When the average American thinks of Saudi Arabia, the words "oil" or "ARAMCO" or "burqa" may come to mind. And if Americans have a hard time culturally relating to countries in the Middle East, it would take a college course to understand Saudi Arabia. Luckily, no expensive college class is needed. Chris Cryer's Tolstoy in Rihadh is a brief, readable account of her experience as a Western woman in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s.

Accompanied by her son, an eagerness to learn, and a few books by her trusty companion Leo Tolstoy, Cryer arrives in Riyadh to teach English and attempts to cross cultural barriers to understand the rich and sometimes confusing customs of the Saudis.

In Cryer's old world, the American South, hundreds of years of history and customs have transmogrified Southern cultural behavior. The Southern Belle, Southern hospitality, segregation, even the Southern drawl have specifically evolved to evoke that region. Cryer finds that Saudi Arabia has that same mentality in many ways. There's that saying of being able to take the girl or boy out of their native region, but the native region not being able to leave the boy or girl. I believe this rings true for Cryer. Besides the sweltering heat, there are many areas where the South and Riyadh overlap.

Cryer finds solace and comfort in the conservative customs of Riyadh. She enjoys the quiet, the grand architecture that evokes memories of growing up in the French Quarter in New Orleans for her. She describes "the intimate enclosures, each unique, provoke a sense of secrets for the outsider, while encasing the closed traditions of the insiders the way thick church exteriors exaggerate and protect their sanctuaries." She draws a comparison that had never occurred to me before, and that I wish she had spent more time explaining: the Saudi woman as a Southern Belle. She quotes from Southern scholar McIntosh-Byrd to talk about the Southern Belle, the Scarlet O'Haras, as an embodiment of the South itself. I believe this rings true of the Saudi woman. McIntosh says, "[she] must clothe herself in femininity in the way that she literally clothes herself—a physical and mental distortion of natural form designed to create the illusion of an ideal." To preserve their ideals, they cling to their traditions. And indeed in today's world where traditional notions of masculinity and femininity are being questioned, Cryer believes, "Saudis cling to their women symbolically, holding on to their distinctiveness as proof of the significance of family in all its traditional customs and roles."

These same traditions challenge Cryer's own family. Her 14-year-old son becomes the head of her household, while Cryer herself needs an escort to go out to the market. Yet there is a spirit of community she had never experienced in the Old South. Cryer discovers a sense of self and camaraderie in a place that most would think would be stifling to prosperity. However I was often left confused about why exactly Cryer felt this sense of calm in such a traditional atmosphere. It was hard for me to empathize, as a Western woman. But I suppose when you have a sonnet that has a rigid structure of 14 lines, some people enjoy the challenge and boundaries of being able to create anything you want, but within the guidelines. Cryer enjoys the freedom within the walls, and dwells on this idea that she is suddenly a "pampered princess." It's a paradox that many women struggle with: is being treated differently than men patronizing? Empowering?

Tolstoy in Riyadh evokes these questions of feminism, religion, family and politics in 150 pages. The narrative is at times random, but I suppose that is meant to cram in as many observations as possible. The trouble though, is that I sometimes had a challenge keeping up with metaphors and characters. I think the book would at times be confusing to someone who had no knowledge of Arabic or Middle Eastern culture.

Though the path to understanding Saudi culture from an American perspective is fraught with challenges and frustrations, Cryer unlocks a way for us to look in and explore.

Authors Chris Cryer and Ferial Masry will talk about their experiences in Saudi Arabic at the Levantine Cultural Center on Feb. 22, 2012