In the Kingdom of Men

Written by Kim Barnes

Narrated by Marguerite Gavin

1967. Gin Mitchell knows a better life awaits her when she marries Mason McPhee. But nothing can prepare her for the world she and Mason step into when he takes a job with the Arabian American Oil company in Saudi Arabia. In the gated compound of Abqaiq, Gin and Mason are given a home with marble floors, a houseboy to cook their meals, and a gardener to tend the sandy patch out back. Even among the veiled women and strict laws, Gin's life has become the stuff of fairy tales. But when a young Bedouin woman is found dead, washed up on the shores of the Persian Gulf, Gin's world closes in around her, and the one person she trusts is nowhere to be found.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamscape Media Audio
• Release date: Jun 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781611208405

Kim Barnes

Kim Barnes lives on the Isle of Wight with her partner and two children, Leo and Cameo, who greatly inspire her work. She graduated from Lincoln University, England, and has drawn ever since she was a young child. She is the illustrator of the Sparkella series written by Channing Tatum (The One and Only Sparkella and The One and Only Sparkella Makes a Plan).

Reviews for In the Kingdom of Men

[beckyhaase · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

IN THE KINGDOM OF MEN by Kim BarnesOne of my friends lived in an ARAMCO compound during the 1960’s. The life depicted in THE KINGDOM OF MEN is much as she described it. Gin is running from a constricted life with a fundamentalist grandfather and finds herself living in the even more constricted fundamentalist Saudi kingdom. Even though she and her husband are living in luxurious surroundings, life for Gin is boring and racist for her husband. By befriending both her driver and her houseboy Gin is in violation of both ARAMCO and Kingdom policies. Mason in attempting to live the ideals of Martin Luther King also violates policy and then uncovers greed and corruption. Both find themselves in fear for their lives and those of their friends. Although the ending is unsatisfying, the novel as a whole is worthwhile.An interesting story with characters you like (and dislike) teaches a fair amount of history of the Kingdom and oil. Book groups will discuss fundamentalist religions, ethnic differences, the position of women in society, dealing with boredom, whistle blowers and company corruption, Americans in foreign societies, interactions between men and women and the price of gas.

[jaylia3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Born dirt poor in Oklahoma and raised by a Bible strict grandfather, Gin Mitchell trades her dilapidated cage for a gilded one when her young husband takes a job with Arabian American Oil Company in Saudi Arabia. It’s 1967 and Mason is an admirer of Martin Luther King, Jr. and fearless believer in doing what’s right, which earns him respect but also enemies in a company whose policies dictate that native brown skinned workers are necessarily inferior. Stuck inside the luxurious home and walled compound the company provides, Gin has servants to garden, cook and clean, but nothing much to do. The rules about what to wear and how to behave are as restrictive as her grandfather’s. Company wives aren’t allowed to drive because Saudi men might see them, and they aren’t allowed to leave the compound or explore the desert on their own so they spend their days in aimless, sometimes licentious, leisure. Constrictions don’t sit well with Gin, who has inherited the fierce, free-spirited tendencies of her female relatives. She feels an affinity for her male servants, a Bedouin driver and an Indian “houseboy”, who also live under repressive rules, but her fascination with their lives and struggles toward selfhood create tension in her marriage, ultimately leading to danger.It’s an absorbing and immersive story with a fascinating setting, complex characters and a haunting thriller ending that doesn’t wrap everything up too neatly.

[flippinpages-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book started out really good but quickly petered out for me. Learning something of Saudi Arabia and Aramco was interesting. I enjoyed the character of Yash very much and thought he was well written. Beyond that the book was boring. The last quarter of the book where the mystery takes over I didn't find believable. Another reviewer stated that the book ended quickly like the author tired of it and I have to agree. Best decision the author made because I was tired of it as well.

[hashford_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gin McPhee is very pleased to escape her dirt poor and strict Methodist upbringing by getting pregnant at the first opportunity. Her new husband gets work and they joyfully set up in their own home, but she loses the baby. In the grief-fogged aftermath, her husband Mason takes a job in Saudi Arabia and they fly out to the company compound.In Saudi, Gin finds herself thrust into sudden and unaccustomed luxury, which she is not entirely at ease with. She doesn’t know how to deal with the house servants, and is not comfortable with other, middle-class, company wives. However, she makes a friend and starts to build a life, of sorts, for herself.Mason does well in his job and rises fast – making enemies along the way. Then, when he starts investigating corruption at the heart of the company, things begin to go badly wrong.This book has a number of strengths, of which the greatest, for me, is the evocative descriptions of time and place the author gives us. The early section covering Gin’s early upbringing is particularly good, but I also enjoyed the narrow and bitchy lives of the company wives, Gin’s confusion and resentment at the constraints on what women can and can’t do as soon as she leaves the compound, and the unfolding friendships she makes with the Arab driver and her Pakistani houseboy. On the down side, the book seems to lack focus, as if the author hadn’t really decided what to do with it (it isn’t really a thriller, but it’s more than a “slice-of-life” story), and there were sections (especially those dealing with life on the compound) which were repetitive and not very interesting. And I didn’t like the ending – the story just suddenly stopped, and the epilogue felt rather irrelevant.Overall I found this a very enjoyable read, and with more depth than the “chick-lit-y” cover would lead you to expect.

[christopherswann · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Damn Kim Barnes for ending this story.

[monkeypats · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The book was about a woman from a small town in Oklahoma (I think) who gets pregnant and then married, only to lose the baby. The husband moves them to Saudi Arabia during the early stages of the Arab-American oil company. It's about the company compound and the politics and control and the different lifestyles and culture clashes - especially the difficulty of being a woman at that time and place. The book was good, only problem was I read what I thought was the main event of the book before reading it only to find out it was the conclusion, so I was waiting the whole book for the main event to happen only to have it happen in the last few pages. Still, it was very interesting.

[pmaurer_11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Naive woman from Oklahoma ends up in Saudis Arabia inside a company compound. Much of novel deals with exploration of different culture, and social status. Interesting read, but sometimes I wanted to shake the main character.

[pinkcrayon99 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"The fact is that you are a woman, and in possession of great power(274)." -YashVirginia Mae Mitchell was orphaned when her mother and grandmother passed. At age seven she was picked up from the orphanage by the man her grandmother and mother had left years ago, a Bible beating tyrant known as her grandfather. Gin grew up plain and poor. She never really gave over to her grandfather's faith even though she was bound by its rules. She found characters in books her best companions. Plain and obscure yet she managed to catch the eye and heart of the hometown hero, Mason McPhee. Gin as well as her grandfather soon found out she was expecting. The hero came to her rescue. They got married but the happily ever after never came. The birth was still and so was Gin. Mason wanted to make it all better. Mason's saviour's complex landed them in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia. A whole new word.Mason began working for the Arabian Oil Company, Aramco and Gin was supposed to sit around and be the pampered wife. They arrived to a perfectly well boxed life in Abqaiq. A home with all the amenitites including a houseboy/servant, Yash Sharma. There was also a driver, Abdullah. Gin soon found a BFF in a fellow Aramco wife, Ruthie. There remained one constant in Saudi Arabia that Gin was familiar with from her days in Oklahoma, women had to abide by the rules set by the men.Gin was one to test the boundaries but she really didn't have the courage to cross any. Mason's saviour's complex proved that there was no resurrection of mortal gods. Everyone needs a friend like Yash. You miss him for days after you finish the book. Ruthie is that friend liken to Bette Midler's character in the movie "Beaches." Barnes made you feel the sand and the sun on your skin. You felt the restrictions of the society. The Bedouin culture was well researched and made interesting. There is also a pirate who is really a photographer, Carlo. His charm will make you smile in real life.The ending is still with me. The complexity of the narrative and the magnitude of the issues Barnes dealt with I'm yet unraveling. A real story. More than fiction. I can't say enough about Yash.

[cinamingrl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was one of those novels that I could not put down, and read it in 1 day. The narrative caught my attention immediately. And the author's details about the lives of the characters is amazing and more than interesting.I loved it. (I was hoping that the end would be that Gin moved in with Abdullah and became a wealthy wife of a Sheik. But that didn't happen.)I loved this book and will read all of this author's books.

[labibliophille · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In 1967 Saudi Arabia is a company town. And the company is Aramco, the Arabian American Oil Company. The Saudi government had yet to nationalize Aramco, and the country was run by Aramco executives along with the Saudi royal family.A young American couple, Gin and Mason McPhee, come to Saudi Arabia to live. Mason has accepted a job with Aramco. They are given a luxurious house to live in, and provided with a gardener and houseboy to help them. While Mason works on a drilling platform for two weeks at a time, Gin is left to her own devices. She is young, impulsive, bored and lonely.Gin bristles at the strictures of living in an Aramco compound in the middle of the desert. She doesn't understand why she can't just do what she wants-ride horses, explore the desert, even go anywhere off the compound alone. Gin and Mason are committed to the ideals of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They are distressed at the way Aramco treats the Bedouins who work for the company.Their youth and ideals are not a good match for Aramco. Soon, Gin and Mason discover that the previous residents of their house were involved in a scam that resulted in poor equipment maintenance and the resulting deaths of a number of workers. Gin and Mason each want to bring this fraud to the attention of higher-ups. But communication has broken down between them, and they work at cross purposes. Meanwhile, Gin has become a writer and photographer for the company newsletter, and is discouraged and angry when the editor returns her photos as being unsuitable. She does not heed his warnings and continues to take forbidden photos.This is a great book with great characters. In the history of Aramco we can see the seeds of today's uneasy alliance between America and Saudi Arabia, as well as the politicization of the oil business. In the Kingdom of Men would make a great movie. I hope someone out in Hollywoodland pays attention.

[lycomayflower · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

So much to love about In the Kingdom of Men (and it came highly recommended by a dear friend whose opinions on such things I value and almost always agree with), but I couldn't quite warm to this novel. The setting--an Aramco compound and surrounds in late 1960s Arabia--is fascinating, and the details of that setting and the non-American minor characters who inhabited it were my favorite parts of the story. But the main characters--even the narrator, who seems like she ought to be at least interesting, if not wholly likeable--annoyed me. The writing is often lovely, but sometimes also so cloyingly precise as to feel maddeningly claustrophobic. I didn't care much about the characters (except the ones whose fates the story leaves unknowable), and I wanted to maneuver many of them off of a bridge. When I feel this way about a book--when I see so many good things about it and feel like I should like it better than I do--I often suspect that my dislike is at least partly--if not almost wholly--my fault rather than the writer's. Maybe it was just the wrong time. Maybe I was in the wrong mood.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lawrence of Arabia, Arabian nights, I remember reading so much history centering on Arabia that when I saw this book I knew it was one I had to read. In the 1960's Gin McPhee finds herself, with her husband in Saudi Arabia when her husband finds work with the Saudi American oil company Aramco. Ginny who was raised, after the unfortunate demise of her mother and grandmother, in Oklahoma by her often punishing grandfather, who was a Pentecostal minister. They live in an American compound, strictly guarded, due to the restrictive nature of this society towards its women. In elegant prose, and beautifully rendered scenery we follow Gin as she attempts to find fulfillment in this place, that she finds so stifling but at the same time fascinating. Tempting fate she takes chances and stumbles on to a secret that has adverse effects for all involved. This is a wonderful novel, not only about the curiosity of a woman who wants to grow and find out what she can become but also for the political strife between the Arabs and Israel and the impact of the oil company in this country. Loved every minute of this book.

[eyejaybee · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I hadn't heard anythign about this book before I spotted it in the huge Waterstone's store in Piccadilly, but thought it sounded interesting and decided to take a chance on it as part of a "buy one, get one half price" offer. What a lucky choice!It started out with a description of the early life of Virginia (known as "Gin" - the narrator) in which she lost both parents in fairly quick succession while she was still a child in the early 1960s. She was then adopted by an aunt who also quickly died and ended up with her harsh, obsessively pious lay-preacher grandfather who proceeded to bring her up under terms of total repression (rather like Stephen King's [Carrie], just without the telekinesis). I must admit that by the end of the first twenty pages I wondered what I was letting myself in for, and was considering leaving it and writing it off as a bad lot. However, I am so glad that I persisted. Once she managed to escape from her virtual (though not exactly vituous) servitude in Shawnee, Oklahoma, Gin shines through as a fantastic character. Having eloped with Mason MacPhee, sometime college boy and basketball scholarship winner, she comes into her own. Mason does the right thing, and takes her to Texas where he finds work in the rapidly spawning oil fields. From there he is spotted as a potentially valuable drill foreman, and is given the opportunity to sign on for the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) and go out to Suadi Arabia where the company operates in partnership with the House of Faud, the Saudi Royal Family. Mason and Gin find themselves set up in relative luxury in the American employees' compound in Abqaiq, with Mason embarking on long shifts at a drilling platform (two weekson, one week off).Barnes depicts the culture shock excellently, with Gin struggling to come to terms with the rigidity of life and the restrictions that apply to all women in Saudi Arabia, even the wives of the American workers. Restrictions are relaxed within the compound but apply as soon as she steps outside. She quickly becomes friendly with Ruthie, the very liberal and unrestrained wife of Lucky, one of the foremen. Ruthie is amazed at how naive and repressed Gin is, and makes it her mission to try to make her more sophisticated. In one episode Ruthie and Gin go into Dharhan, the nearest large settlement where they fall foul of the "mutaween" (the Moslem "virtue police") who chase them through the streets threatening to beat them. The attitudes of the mutaween are alarmingly similar to the views of Gin's grandfather.Life in the compound is potentially luxurious, and far more comfortable thanh anything that Gin has previously dreamt of, let alone experienced for herself. However, it all leaves her rather restless, as does the sensitivity of dealing with servants - their house comes complete with Yash, a Hindu houseboy who had previously lived in India and then Britain where he received a university education, and Faris, a Moslem gardener. Gin is eager to try to become fully integrated with her new world, and much of the beauty of the book lies in her attempts to become friendly with Yash and Faris along with Abdullah (a general factotum for Aramco) much to the consternation of her neighbours who prefer to maintain the rigid segregation. Meanwhile Mason emerges as a defender of the rights and interests of the Arab workers who make up the greater part of the Aramco workforce, but who receive mere pittances compared to their American overseers.All in all this was a fascinating read, with an engaging central character, and I am very glad that something mad me stop and pick it up.

[wagrobanite-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Wow... This book was bad... I do not understand why people like it. Whoever wrote the hook for it here on goodreads has some great writing skills because that's now how the book was at all. The mystery of the women washing up on shore didn't even come up until chapter 15 (of a 17 chapter book!). There were so many parts to this book that were absolutely unnecessary and basically just fluff and did nothing to add to the story. Ginny Mae seemed very superficial and I did not connect with her, nor any of the other characters like Mason, or Abdullah... The plot did not flow and it just felt like waiting and waiting for something that never happened. And let's not forget the ending... It was like the writer decided "I've had enough of this story; let's just end it completely random". Throwing her in Rome with little to no money or a way to support herself. Not only did it suck, it was also unreasonable and completely not believable. Very disappointed in this book.