Lady Luxe and the Desert City

Random House India

Pages: 560

Rs 299

Sometime in the mid-1990s,modern Dubai took shape: the once-sleepy emirate became the worlds largest construction site as a dhow-shaped,seven-star hotel commandeered attention. Then came the man-made islands,followed swiftly by a tsunami of defaults and debts that left Dubai beleaguered,beaten down and on its knees. But Desperate in Dubai is not about abandoned cars and despondent expats trying to wiggle their way out of Dubai. Rather it is about four girls wiggling into skinny jeans,shimmying along Dubais six-lane motorways in fast cars and about longing and loneliness.

Lady Luxe drives pink Ferraris and designs Swarovski-studded abayas. Her closet is filled with labels and a secret. The Lady swaps her headscarf for a blonde wig,wears blue contact lenses and sneaks out as Jennifer to defy a culture that is tilted towards favouring men. Promiscuous,with an affinity for partying,her familiar is fear: what if someone finds out her secret,for in Dubai gossip spread like a thrush.

But she has a confidante,Leila. A blonde,Lebanese real-estate agent,she is reeling under the effects of the recession yet braving it by putting on her mask of MAC products and compensating by chasing after men who have bling watches,fancy cars and ample spare cash to lavish upon her. Yet shes terribly lonely,for Dubai is,after all,a lonely,transitory place. As the novel moves,Leila falls for another man in a telling tale of Middle Eastern culture where virtuous virgins are the winners; for an Arab man,despite sleeping around,will never end up with a loose woman who could put Russian prostitutes to shame.

No book on Dubai is complete without the immigrants that make this curious city complete: Sugar is a runaway from Karol Bagh via England,desperately attempting to forget her past that involved a broken heart and broken ribs. Now a schoolteacher,Dubaified by manicures and pedicures and dabbling in Islam for spiritual guidance,she epitomises the Indian Complex that Dubai is infamous for Indians feel they are looked down upon and most fear the dreaded where are you from question. Predictably,she meets another man,Mr Delicious,and is driven wild by Arab men,their broodiness and jealousy.

Jealousy and insecurity plague the fourth heroine of the novel,Nadia. Married to Daniel,a recent Muslim convert from America,she is uprooted by his decision to move to Dubai from London,to later discover through prying and trawling through his email that hes sleeping around. Revenge becomes her and she commits acts that have consequences for others.

Desperate in Dubai at times reads like a guide to the right places in the city: it is on top with couture and cuisine but often assumes the readers knowledge. In as much as it succeeds in opening the doors to the lives of women,it also leaves the reader perplexed: unless you know what wasta and etisilat are,youll be in search of explanations. Its an insular book about an insular society,and the complex web of interconnectedness in the small emirate is craftily etched.

One of the early novels to come out of Dubai,it is a handful to hold and a guilty pleasure till the last page where its divulged that the author is writing under a nom de plume. Like her central character,Lady,many women,including the author,are desperate to remain anonymous but thats because the city wont let them be.