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Driving the Saudis: A Chauffeur's Tale of the World's Richest Princesses (plus their servants, nannies, and one royal hairdresser)
by
Jayne Amelia Larson (Goodreads Author)
Actress, producer, and occasional chauffeur Jayne Amelia Larson offers a funny and insightful memoir about the time she spent as a driver for members of the Saudi royal family visiting Beverly Hills, detailing her invitation inside one of the world’s most closely guarded monarchies.
When the Saudi royal family vacationed in Los Angeles, they hired Jayne Amelia Larson, an ac...more
When the Saudi royal family vacationed in Los Angeles, they hired Jayne Amelia Larson, an ac...more
Hardcover, 224 pages
Published
October 16th 2012
by Free Press
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I thought this was pretty good. In general I like memoirs about jobs, and she writes about not realizing that most chauffeurs are men. She ends up driving the royal family around Hollywood, and the princesses get lots of plastic surgery, and throw money at her demanding that she get them iphones, and bras and other random things. She also drives the servant girls around, and gets to know them pretty well. It's interesting, there's the seventeen year old who really wants to study at UCLA, but is...more
My expectations for this book were not high. I expected something fluffy and escapist, with maybe a little inkling into what makes these people tick. Also, I thought this book would be set in the Middle East, not California. The book started slow, too, as the author synopsized her not-particularly-notable life.
But after a few short table-setting chapters, Ms. Larson begins to deliver the goods. About halfway through I realized, this book is actually pretty insightful. The Saudis and their entour...more
But after a few short table-setting chapters, Ms. Larson begins to deliver the goods. About halfway through I realized, this book is actually pretty insightful. The Saudis and their entour...more
Interesting premise, but the resulting narrative is uneven, shallow, and unsatisfying. I did not care for the author's voice; I found her self-righteous. Yes, we get it: the Saudi royal family is excessive to the extreme and archaic (in American views) in their customs regarding division of the sexes, marriage, female rights, and household hierarchy. No one made you take this job, one you find so demeaning and beneath you, as you remind us often - almost as much as you remind us of your ivy leag...more
I try to live by the maxim “It isn’t so much that we are disappointed by people but that we are disappointed by our expectations of people.” Thus if I set realistic expectations, I will be let down less often. Easier said than done of course, as with most pithy mottos, but none the less a truism. “Why,” you ask “am I spouting Zen babble in a book review?” Is is indeed, dear reader, relevant. The reads that most disappoint me are the “you gotta read this” or books that I have high expectations fo...more
Jayne Amelia Larson had the experience of driving the women of one of the Saudi royal families around LA for 7 weeks. There are precision logistics as fleets of limos carrying luggage and the entourage arrives to set up camp in the best hotels and estates of the city. The "customer" is demanding and an established pecking order means that almost any member of the entourage can point a finger and have the temporary, unwitting, non-Arabic speaking drivers fired. This book is light and fun, but pre...more
While the premise of this book was interesting enough for me to give it a try and finish it, I found the overall experience a little lackluster. The book contains the elements I expected - the spoiled Saudi Princesses, the unbelievable wealth - and even some elements I had no idea would be in there, like the near slavery of the Saudi household staff, the classist way the royal family treated the chauffeurs and their inability to recognize the humanity or needs of people taking care of their need...more
I love reading books about the lives I will never live;good or bad, indulgent or impoverished, it doesn't matter. Reading "Driving the Saudis", reminded me of Alice looking through the key hole; I was completely amazed and enthralled about a day in the life of a Saudi Royal.
After more than a decade of working in Hollywood, actress Jayne Amelia Larson found herself out work, and falling behind on her bills. Without telling her friends or family, she took a job as a limousine driver, never thinkin...more
After more than a decade of working in Hollywood, actress Jayne Amelia Larson found herself out work, and falling behind on her bills. Without telling her friends or family, she took a job as a limousine driver, never thinkin...more
This book is not only a delightful romp around the streets of Beverly Hills with the Saudi royal family, but an in-depth examination of consumption, culture, and the complexity of US-Saudi Arabia relations.
Larson writes with stark honesty and humility about her experience as a chauffeur for the Saudis. The lessons she learns, and those she imparts to her readers, are lasting and complex, including:
"The first pillar of Islam is the professor of faith, or shahada, and in keeping with the Quran an...more
Larson writes with stark honesty and humility about her experience as a chauffeur for the Saudis. The lessons she learns, and those she imparts to her readers, are lasting and complex, including:
"The first pillar of Islam is the professor of faith, or shahada, and in keeping with the Quran an...more
“Driving the Saudis” by Jayne Amelia Larson, published by Free Press.
Category – Biography
Jayne Amelia Larson obtained a degree from Cornell University and Harvard University and aspired to be an actor and film producer. Unfortunately things did not work out the way Jayne had planned.
She found herself with no job and bills piling up. In desperation, she hired on as a chauffeur, not only a chauffeur but a chauffeur for the royal Saudi family.
The family arrived in Los Angles with an entourage of 40...more
Category – Biography
Jayne Amelia Larson obtained a degree from Cornell University and Harvard University and aspired to be an actor and film producer. Unfortunately things did not work out the way Jayne had planned.
She found herself with no job and bills piling up. In desperation, she hired on as a chauffeur, not only a chauffeur but a chauffeur for the royal Saudi family.
The family arrived in Los Angles with an entourage of 40...more
If you want a book to confirm what you already think about members of the Saudi Royal family - they're selfish, egotistical, spoiled, mean-spirited and wealthy beyond belief - then read this one. They are every horrible thing you think, and then some. Truly awful people.
The interesting people in this book are the ones who have to bend over backwards to service these brats while they are spending oil money like there's no tomorrow at boutiques, hair salons and plastic surgery centers in and arou...more
The interesting people in this book are the ones who have to bend over backwards to service these brats while they are spending oil money like there's no tomorrow at boutiques, hair salons and plastic surgery centers in and arou...more
An actress without steady work, Larson became a chauffeur to pay the bills. The work wasn’t “classy [or] even a little bit cool” as she had anticipated; instead, she drove around drunk teenagers seeking transvestites, waif-thin prostitutes who could pass for fourteen years old, and then a Saudi royal family whose vetting process consisted of reviewing an H-6 printout showing all traffic accidents Larson incurred in the past ten years plus an acknowledgment that she wasn’t a Jew. Larson’s “detail...more
I think the book started off okay but it got to be tedious. The author could not stop talking about herself and most of the book ended up being not about the Saudi's but about her experiences, feelings, and recollections. Even random things that didn't really add to the story.As well as that, I thought she was seemed very spoiled and above herself. She also showed how demeaning and embarrassing she thought her job was and how above the job she was...if she thought so she could have quit. I think...more
Like a lot of people in L.A., Jayne wants to become an actress. We all know this isn't easy and so she is forced to take on another job. She becomes a chauffeur. One day, she's charged with becoming one of the chaffeurs for the Saudi royal family when they come to visit. This is a memoir about a single event in the author's life. It is fascinating from the aspect that the Saudi royal family is huge and secretive and therefore not a lot of people do not know a whole lot about the family.
I thought...more
I thought...more
Actress/producer Jayne Amelia Larson takes a temp job as a driver for female members of the Saudi royal family when they visit L.A. Hoping against hope to earn a big tip, she does her utmost to serve the women; sometimes they demand things in the middle of the night, and spend thousands of dollars a day on shopping sprees. She also has to put up with snobby, spoiled younger members of the family. But along with such freedom in the U.S. comes the sad realization that they will have to return home...more
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Jayne Larson was an out of work actress and took a job as a chauffeur to make ends meet. She had an amazing opportunity to make some great money but being one of the many drivers for members of the Saudi royal family. Larson wrote about her experience in the book "Driving the Saudis". I felt that this was an unique look into the lives of the Saudi royal family and their staff. It was an amazing look into a group of people who we normally do not get a look into their lives. There were two specifi...more
On the cover of this book is the note “a Chauffeur’s Tale of the World’s Richest Princesses” and that explains the whole book, it was a total waste of time.
I started the book thinking it might just be interesting seeing how the other half lives. It was not interesting for a lot of reasons but one is the writing was so poor, the language was not necessary to get the point across, but used for shock value, and the story wandered all over the map. If you have lots of time on your hands with nothing...more
I started the book thinking it might just be interesting seeing how the other half lives. It was not interesting for a lot of reasons but one is the writing was so poor, the language was not necessary to get the point across, but used for shock value, and the story wandered all over the map. If you have lots of time on your hands with nothing...more
Jayne Amelia Larson was a struggling actor/writer in Hollywood when she took a job as a chauffeur to help make ends meet while she was between jobs. One major job she was assigned was to chauffeur members of the Saudi Arabian royal family and their entourage during their seven week stay in Beverly Hills. This memoir follows Larson's experiences as she works grueling hours whisking the royals around the city, running errands and doing the (sometimes unreasonable and even impossible) bidding of he...more
The author apparently felt faint if a paragraph went by where she didn't refer to herself. The only way she could regain her balance was to follow that barren paragraph with two or three about herself and her memories and her impressions, in detail. This results in the book being incredibly digressive, and not really about the Saudis at all. Since her project in the book is to describe the vanity and egoism of the Royal Family, her obsession with herself can be amusing.
It's readable, and in smal...more
It's readable, and in smal...more
I don't usually read memoir but I was intrigued by the subject matter and it's timeliness and this ended up being a great read and a real page turner. Jayne Amelia Larson is funny, smart and brings us into a world that is not only fascinating but also seldom depicted, witnessed or observed. The Saudi culture, as we know, is extremely private, and this expose is haunting and illuminating. Highly recommend. And guys don't be put off by the idea of a female chauffeur taking a bunch of rich women sh...more
I liked learning more about a culture with which I am not familiar, but I didn't like the narrator for some reason. Maybe it was because she kept bringing up her Ivy League education and that she felt like being a chauffeur was beneath her. She just rubbed me the wrong way. I was more interested in learning about the Saudis than reading about the author's reaction to the Saudis. But it is her book, so naturally her opinions would be included. I just need to go find a non-fiction book about life...more
Boy what I don’t know about Saudi Royalty and excess – it was hard to believe the wealth and the way in which the money was used in this account by an out-of-work actress who moonlighted as a chauffeur. For seven weeks, the author was on call 24/7 driving members of a Royal Family wherever needed (sometimes just following a group of teenage girls as they enjoyed their freedom walking) and doing anything and everything else that was demanded. Somewhat shallow…but fascinating.
An entertaining story of an actress's gig driving a mob of Saudi royal women and their servants veers into deeper territory as the author considers with compassion the severely restricted societal rules these women and girls must navigate. Wildly extravagant spending on fashion, shopping, room service, etc. is contrasted with the limits placed on their movements and interactions with the world. I would love to see her dramatic version of this experience. Recommmend.
I kind of liked this book, but I found the non-linear storytelling somewhat distracting. Additionally, at page apx 100, it was getting a little repetitive. While I am not disinterested in the remainder of the memoir, I have more interesting things sitting in a pile of book son my night stand so I have little faith I will pick it back up. Yet.....I might pass it on to Elisabeth - she'll probably be interested in at least the first 75 pages :)
I was curious to read this book for obvious reasons--I wanted to know how they acted and what they did. Some parts were a bit on the boring side but there was also humor and a good story. I would not have been able to deal with the the arrogance that the author did each day. It goes to show how some people are still regarded as nothing, especially women. It's sad but real.
I received a complimentary copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
I received a complimentary copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
very interesting account of one woman's encounter with wealth & entitlement on steroids. The Saudi princesses come across as shallow people whose consumption is beyond conspicuous. They are dismissive of other people. This chauffeur received a tip that was 80% lower than her male counterparts, because women are not valued as people, only possessions, in that culture. The most human & likeable characters, aside from the author, in the account are the female servants of the royals.
Interesting reportage on the inner circle of Saudi women’s lives, not just the royals, but also the under-appreciated and staunchly devoted servants.
Larson shares some personal aspects of her life in the writing as well. It’s a light read that focused on a very short time (seven weeks) in the author’s life while chauffeuring the Saudi women around the L.A. area and her all-consuming job responsibilities.
Larson shares some personal aspects of her life in the writing as well. It’s a light read that focused on a very short time (seven weeks) in the author’s life while chauffeuring the Saudi women around the L.A. area and her all-consuming job responsibilities.
I thought this book was both entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time. Getting a glimpse into the lives of the very rich Saudi royals is intriguing. But I also found myself asking "what would I do," if I were in the author's shoes. What would I say? And that's really the value of the book—to ride along with Larson and have to reflect on our own culpabilities and compromises.
This is more than a page-turning, fun read. It explores deep and tricky issues of our time in a way that is honest, warm and intelligent. A story of survival and culture clash, of self-identity and friendship, the book had me laughing out loud even while it was moving me emotionally. Bravo to Jayne Amelia Larson for writing such an original and smart story!
Intriguing title yes, but dishy, not really. BORING. It was a reach to think that we would get the insight into something juicy, but it gave away all the interesting parts on the back . Save yourself some time and just read the book jacket.
p.s. Jayne Amelia Larson had some interesting jobs prior to her chauffeuring gig in acting and writing - wish that chapter was longer..
p.s. Jayne Amelia Larson had some interesting jobs prior to her chauffeuring gig in acting and writing - wish that chapter was longer..
Read the review on this book in People Magazine. It looked like it would be a fun, interesting look into a unique culture.
The book was interesting and was a light read. It was a bit short and didn't go as in-depth as I thought it would.
If you are looking for a light breezy read, it will fit the bill.
The book was interesting and was a light read. It was a bit short and didn't go as in-depth as I thought it would.
If you are looking for a light breezy read, it will fit the bill.
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Aug 28, 2012 11:11pm