. I felt it was well written. It presented you with one character and their point of view.
April 4, 2012
My son bought this book for me to help me better understand the country we were going to visit. We stay a month there and it was wonderful. The people were kind that we met, which was not too many, but the ones we did meet we enjoyed.
This book really opened my eyes to what goes on behind the "veil" and reason for the veil. It is the story of two families living in the same country and how they adapt to it. Kit is an American woman with two small children that is living in Kuwait. This story takes place after the "Liberation" of the country but before Iraq changes government.
This is a quote from the book "Maybe a cup of tea would be nice, it had been such a long trip with the kids throwing up and Kit mopping up and then starting up all over again. Problem was she couldn't simply go downstairs and maker herself a cup of tea. Residents of the company guest house weren't allowed in the kitchen. They were too exalted for that. So requesting a cup of tea triggered a big bustling production: a quart of tea in a silver pot, on a tray with a polished creamer, sugar bowl, a spoon so tiny it looked like a baby spoon and a selection of cookies and cakes , presented to her like the crown jewels."
This is so typical of this area of the world. Kit finds that it is all so different to her and she so needs a friend. She finds that friend in her neighboor across the parking area from her house. Mufeeda becomes Kits friend and then realizes that Kit has no servants so sends one of hers, for a number of reasons, to help Kit out. Kit is unsure what to do with a servant so becomes friends with her. Emmanuella is a maid from the Philipines who, along with many other servants in Mufeeda's home has a story to tell which works its way into the story line telling what it is like to be a servant in this very rich country.
All in all it is a good book and a real eye opener to customs with which we are unfamiliar and as American's uncomfortable with.
This book really opened my eyes to what goes on behind the "veil" and reason for the veil. It is the story of two families living in the same country and how they adapt to it. Kit is an American woman with two small children that is living in Kuwait. This story takes place after the "Liberation" of the country but before Iraq changes government.
This is a quote from the book "Maybe a cup of tea would be nice, it had been such a long trip with the kids throwing up and Kit mopping up and then starting up all over again. Problem was she couldn't simply go downstairs and maker herself a cup of tea. Residents of the company guest house weren't allowed in the kitchen. They were too exalted for that. So requesting a cup of tea triggered a big bustling production: a quart of tea in a silver pot, on a tray with a polished creamer, sugar bowl, a spoon so tiny it looked like a baby spoon and a selection of cookies and cakes , presented to her like the crown jewels."
This is so typical of this area of the world. Kit finds that it is all so different to her and she so needs a friend. She finds that friend in her neighboor across the parking area from her house. Mufeeda becomes Kits friend and then realizes that Kit has no servants so sends one of hers, for a number of reasons, to help Kit out. Kit is unsure what to do with a servant so becomes friends with her. Emmanuella is a maid from the Philipines who, along with many other servants in Mufeeda's home has a story to tell which works its way into the story line telling what it is like to be a servant in this very rich country.
All in all it is a good book and a real eye opener to customs with which we are unfamiliar and as American's uncomfortable with.
April 26, 2010
This book was a time warp directly back to the few weeks I spent in Dubai, though the Kuwaiti setting of the novel adds an element of tension thanks to Saddam Hussein's late-1990s threats of a repeat invasion. The novel provides a portrait of Kuwaiti society, expats and natives alike, that is at times humorous but always deeply soulful and acerbic. The flighty Americans who swoop in to collect mega-bucks with little regard for the inherent culture get quite a few swipes, but perhaps more damning is the portrayal of the natives, many of them grossly enriched by a negligent government (Republicans need to check out this version of a welfare state). Too many of these cloistered well-to-do direct truly inhumane wrath at the poor South Asian immigrants who serve them as housemaids, gardeners, drivers and street sweepers. The author clearly knows these brutal and overtly obscured aspects of the gleaming facade of the oil city-states much better than most. The writing is excellent, each character is deeply portrayed and the dialect is dead-on, but the plot and themes are so taut that I struggled between wanting to keep reading and being afraid to turn the page.
February 7, 2016
This was an enjoyable read but I think the synopsis is a little misleading in calling it an Upstairs/Downstairs of the Arab world. That implies a certain niceness and benevolence from the rich as in the kindly TV series, but this is more about the pernicious divide between Kuwaiti nationals and anyone else in their country, particularly the downtrodden worker class, populated by a mass of Filipino, Indian, Pakistani and various other mostly South Asian nationals from countries where to be poor is an inescapable fact of life and to go to work in a distant foreign land where worker rights do not appear to exist is the norm. With few exceptions, Kuwaitis are depicted as looking down their noses at anyone else outside their own narrow tribe be they fellow Arabs or expatriate workers of all creeds, classes and cultures. The depiction of the plight of the poor is well done, the rather bland American characters less so but at least the overall impression seems fairly culturally nuanced, with dilemmas aplenty as each character has to face up to fitting in within a seemingly culturally inhospitable environment.
February 23, 2010
SMALL KINGDOMS gives us an intimate portrait of women especially: a married American woman and her peers in Kuwait trying to be wives and mothers while their husbands work for corporations; an educated, middle class, single Palestinian woman conflicted between the modern world and the patriarchy of her family; a servant girl from India deeply worried about one of her servant girl friends being abused by her employer; a wealthy, devout Moslem Kuwaiti wife, who gradually sees the abuse.
The men in their lives: husbands, lovers, friends, Hobbet describes sensitively and in rich cultural detail. The men are primarily medical doctors.
It is a wonderful novel, a love story, an anthropological study, a political snapshot of Americans' relationships with Arabs, of men with women, of women with women.
The men in their lives: husbands, lovers, friends, Hobbet describes sensitively and in rich cultural detail. The men are primarily medical doctors.
It is a wonderful novel, a love story, an anthropological study, a political snapshot of Americans' relationships with Arabs, of men with women, of women with women.
June 29, 2010
I read several of other goodreads members' reviews of this book, and agree with both the good and bad. I love reading about different cultures and countries, so that is why I chose this book. I had never learned much about Kuwait, and only knew about it because my brother was a Marine stationed at its border. While the book gave me a glimpes into the lives of Kuwaitis, it didn't seem like enough. Hobbet bounces from one character to another, which kept the book moving quite fast. I wanted to read more, and get a more in-depth look at the characters and culture. The ending seemed like a cop-out. It was too abrupt and left me unfulfilled. The book rates between a three and four, but we can't give half stars, so I dropped it to a three. I'm glad I read it.
June 9, 2010
I was really looking forward to this book after winning a giveaway copy on Goodreads. (Thanks!) While I didn't love it as I had hoped, I had an unexpected reaction... I thought about the characters long after I finished the book. Because of this, I think if I could give it another 1/2 a star, I would.
This book has several story lines that occasionally weave in and out of each other and eventually converge. At times their meetings seemed contrived, as though she forced their overlap. I did find the individual stories to be interesting and thought provoking and as I mentioned before, considered deeper back stories for some of them weeks after reading the book.
This book has several story lines that occasionally weave in and out of each other and eventually converge. At times their meetings seemed contrived, as though she forced their overlap. I did find the individual stories to be interesting and thought provoking and as I mentioned before, considered deeper back stories for some of them weeks after reading the book.
January 6, 2011
The biggest reason for reading Anastasia Hobbet’s novels is her great compassion for the assorted temperaments and alignments, shapes and hues of human being she so deftly conjures on the page. Because she loves her characters so deeply, we can’t help falling for them as well, and that is what keeps us eagerly turning the pages. In Small Kingdoms, Hobbet uses this broad sympathy to throw a rope across the gulf now growing between the West and Islam. Grasping that rope could move us all toward narrowing the divide.
-- Laird Harrison
-- Laird Harrison
June 16, 2013
It was both enlightening & frustrating to read about this "small kingdom" of kuwait. One most of us know only through the news stories of the first Gulf war. So that was interesting. I was frustrated by the constraints, especially on the female characters, who of course are the center of the story. I guess constraints always frustrate me so it's not that it was a bad story but I want them to stand up sooner, break free of their constraints & fly like the birds they look like in their chadors!
July 24, 2010
Went to the library to pick up holds, and this was waiting for me. I thought, "Where did this come from?" Then I found a note in it from one of the librarians that she thought I'd like this book, also, the author is local. How nice of the librarian!
Rats, just had to quit. Recently read something very similar, and though I liked this one and loved her writing, it just is not the time for me to read it. I'm giving it a 5-star for great so far.
Rats, just had to quit. Recently read something very similar, and though I liked this one and loved her writing, it just is not the time for me to read it. I'm giving it a 5-star for great so far.
November 15, 2010
I really enjoyed reading this book set in Kuwait between the Gulf Wars. It is a interesting look at the contradictions that occur between faith, politics, and culture in the Middle East. This novel is especially interesting because of the many different cultures from all over the world that come together in Kuwait...especially for impoverished people who come there to work as domestic help and are treated less than humanely.
April 13, 2011
Although I found the ending to this book quite abrupt, I loved the way the author intertwined the seemingly separate lives of the characters. It also showed many different sides of the culture in the Middle East and what it was like for everyone living there during the reign of Saddam. As a woman, I was interested in the way each female in the story fit into certain social stereotypes and how some could break the sterotype and, sadly, some could not, or did not want to.
February 16, 2016
Small Kingdoms takes place in Kuwait just after 9/11. The first Gulf War was over and the tension of the second Gulf War is in the air. The main charactors are Mufeeda, an upper-class Kuwaiti woman, Kit, a newly arrived American woman, and Theo, an American doctor. This novel is rich with culture (always interesting), the charactors are developed and believeable, and the story grabs you right away.
February 4, 2010
-Won this book as a Goodreads First Reads. This book, simply put, is absolutely great. The vivid imagery of the book, fully developed characters and wonderful interwoven story lines make this a gem to read. I would highly recommend this book. Also, the author is absolutely amazing, and has really extended every courtesy possible to make sure that this GR First Reads winner got their book!
January 4, 2010
This novel is nothing short of amazing. It explores the tricky relationship between the United States and the Middle East along lines of class, race, culture, and religion by following the interconnected lives of four characters living in Kuwait during the period between the Gulf wars. I highly recommend it.
January 25, 2010
I read this, almost non-stop, for two days. The characters were interesting, but the humanity, the interplay of culture and the contrast of the different women characters, kept me interested. I loved this book, with its descriptive narratives and colorful picture of Kuwait. Thank you for choosing me to receive this free book through Goodreads.
May 26, 2010
I liked the book in general, but felt the story was underdeveloped. The different story lines didn't connect with my expectations, and the supposed central character (the abused housemaid) is almost invisible. I also didn't feel like it delved into the culture enough. Basically I think there are better books out there on the culture and topic.
June 5, 2010
A great way to live in Kuwait--without actually having to! The story is set during the time between the Gulf Wars, and includes Americans, native Kuwaitis (Kuwaitians?), Indians and Filipinos, just to name a few. Sometimes funny, often sad, and always a commentary on how we all misunderstand and mistreat people from other cultures.
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