George Zaki Al-Hajj: Bedchamber of the Sheikha
Bedchamber of the Sheikha is an example of well-written erotic fiction that juxtaposes the healthy traditions and sacred social norms of village and family life with the unspeakable, but sweet temptations of a strange new world of diaspora and its forbidden fruit. This novel is reminiscent of William Blake’s dichotomy between “Innocence” and “Experience” and Gibran’s simple philosophy in A Tear and a Smile in which opposites serve a mystical purpose in our lives. In the Bedchamber, we find a world replete with the human condition of pleasure and pain, insatiability and self-control, reward and deprivation, aggressiveness and passivity, shame and pride, rudeness and respect, remorse and indifference, and suffering and redemption. All of this is coupled with the unfailing retribution of Karma and the unavoidable impact of the far-reaching hand of Destiny.
This is a psychologically charged novel. Even if you deceive yourself into thinking, as the protagonist did, of the Sheikha’s bedchamber as a microcosm of the Garden of Eden and view the female character as Eve, and the protagonist, Samir, as Adam, don’t let this allegory intoxicate you and give you a sense of false pride and victory. Remember that the Garden of Eden was not without its pain and temptation and that it was visited by a serpent, who was the personification of Satan and of everything that was evil and vile. The Sheikha's image recalls that of the beautiful temptresses of epic poetry with all their charm, attraction, wickedness, threats, and rewards. Those females were immortalized in the poems of ancient bards and served as calls of rude awakening for traveling heroes who had the misfortune and the catastrophic luck of landing on their remote shores. The protagonist, like Aeneas and Odysseus, must navigate between two worlds with the hope of emerging unscathed.
This is a psychologically charged novel. Even if you deceive yourself into thinking, as the protagonist did, of the Sheikha’s bedchamber as a microcosm of the Garden of Eden and view the female character as Eve, and the protagonist, Samir, as Adam, don’t let this allegory intoxicate you and give you a sense of false pride and victory. Remember that the Garden of Eden was not without its pain and temptation and that it was visited by a serpent, who was the personification of Satan and of everything that was evil and vile. The Sheikha's image recalls that of the beautiful temptresses of epic poetry with all their charm, attraction, wickedness, threats, and rewards. Those females were immortalized in the poems of ancient bards and served as calls of rude awakening for traveling heroes who had the misfortune and the catastrophic luck of landing on their remote shores. The protagonist, like Aeneas and Odysseus, must navigate between two worlds with the hope of emerging unscathed.
