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Sand Queen
Nineteen-year-old Kate Brady joined the army to bring honor to her family and to the Middle East. Instead, she finds herself in a forgotten corner of the Iraq desert in 2003, guarding a makeshift American prison. There, Kate meets Naema Jassim, an Iraqi medical student whose father and little brother have been detained in the camp.
Kate and Naema promise to help each other, but the war soon strains their intentions. Like any soldier, Kate must face the daily threats of combat duty, but as a woman, she is in equal danger from the predatory men in her unit. Naema suffers bombs, starvation, and the loss of her home and family. As the two women struggle to survive and hold on to the people they love, each comes to have a drastic and unforeseeable effect on the other’s life.
Culled from real life experiences of female soldiers and Iraqis, Sand Queen offers a story of hope, courage and struggle from the rare perspective of women at war.
Kate and Naema promise to help each other, but the war soon strains their intentions. Like any soldier, Kate must face the daily threats of combat duty, but as a woman, she is in equal danger from the predatory men in her unit. Naema suffers bombs, starvation, and the loss of her home and family. As the two women struggle to survive and hold on to the people they love, each comes to have a drastic and unforeseeable effect on the other’s life.
Culled from real life experiences of female soldiers and Iraqis, Sand Queen offers a story of hope, courage and struggle from the rare perspective of women at war.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
14 people are currently reading
547 people want to read
About the author
Helen Benedict
26 books90 followersHelen Benedict is an award-winning novelist and nonfiction writer, and a professor of journalism at Columbia University. Her latest novel, The Good Deed, is due out in April, 2024, and addresses refugees, the problem with white saviors, and the relations between mothers and daughters.
The Good Deed draws on much of the material Benedict explored in her recent nonfiction book, Map of Hope and Sorrow: Stories of Refugees Trapped in Greece (Footnote Press) which was released in the UK in June 2022 and in the US in October, 2022.
Kirkus Review called it, "A powerful collection of stories from refugees stuck in asylum limbo in Greece… Gut-wrenching and necessary, this book sharply depicts an escalating humanitarian crisis that shows few signs of slowing down…An important, deeply felt look at lives in constant peril."
Benedict's seventh and latest novel, Wolf Season (Bellevue Literary Press) in October, 2017.
The novel tells the story of how, after a hurricane devastates a small town in upstate New York, the lives of three women and their young children are irrevocably changed. Rin, an Iraq War veteran, tries to protect her daughter and the three wolves under her care. Naema, a widowed doctor who fled Iraq with her wounded son, faces life-threatening injuries and confusion about her feelings for Louis, a veteran and widower harboring his own secrets and guilt. Beth, who is raising a troubled son, waits out her marine husband’s deployment in Afghanistan, equally afraid of him coming home and of him never returning at all. As they struggle to maintain their humanity and find hope, their war-torn lives collide in a way that will affect their entire community.
“No one writes with more authority or cool-eyed compassion about the experience of women in war both on and off the battlefield than Helen Benedict. In Wolf Season, she shows us the complicated ways in which the lives of those who serve and those who don't intertwine and how—regardless of whether you are a soldier, the family of a soldier, or a refugee—the war follows you and your children for generations. Wolf Season is more than a novel for our times; it should be required reading.”
—ELISSA SCHAPPELL, author of Use Me and Blueprints for Building Better Girls
“Fierce and vivid and full of hope, this story of trauma and resilience, of love and family, of mutual aid and solidarity in the aftermath of a brutal war is nothing short of magic. Helen Benedict is the voice of an American conscience that has all too often been silenced. To read these pages is to be transported to a world beyond hype and propaganda to see the human cost of war up close. This is not a novel that allows you to walk away unchanged.”
—CARA HOFFMAN, author of Be Safe I Love You and Running
Benedict's previous novel, Sand Queen, was published by Soho Press in August, 2011. The novel tells the story of a young female soldier and an Iraqi woman caught up in the Iraq War.
“Benedict’s writing is impressive, passionate, and visceral. . . . Reading this book is the best literary path to understanding the particular challenges of being female in the military during warfare.” —Publishers Weekly “Best Contemporary War Novel” citation
Publisher’s Weekly also called Sand Queen “a thrilling and thoughtful new novel.” Booklist said, “Funny, shocking, painful, and, at times, deeply disturbing, Sand Queen takes readers beyond the news and onto the battlefield."
Benedict is also the author of The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving Iraq (2009/10), and a play, The Lonely Soldier Monologues, which has been performed all over the US, and in France and the UK. In 2011, The Lonely Soldier inspired a class action suit against the Pentagon on behalf of military women and men who have been sexually assaulted while serving.
Her previous novels include The Edge of Eden, The Sailor’s Wife and Bad Angel.
Benedict’s books and articles have won the 2010 Exceptional Merit in
The Good Deed draws on much of the material Benedict explored in her recent nonfiction book, Map of Hope and Sorrow: Stories of Refugees Trapped in Greece (Footnote Press) which was released in the UK in June 2022 and in the US in October, 2022.
Kirkus Review called it, "A powerful collection of stories from refugees stuck in asylum limbo in Greece… Gut-wrenching and necessary, this book sharply depicts an escalating humanitarian crisis that shows few signs of slowing down…An important, deeply felt look at lives in constant peril."
Benedict's seventh and latest novel, Wolf Season (Bellevue Literary Press) in October, 2017.
The novel tells the story of how, after a hurricane devastates a small town in upstate New York, the lives of three women and their young children are irrevocably changed. Rin, an Iraq War veteran, tries to protect her daughter and the three wolves under her care. Naema, a widowed doctor who fled Iraq with her wounded son, faces life-threatening injuries and confusion about her feelings for Louis, a veteran and widower harboring his own secrets and guilt. Beth, who is raising a troubled son, waits out her marine husband’s deployment in Afghanistan, equally afraid of him coming home and of him never returning at all. As they struggle to maintain their humanity and find hope, their war-torn lives collide in a way that will affect their entire community.
“No one writes with more authority or cool-eyed compassion about the experience of women in war both on and off the battlefield than Helen Benedict. In Wolf Season, she shows us the complicated ways in which the lives of those who serve and those who don't intertwine and how—regardless of whether you are a soldier, the family of a soldier, or a refugee—the war follows you and your children for generations. Wolf Season is more than a novel for our times; it should be required reading.”
—ELISSA SCHAPPELL, author of Use Me and Blueprints for Building Better Girls
“Fierce and vivid and full of hope, this story of trauma and resilience, of love and family, of mutual aid and solidarity in the aftermath of a brutal war is nothing short of magic. Helen Benedict is the voice of an American conscience that has all too often been silenced. To read these pages is to be transported to a world beyond hype and propaganda to see the human cost of war up close. This is not a novel that allows you to walk away unchanged.”
—CARA HOFFMAN, author of Be Safe I Love You and Running
Benedict's previous novel, Sand Queen, was published by Soho Press in August, 2011. The novel tells the story of a young female soldier and an Iraqi woman caught up in the Iraq War.
“Benedict’s writing is impressive, passionate, and visceral. . . . Reading this book is the best literary path to understanding the particular challenges of being female in the military during warfare.” —Publishers Weekly “Best Contemporary War Novel” citation
Publisher’s Weekly also called Sand Queen “a thrilling and thoughtful new novel.” Booklist said, “Funny, shocking, painful, and, at times, deeply disturbing, Sand Queen takes readers beyond the news and onto the battlefield."
Benedict is also the author of The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving Iraq (2009/10), and a play, The Lonely Soldier Monologues, which has been performed all over the US, and in France and the UK. In 2011, The Lonely Soldier inspired a class action suit against the Pentagon on behalf of military women and men who have been sexually assaulted while serving.
Her previous novels include The Edge of Eden, The Sailor’s Wife and Bad Angel.
Benedict’s books and articles have won the 2010 Exceptional Merit in
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July 31, 2019
War salts the earth and leaves us with nothing. There are no winners.
September 4, 2011
I would give this one six stars out of five if it were possible. I have been waiting a couple of days after finishing this to write my review to see if any of the emotions it stirred up began to lose their power. If anything, they have only intensified. Physically and emotionally draining, this tells the harrowing story of a female soldier deployed to Iraq in the early days of the second Gulf war. Not only does she have to adjust to the fact that the enemy wants to hurt her, but she also has to deal with the men in her company who see her merely as a sexual object and a command structure designed to protect the good ol' boys network. One could overlook the outrageous actions of her so-called comrades if one could believe this was entirely a work of fiction, but these stories were culled from interviews with returning soldiers, women, who had served there. The whole thing rings with an air of sincerity that cannot be created out of whole cloth. I can only hope my nephew who recently returned from Afghanistan behaved more like the one man in her unit who befriended her than like the other grunts. My heart broke for her, even as I found myself wanting to hurt someone for getting us involved in this evil that is war.
The way the story was presented, as a first-person account from the soldier, a parallel narrative of an Iraqi woman searching for news of her father and younger brother who were arrested during a sweep, and interspersed with a third-person tale of a soldier in a psychiatric facility dealing with her PSTD, was especially effective. The story also carried a deeper impact as our local newspaper this week carried a story of an Iraq war veteran who has returned home from his third deployment with a traumatic brain injury and his difficulties in getting treatment and with just returning to a life that is forever changed. The article claimed that one out of five returning soldiers suffers from traumatic brain injury or some form of post traumatic stress. The cost of this war goes far beyond the billions of dollars that have been wasted.
The way the story was presented, as a first-person account from the soldier, a parallel narrative of an Iraqi woman searching for news of her father and younger brother who were arrested during a sweep, and interspersed with a third-person tale of a soldier in a psychiatric facility dealing with her PSTD, was especially effective. The story also carried a deeper impact as our local newspaper this week carried a story of an Iraq war veteran who has returned home from his third deployment with a traumatic brain injury and his difficulties in getting treatment and with just returning to a life that is forever changed. The article claimed that one out of five returning soldiers suffers from traumatic brain injury or some form of post traumatic stress. The cost of this war goes far beyond the billions of dollars that have been wasted.
June 7, 2011
This is a good book containing a bad story. It's well written, entertaining (though I felt guilty for being entertained), but very depressing and parts of it are very brutal and not for the faint of heart. It's about war, sexual harassment, sexual assault, hatred, revenge, and post traumatic stress. No matter what, there can be no happy ending to this book because the heroine, Kate, is forever going to be scarred by what happens to her, inside and out.
As a woman who has faced difficulties of my own in a male dominated profession, I must say, as shocking as it is, Kate's situation in this novel is very plausible. It does happen and sometimes no matter who you turn to for help, things only get worse. It's called the "good ole boy system" and Kate is learning about it the hard way. She's only 19. She joined the army to "lift the downtrodden" and be a hero.. to become tough. What she gets is sand and war and a platoon of male co workers that do not respect her. At all. Because they don't respect women except for those in porn magazines.
Kate's narrative is bitter and as the reader unfolds her story, the reader will begin to understand why. When the whole world wants a hero, how do you admit you really aren't? How do admit that you were assaulted? Do you report it and take down your friends and witnesses with you? Is it wrong to want to kill men that throw their feces at you and masturbate in front of you? Is it wrong to want revenge?
And sadly, post traumatic stress doesn't necessarily have to result from the war itself, but from what happens to you with your own people.
Thankfully, Kate took most of the book, because I couldn't stand the narratives by Naema, an Iraqi woman. I get that her father and brother are innocent, but have been imprisoned anyway... I sympathize, but she does nothing but complain. She complains about how life was under Saddam who jailed her father. She then complains about the Americans and their occupation and their bombing. I found myself asking, "what the heck would make you happy? You didn't like Saddam, the Americans came and got rid of him and yet you still complain.." I grew very tired of her Anti American rants. I was reminded of a book I read and disliked earlier this year, Barefoot in Baghdad.
Her parts were minimal, however, and overall I enjoyed the book. Women should read it, military or not. It will most def raise awareness of what many women face, in or out of uniform.
As a woman who has faced difficulties of my own in a male dominated profession, I must say, as shocking as it is, Kate's situation in this novel is very plausible. It does happen and sometimes no matter who you turn to for help, things only get worse. It's called the "good ole boy system" and Kate is learning about it the hard way. She's only 19. She joined the army to "lift the downtrodden" and be a hero.. to become tough. What she gets is sand and war and a platoon of male co workers that do not respect her. At all. Because they don't respect women except for those in porn magazines.
Kate's narrative is bitter and as the reader unfolds her story, the reader will begin to understand why. When the whole world wants a hero, how do you admit you really aren't? How do admit that you were assaulted? Do you report it and take down your friends and witnesses with you? Is it wrong to want to kill men that throw their feces at you and masturbate in front of you? Is it wrong to want revenge?
And sadly, post traumatic stress doesn't necessarily have to result from the war itself, but from what happens to you with your own people.
Thankfully, Kate took most of the book, because I couldn't stand the narratives by Naema, an Iraqi woman. I get that her father and brother are innocent, but have been imprisoned anyway... I sympathize, but she does nothing but complain. She complains about how life was under Saddam who jailed her father. She then complains about the Americans and their occupation and their bombing. I found myself asking, "what the heck would make you happy? You didn't like Saddam, the Americans came and got rid of him and yet you still complain.." I grew very tired of her Anti American rants. I was reminded of a book I read and disliked earlier this year, Barefoot in Baghdad.
Her parts were minimal, however, and overall I enjoyed the book. Women should read it, military or not. It will most def raise awareness of what many women face, in or out of uniform.
September 13, 2011
Helen Benedict's Sand Queen is an important book for a couple of reasons. First, (and to the best of my knowledge) Benedict's topic - the treatment of female soldiers in the United States Army - is not sufficiently explored by very many contemporary fiction writers. Even the nonfiction works (including Benedict's own The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq) are not not given enough exposure to warrant the kind of attention that this topic demands (I'm sure some people would disagree with this - thinking there's too MUCH coverage, but I disagree - if you ask a normal-walking-down-the-street guy or lady about sexual abuse in the military, s/he likely doesn't know the fucking half of it).
Benedict's work with female soldiers fighting in our current War(s) On Terror have given way to many first-hand accounts what female soldiers are subject to: an almost methodical and ever-present pattern of harassment, sexual and otherwise. But, mostly... sexual.
Secondly, Benedict makes it clear through her work that there are (or were, as of 2003 when this story takes place) no safe arenas for the reporting of incidents, for recourse, justice, appeal, or aid for women in the military who have been sexually assaulted.
And finally, Sand Queen also highlights the treatment of veterans (male or female) who experience post-traumatic difficulties relating to their time in combat.
According to Benedict, the women in Iraq are being assaulted on-the-daily, but only a small amount of these incidents get reported. And when they do get reported, the victim is often scrutinized and marginalized further by her admission. Boy, that fucking sucks.
According to a report by Salon: "Comprehensive statistics on the sexual assault of female soldiers in Iraq have not been collected, but early numbers revealed a problem so bad that former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ordered a task force in 2004 to investigate. As a result, the Defense Department put up a Web site in 2005 designed to clarify that sexual assault is illegal and to help women report it. It also initiated required classes on sexual assault and harassment."
Wow, Rumsfeld was forced to address the issue publicly? That's when you know its fucking bad out there!
So, how does Sand Queen treat Benedict's topics? I think that Benedict is, for the most part, effective in reaching her goals of highlighting the occurrences of sexual abuse, and detailing the trouble with reporting assault, and the heartbreaking symptoms of PTSD experienced by veterans. That's why I gave this book three stars. But. Both as a work of fiction and as a social-problem novel, Sand Queen is lacking in some respects, to be sure. Here's why...
Benedict tells the story of two women: Kate, a naive 19-year-old Middle-American, and Naema, an educated Iraqi medical-student-plus-war-refugee. Kate spends most of her time doing her duties and being ignored by her commanders, unless they want to harass her. Naema spends most of her time holed up in her grandmother's house, decrying the war and everything about it: senseless deaths, the misrepresentation of her people, and on and on. I mean, honestly, this character breaks into narratives that are like Shakespearean-soliloquies of anti-war jibber-jabber which pull you away from the story thinking, "Sorry, nobody first-person-narrates that way..."
Since the two women's stories are too dissimilar to be properly (properly in this sense means "good-fiction-ally") correlated, I can only think that Benedict hoped that the juxtaposition of the daily lives of two women on opposite sides of the war would elicit some sympathy from the reader concerning one idea, and only one idea... WAR SUCKS.
Hmmm, yes. War certainly does suck. And I am lucky that I can only imagine that suckage, or read about in fiction. But, I don't think that Benedict can give her topics (mentioned above) the treatment they need in a novel constantly proclaiming that WAR SUCKS from the point of view of an Iraqi civilian.
In my point of view, Naema's story - because it often becomes a polemic, a mouthpiece for the author to voice an anti-war stance - smudges up an otherwise shiny piece of topical fiction. It makes the reader frame her questions like this "Gah! Why are we even in this war. Why are these women subjecting themselves to a war with no cause or purpose when it means getting assaulted in the process?!" instead of like this "Why are these women being singled out by male soldiers for abuse when they are serving their country in a time of war?"
Maybe I'm off the mark, but in the first frame of response - the soldier appears to victimized by both war - theory and practice - and men. I think that the women of the military would take issue with this notion. At least, I hope they would... they joined the military because they believed in war in the first place.
Now, war is not for everyone. (It's probably for almost no one). But, when you support the military - including our military women - you also support their belief that war is necessary. I think that if you want to support your ladies-in-combat in providing a voice to their silence, by shedding light on their issues - you don't do it by saying: "They have no need to be there in the first place. War turns everyone into a psychological-ball-of-goo, especially women. Get the fuck out." That's a different story altogether. That's an anti-war story. That's an anti-military story.
If you chucked the constant anti-war rhetoric, and focus on the topics at hand, the response of the reader might be more along the lines of seeing women victimized by assault: which is the more practical, rather than theoretical problem here. By glazing your entire text over in anti-war rhetoric, you may be losing the necessary attention of your readers.
If your focus is all the rape and none of the glory - your audience begins to question the "purpose" of women in the military at all - and I don't think that's the debate anyone is trying to have here!
For the record, I think that anti-military narratives, and anti-war narratives, are completely and wonderfully valid. They are also important works. They make us question conflict, nationalism, humanity. All the biggies. But, should Sand Queen be this type of narrative? Not, I think, if it was intended to make the impact that it needs to. It could easily stand to trivialize the issue of the abuses of women who have joined the military because they have chosen to be there, and because they want to be there.
Kate, our protagonist, is sexually assaulted. She is victimized by superior officers; humiliated in her attempts to report her abuse; silenced by her circumstances. Dishonorably discharged. Suffering from PTSD. Hating the notion that she was a ever soldier to begin with, she is happy to leave the military and glad she is no longer a part of it... Okay, as a reader, I can be moved by her story. Truly.
But, I have to ask - are you writing an anti-war story, Helen? Because I thought you were looking for equal treatment and status for our female military officers.
And when you focus too long on multiple-states-of-victimhood, your character suffers. You can't do both - pro-female-military/anti-military - it's just too clunky. That's a 3-star book. Or worse.
In response to the media's coverage of sexual assault in the military, one soldier said: These women and thousands of other women serve with distinction and honor and pride. They are not victims. We are not marginalized. We are a critical part of the team. We are soldiers and spouses and sisters and mothers and wives and daughters. We are not just 'victims,' 'bitches,' 'sluts' or 'dykes.'"
Now, that lady is kind of mad about the constant association of "female military" and "sexual abuse" - but I think what she is more afraid of is the notion that female soldiers are being perceived as "weak." This is where the ground on which Benedict's topics stand begins to shift under our feet...
Some military women don't want to be portrayed in certain ways, by certain tropes (see above), having fought hard for their rights to be first-and-foremost a soldier, no gender qualifier necessary.
What do we (civilians, book-readers) see? Helen Benedict's book shows how sexual abuse wears female soldiers thin, makes them less alert and on the ball, emotionally-stretched. While this might be the case, there is arguable evidence here that women appear weaker as a result of their portrayal by journalists like Benedict. This probably makes many pro-military women (and men)'s blood run cold. If there's one adjective a soldier does not want to be identified with, it's weak.
I do not, personally, feel that "victim" should be equated with "weakness," but that correlation is something that is difficult for some readers to discern. Not to mention, the equation of "victim" and "weakness" is definitely difficult for some writers to successfully avoid. So, Helen Benedict had the opportunity to make a strong case against the of issue sexual assault in the military, possibly by ditching the anti-war rhetoric, but she threw the wrench of her own agenda into the gears and kinda fucked it up.
This book left me conflicted at best. But, I guess one thing is for sure... Naema's story sucked.
BTW - I got this book free from a Goodreads Giveaway. So happy I did - it introduced a new, enraging, and controversial topic into my very limited knowledge of world. Party.
Benedict's work with female soldiers fighting in our current War(s) On Terror have given way to many first-hand accounts what female soldiers are subject to: an almost methodical and ever-present pattern of harassment, sexual and otherwise. But, mostly... sexual.
Secondly, Benedict makes it clear through her work that there are (or were, as of 2003 when this story takes place) no safe arenas for the reporting of incidents, for recourse, justice, appeal, or aid for women in the military who have been sexually assaulted.
And finally, Sand Queen also highlights the treatment of veterans (male or female) who experience post-traumatic difficulties relating to their time in combat.
According to Benedict, the women in Iraq are being assaulted on-the-daily, but only a small amount of these incidents get reported. And when they do get reported, the victim is often scrutinized and marginalized further by her admission. Boy, that fucking sucks.
According to a report by Salon: "Comprehensive statistics on the sexual assault of female soldiers in Iraq have not been collected, but early numbers revealed a problem so bad that former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ordered a task force in 2004 to investigate. As a result, the Defense Department put up a Web site in 2005 designed to clarify that sexual assault is illegal and to help women report it. It also initiated required classes on sexual assault and harassment."
Wow, Rumsfeld was forced to address the issue publicly? That's when you know its fucking bad out there!
So, how does Sand Queen treat Benedict's topics? I think that Benedict is, for the most part, effective in reaching her goals of highlighting the occurrences of sexual abuse, and detailing the trouble with reporting assault, and the heartbreaking symptoms of PTSD experienced by veterans. That's why I gave this book three stars. But. Both as a work of fiction and as a social-problem novel, Sand Queen is lacking in some respects, to be sure. Here's why...
Benedict tells the story of two women: Kate, a naive 19-year-old Middle-American, and Naema, an educated Iraqi medical-student-plus-war-refugee. Kate spends most of her time doing her duties and being ignored by her commanders, unless they want to harass her. Naema spends most of her time holed up in her grandmother's house, decrying the war and everything about it: senseless deaths, the misrepresentation of her people, and on and on. I mean, honestly, this character breaks into narratives that are like Shakespearean-soliloquies of anti-war jibber-jabber which pull you away from the story thinking, "Sorry, nobody first-person-narrates that way..."
Since the two women's stories are too dissimilar to be properly (properly in this sense means "good-fiction-ally") correlated, I can only think that Benedict hoped that the juxtaposition of the daily lives of two women on opposite sides of the war would elicit some sympathy from the reader concerning one idea, and only one idea... WAR SUCKS.
Hmmm, yes. War certainly does suck. And I am lucky that I can only imagine that suckage, or read about in fiction. But, I don't think that Benedict can give her topics (mentioned above) the treatment they need in a novel constantly proclaiming that WAR SUCKS from the point of view of an Iraqi civilian.
In my point of view, Naema's story - because it often becomes a polemic, a mouthpiece for the author to voice an anti-war stance - smudges up an otherwise shiny piece of topical fiction. It makes the reader frame her questions like this "Gah! Why are we even in this war. Why are these women subjecting themselves to a war with no cause or purpose when it means getting assaulted in the process?!" instead of like this "Why are these women being singled out by male soldiers for abuse when they are serving their country in a time of war?"
Maybe I'm off the mark, but in the first frame of response - the soldier appears to victimized by both war - theory and practice - and men. I think that the women of the military would take issue with this notion. At least, I hope they would... they joined the military because they believed in war in the first place.
Now, war is not for everyone. (It's probably for almost no one). But, when you support the military - including our military women - you also support their belief that war is necessary. I think that if you want to support your ladies-in-combat in providing a voice to their silence, by shedding light on their issues - you don't do it by saying: "They have no need to be there in the first place. War turns everyone into a psychological-ball-of-goo, especially women. Get the fuck out." That's a different story altogether. That's an anti-war story. That's an anti-military story.
If you chucked the constant anti-war rhetoric, and focus on the topics at hand, the response of the reader might be more along the lines of seeing women victimized by assault: which is the more practical, rather than theoretical problem here. By glazing your entire text over in anti-war rhetoric, you may be losing the necessary attention of your readers.
If your focus is all the rape and none of the glory - your audience begins to question the "purpose" of women in the military at all - and I don't think that's the debate anyone is trying to have here!
For the record, I think that anti-military narratives, and anti-war narratives, are completely and wonderfully valid. They are also important works. They make us question conflict, nationalism, humanity. All the biggies. But, should Sand Queen be this type of narrative? Not, I think, if it was intended to make the impact that it needs to. It could easily stand to trivialize the issue of the abuses of women who have joined the military because they have chosen to be there, and because they want to be there.
Kate, our protagonist, is sexually assaulted. She is victimized by superior officers; humiliated in her attempts to report her abuse; silenced by her circumstances. Dishonorably discharged. Suffering from PTSD. Hating the notion that she was a ever soldier to begin with, she is happy to leave the military and glad she is no longer a part of it... Okay, as a reader, I can be moved by her story. Truly.
But, I have to ask - are you writing an anti-war story, Helen? Because I thought you were looking for equal treatment and status for our female military officers.
And when you focus too long on multiple-states-of-victimhood, your character suffers. You can't do both - pro-female-military/anti-military - it's just too clunky. That's a 3-star book. Or worse.
In response to the media's coverage of sexual assault in the military, one soldier said: These women and thousands of other women serve with distinction and honor and pride. They are not victims. We are not marginalized. We are a critical part of the team. We are soldiers and spouses and sisters and mothers and wives and daughters. We are not just 'victims,' 'bitches,' 'sluts' or 'dykes.'"
Now, that lady is kind of mad about the constant association of "female military" and "sexual abuse" - but I think what she is more afraid of is the notion that female soldiers are being perceived as "weak." This is where the ground on which Benedict's topics stand begins to shift under our feet...
Some military women don't want to be portrayed in certain ways, by certain tropes (see above), having fought hard for their rights to be first-and-foremost a soldier, no gender qualifier necessary.
What do we (civilians, book-readers) see? Helen Benedict's book shows how sexual abuse wears female soldiers thin, makes them less alert and on the ball, emotionally-stretched. While this might be the case, there is arguable evidence here that women appear weaker as a result of their portrayal by journalists like Benedict. This probably makes many pro-military women (and men)'s blood run cold. If there's one adjective a soldier does not want to be identified with, it's weak.
I do not, personally, feel that "victim" should be equated with "weakness," but that correlation is something that is difficult for some readers to discern. Not to mention, the equation of "victim" and "weakness" is definitely difficult for some writers to successfully avoid. So, Helen Benedict had the opportunity to make a strong case against the of issue sexual assault in the military, possibly by ditching the anti-war rhetoric, but she threw the wrench of her own agenda into the gears and kinda fucked it up.
This book left me conflicted at best. But, I guess one thing is for sure... Naema's story sucked.
BTW - I got this book free from a Goodreads Giveaway. So happy I did - it introduced a new, enraging, and controversial topic into my very limited knowledge of world. Party.
Read
July 8, 2021This book stressed me out so much, I had to take a break part way through for a little light reading about a serial killer picking off people who are stranded at a ski resort in the Alps.
September 22, 2022
I don't think this book is exactly like the things they carried. It's more surreal. I didn't have high expectations going in but it's a really good setup.
May 30, 2018
I listened to this novel on audiobook after a recommendation. It tells two stories: an American female Soldier and an Iraqi female medical student in 2003, the early months of the US invasion of Iraq. It made me feel like I had been punched in the stomach because it captured the essence of being a woman deployed to Iraq with the US military. It also captured some of the feeling of being an Iraqi woman watching her freedoms and peace of mind ripped away by the war.
There are a few minor errors in military terminology and customs, because the author is a civilian who interviewed service members, but none of them are egregious enough to disturb the power of the story. I felt like I was there again, and that was hard. I am glad this book exists and I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand what it’s like being a woman at war in the modern age. Brady’s experiences are more extreme than mine were, but it’s a matter of degree.
There are a few minor errors in military terminology and customs, because the author is a civilian who interviewed service members, but none of them are egregious enough to disturb the power of the story. I felt like I was there again, and that was hard. I am glad this book exists and I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand what it’s like being a woman at war in the modern age. Brady’s experiences are more extreme than mine were, but it’s a matter of degree.
September 10, 2011
this book was really insightful. I never knew being in the military was so hard for women. I really felt for Kate, I felt anger on her behalf and it made me wnat to do something to help women soldiers who are stationed in horrid conditions. I have started to write letters to soldiers as a result. This book will touch your heart. Hearing both sides of the tale, one side of the story told by a girl from Iraq and the other from a girl soldier. Get ready for buckets of tears and thoughful silences to follow.
May 25, 2015
I read this book as a writer myself, interested in the craft issues of how true stories can be successfully fictionalized. Taking inspiration from her work on The Lonely Soldier (essays), Benedict has fictionalized some of her interview subjects' stories in her essay collection and turned it into a compelling, heart-breaking novel in Sand Queen.
July 8, 2024
I picked this book off of a display at the library. That will be the last time I read a book without a recommendation. I understand that the book needed to be vulgar and cruel to demonstrate the war, but I felt like the author pushed harmful stereotypes about both women and Iraqi people. This book being nearly 15 years old shows.
August 23, 2011
an amazing book. truly depicts what war is like for women. i felt immediately attached to Kate, i cannot even imagine what it's like out there, but the author painted a great picture in my mind. go out and read!
October 23, 2013
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. It may be factual, and I fear that it is, but it was just too grim and depressing with no redemptive value for me.
May 26, 2023
Disclaimer: I am not in the armed forces and do not intend to be.
If you find my review out of many others, you know by now that this book is about both an Iraqi woman and an American woman during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Given that female US soldiers are more likely to be raped and killed by their fellow male soldiers than by foreigners and that the Operation was founded on a lie, you already know you will be in for a rough time if you decide to read this.
What I liked most was how the author portrayed mental illness and trauma in both actions and thought patterns of the protagonists. Over time, you see them going from hopeful young women eager to make a change to haggard, jaded people who lose their last strings of hope and faith in humanity. One critique is that this book is too surreal when exploring their thoughts, but I find it interesting and a good way to show how the realm of the mind works in a terrible reality.
Two things: I really wish the two protagonists could have had more interactions with each other. I'm the person who reads the blurbs on the back of the book first, which made that part of the story seem like something much more than what it actually was. Also, I felt that Naema needed more of her own story to be told. There was a lot of back and forth going between Kate before and after her own tour, and there was a chronological misalignment where we don't get that same perspective for Naema after that time period. But hey, hard reality or whatever.
Such is life.
If you find my review out of many others, you know by now that this book is about both an Iraqi woman and an American woman during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Given that female US soldiers are more likely to be raped and killed by their fellow male soldiers than by foreigners and that the Operation was founded on a lie, you already know you will be in for a rough time if you decide to read this.
What I liked most was how the author portrayed mental illness and trauma in both actions and thought patterns of the protagonists. Over time, you see them going from hopeful young women eager to make a change to haggard, jaded people who lose their last strings of hope and faith in humanity. One critique is that this book is too surreal when exploring their thoughts, but I find it interesting and a good way to show how the realm of the mind works in a terrible reality.
Two things: I really wish the two protagonists could have had more interactions with each other. I'm the person who reads the blurbs on the back of the book first, which made that part of the story seem like something much more than what it actually was. Also, I felt that Naema needed more of her own story to be told. There was a lot of back and forth going between Kate before and after her own tour, and there was a chronological misalignment where we don't get that same perspective for Naema after that time period. But hey, hard reality or whatever.
Such is life.
May 1, 2021
I chose this book on a whim thinking it was by a non-white author. When I found out it was a white woman who wrote the book, I became a bit more skeptical. I did appreciate in the Acknowledgements that there seemed to be a lot of non-white people consulted, so that helped a bit.
It was an interesting book, with some good character development. It was a quick read and I didn’t fully appreciate the back and forth between past and present, but I understand why the author chose to do that. It felt overall fairly predictable, but I would have liked to know more about what happened to the characters.
I felt like the author struggled to identify what theme she was hoping to convey. There were were themes about war, themes of womanhood, and themes of cultural identity and how cultures have similarities and differences and it felt like the author was trying to make so many different points with the story that there wasn’t one clear takeaway by the end.
A fine read, if a bit muddy. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this book, but I also wouldn’t advise someone against it.
It was an interesting book, with some good character development. It was a quick read and I didn’t fully appreciate the back and forth between past and present, but I understand why the author chose to do that. It felt overall fairly predictable, but I would have liked to know more about what happened to the characters.
I felt like the author struggled to identify what theme she was hoping to convey. There were were themes about war, themes of womanhood, and themes of cultural identity and how cultures have similarities and differences and it felt like the author was trying to make so many different points with the story that there wasn’t one clear takeaway by the end.
A fine read, if a bit muddy. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this book, but I also wouldn’t advise someone against it.
April 5, 2021
If you want a jaunty easy read, this isn’t the book for you. It’s a devastating, hard read that is so well written that it is transportive. The subject matter is “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, the war waged by W Bush and in which hundreds of thousands of US military and Iraqis died; and as many Iraqis were displaced. The protagonist is Kate Brady, an idealistic 20 year old who’s “religious convictions” prompted her to enlist in the army. Her counterpart is a 25 yr old Iraqi women whose life is equally unequivocally changed by the atrocities of war. Is it sad? Yes. Is it wrenching? Yes. This one will haunt me for a long time, as serious, penetrating books will.
September 10, 2021
Met lichte tegenzin begon in aan dit boek. Het onderwerp trekt mij niet. Toch moet ik nu toegeven dat het goed was om dit boek te hebben gelezen. Het is rauw, pijnlijk, hard en onpasselijk. Een oorlog is dat ook. Er zijn altijd slachtoffers, fysiek en mentaal.
Na het zien van The Great Dictator (1940) waarin Chaplin afsluit dat we moeten voorkomen dat we machines worden en niet meer vanuit ons hart leven, kan ik zijn woorden alleen maar beamen.
Geen passend antwoord gekregen op de vraag die steeds maar weer opdook tijden het lezen: Why?! In alle facetten: Why?!
Na het zien van The Great Dictator (1940) waarin Chaplin afsluit dat we moeten voorkomen dat we machines worden en niet meer vanuit ons hart leven, kan ik zijn woorden alleen maar beamen.
Geen passend antwoord gekregen op de vraag die steeds maar weer opdook tijden het lezen: Why?! In alle facetten: Why?!
June 12, 2011
This is what I call an "awareness novel," a book intended primarily to inform readers about some tragic contemporary situation. At its best, the awareness novel can inspire real-world change: see Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (although ironically, the change that book inspired wasn't what Sinclair had in mind). But there's a reason few people read The Jungle anymore, although schoolkids are routinely assigned the passage about meat-packing factories: it's not a great piece of literature. You can't help but feel bad for the characters, since the characters were created specifically to elicit sympathy, but it's an unremittingly tragic and didactic book without any great characterization or literary value to redeem it.
Sand Queen has the same problem. You can't help but be outraged at the constant sexual harassment and fear of sexual assault that the female soldiers face and the cruel way the army responds to such problems. You can't help but be saddened by the plight of the Iraqi civilians. You can't help but be horrified at the soldiers' going into harm's way with outdated, insufficient protective gear, and disheartened by the alienation and PTSD they suffer even after returning home. So yes, the book successfully inspires the emotions it was intended to inspire. That said, I didn't learn as much as I was expecting to; any reasonably informed person already knows something about the destructive effects of PTSD, for instance, and that life is grim for civilians in Iraq, and in those areas I didn't learn anything beyond what one can get just by paying attention to the news. Nor did the book make me care the way a truly great book can: I finished A Thousand Splendid Suns caring deeply about Afghanistan (crazy as that may sound), but I didn't have the same reaction here.
This book mostly follows Kate, a young female soldier deployed to Iraq in 2003, who faces everything from IEDs to sexual harassment to her own increasingly violent impulses. Naema, an Iraqi woman, narrates a smaller portion of the book and her storyline intersects with Kate's. Kate is a much better character than Naema; we never learn much about Naema except that her life experiences have caused her to hate Americans, and the most interesting aspect of her character, the fact that she's a medical student, gets little attention. Kate is much better-developed and struggles with her interpersonal relationships, her religious beliefs, the conflict between her self-image as a soldier and the terrible situations she finds herself in, and so on.
But I was disappointed, in a book set in Iraq, to learn very little about Iraqi culture. Especially since I'd previously read Benedict's Sailor's Wife, where she does a much better job exploring recent Greek history and peasant culture in the Mediterranean.
At only about 300 pages, Sand Queen is a quick read. Once I put it down, I didn't have much desire to pick it back up, but when I sat down to read it, it was a page-turner. It's clear throughout where the story is going (especially given Kate's scattered flash-forward chapters), but there are still twists along the way. The writing style is all right but not exceptional. However, Benedict's writing is about as subtle as a load of bricks; for instance, Naema routinely thinks things like:
"Are these the people the Americans have come to help? If so, how does it help to drop bombs on their houses and imprison their sons and fathers? To destroy their villages, already so poor, and slaughter their babies? To murder them and not even know their names? Is this the way to liberate a people from a dictator? Or has the world gone mad for the taste of oil and blood?"
But back to the treatment of women in the military, since that seems to be Benedict's biggest concern. An author dealing with this topic walks a fine line: talk too much about women being raped, harassed and assaulted and you risk convincing some in your audience that women just shouldn't be in the military at all. Benedict veers a little too far that way for my personal (civilian, but supporter of women in the military) comfort level: two of the three female soldiers featured here are sexually assaulted and suffer severe PTSD. Kate, we learn early on, ultimately breaks down, and while I think she'd have been much better at handling the horrors of war had she not suffered constant sexual harassment and worse from both the Iraqis and her own colleagues (essentially she's fighting a non-stop war on two fronts), a less sympathetic reader might view her as simply being unable to deal with mortar attacks, losing friends, and primitive living conditions--which soldiers of both genders have to deal with, but which seem to affect the men in this book much less. And that's without mentioning Kate's being distracted by a romance with a male colleague. Another woman in the book is a paragon of everything a soldier should be, but Kate's troubles get the primary focus.
For me, Sand Queen did work as an awareness novel, although not as a book I'm likely to re-read or recommend. A generous three stars.
Sand Queen has the same problem. You can't help but be outraged at the constant sexual harassment and fear of sexual assault that the female soldiers face and the cruel way the army responds to such problems. You can't help but be saddened by the plight of the Iraqi civilians. You can't help but be horrified at the soldiers' going into harm's way with outdated, insufficient protective gear, and disheartened by the alienation and PTSD they suffer even after returning home. So yes, the book successfully inspires the emotions it was intended to inspire. That said, I didn't learn as much as I was expecting to; any reasonably informed person already knows something about the destructive effects of PTSD, for instance, and that life is grim for civilians in Iraq, and in those areas I didn't learn anything beyond what one can get just by paying attention to the news. Nor did the book make me care the way a truly great book can: I finished A Thousand Splendid Suns caring deeply about Afghanistan (crazy as that may sound), but I didn't have the same reaction here.
This book mostly follows Kate, a young female soldier deployed to Iraq in 2003, who faces everything from IEDs to sexual harassment to her own increasingly violent impulses. Naema, an Iraqi woman, narrates a smaller portion of the book and her storyline intersects with Kate's. Kate is a much better character than Naema; we never learn much about Naema except that her life experiences have caused her to hate Americans, and the most interesting aspect of her character, the fact that she's a medical student, gets little attention. Kate is much better-developed and struggles with her interpersonal relationships, her religious beliefs, the conflict between her self-image as a soldier and the terrible situations she finds herself in, and so on.
But I was disappointed, in a book set in Iraq, to learn very little about Iraqi culture. Especially since I'd previously read Benedict's Sailor's Wife, where she does a much better job exploring recent Greek history and peasant culture in the Mediterranean.
At only about 300 pages, Sand Queen is a quick read. Once I put it down, I didn't have much desire to pick it back up, but when I sat down to read it, it was a page-turner. It's clear throughout where the story is going (especially given Kate's scattered flash-forward chapters), but there are still twists along the way. The writing style is all right but not exceptional. However, Benedict's writing is about as subtle as a load of bricks; for instance, Naema routinely thinks things like:
"Are these the people the Americans have come to help? If so, how does it help to drop bombs on their houses and imprison their sons and fathers? To destroy their villages, already so poor, and slaughter their babies? To murder them and not even know their names? Is this the way to liberate a people from a dictator? Or has the world gone mad for the taste of oil and blood?"
But back to the treatment of women in the military, since that seems to be Benedict's biggest concern. An author dealing with this topic walks a fine line: talk too much about women being raped, harassed and assaulted and you risk convincing some in your audience that women just shouldn't be in the military at all. Benedict veers a little too far that way for my personal (civilian, but supporter of women in the military) comfort level: two of the three female soldiers featured here are sexually assaulted and suffer severe PTSD. Kate, we learn early on, ultimately breaks down, and while I think she'd have been much better at handling the horrors of war had she not suffered constant sexual harassment and worse from both the Iraqis and her own colleagues (essentially she's fighting a non-stop war on two fronts), a less sympathetic reader might view her as simply being unable to deal with mortar attacks, losing friends, and primitive living conditions--which soldiers of both genders have to deal with, but which seem to affect the men in this book much less. And that's without mentioning Kate's being distracted by a romance with a male colleague. Another woman in the book is a paragon of everything a soldier should be, but Kate's troubles get the primary focus.
For me, Sand Queen did work as an awareness novel, although not as a book I'm likely to re-read or recommend. A generous three stars.
December 20, 2023
This is one of the worst books I have read recently. The author wants the female character to always be the victim and makes her sound dumb. I thin the author tried to incorporate every type grievance against men, the military, the US and life all in one book. It had potential but war is not pretty and you are not going to get beautiful housing, air conditioning and comfortable riding vehicles to ride in when pursuing the enemy.
September 21, 2018
Read after reading Wolf Season because I knew it included one of the main characters. This book is set at the beginning of the Iraq War, long before that character moves to America. Unlike Wolf Season, this book was pretty bleak, without much to lighten it. I wouldn't have finished it if I hadn't read Wolf Season first.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 10, 2018
One of the most depressing books I have read! This novel about a young woman in the Army who deployed in Iraq. The sexual assault and harassment she and her fellow female soldiers suffered at the hands of their platoon mates was horrifying. The book is a novel so I don’t know how closely it reflects the conditions for females in the military.
March 22, 2020
A heart wrenching and gripping story about two women on different sides of the Iraq War. A book full of well rounded characters who you admire, who inspire and who you fret for. And some characters you despise.
Thank you Helen Benedict for this story, which will undoubtedly stay with me for many years.
Thank you Helen Benedict for this story, which will undoubtedly stay with me for many years.
March 9, 2022
Verhaal over de oorlog in Irak, bekeken door de ogen van twee jonge vrouwen: een Amerikaanse soldate en een Iraakse studente. Over de gruwelen van de oorlog, onderdrukking van vrouwen (langs beide kanten), angst, kwaadheid...
De auteur heeft zich heel goed gedocumenteerd, dat merk je aan alles. Die geloofwaardigheid maakt het ook gruwelijk.
Best een harde dobber.
De auteur heeft zich heel goed gedocumenteerd, dat merk je aan alles. Die geloofwaardigheid maakt het ook gruwelijk.
Best een harde dobber.
June 20, 2017
Very clear political and social message, no satire here (except maybe the part about the George Bush lips looking like a tight "asshole"). How can you ever look at our soldiers the same when you know the U.S. army is built on layer after layer of lies and cover-ups? Quick read and heart-rending.
October 11, 2018
Enourmously compelling! It might not be the story you want to read because it will make you sad (especially when you’re a woman), but I really cannot say it’s a bad story. It’s very well written. The alternation of flash forwards in the story makes it even more tensive
July 7, 2021
3.5. The beginning was a bit slow, but it really picked up at the end and I really enjoyed the story. I think there was a lot of unnecessary language, however I do understand why the soldiers uses these words. I also wish Naema's story was expanded on.
June 25, 2017
This was hard to read, but a really good book.
January 20, 2018
Rough but eye-opening read.
November 15, 2018
A worthy read though I prefer her non-fiction account of these events.
September 17, 2020
Powerful story, but the end felt rushed and abrupt
March 17, 2021
she really shot him and then fell off the tower...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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