An absorbing tale that, alas, ends too abruptly.
A slum-dweller in Casablanca is briefly elevated into the upper class, then recruited by Islamic terrorists.
In her debut novel, Lalami, author of the short-story collection Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, 2005), explores the religious and political underpinnings of social inequity in globalized Morocco. Her teen protagonist, Youssef, has begun university studies on scholarship, fulfilling the dreams of his mother, Rachida, a nurse, who raised him single-handedly in a one-room shanty. His father, Rachida claims, died in Youssef’s infancy. Under questioning by Youssef, she admits that his father was Nabil Amrani, scion of a wealthy family, who died in a car crash shortly before their planned marriage and Youssef’s birth. At university, Youssef envies the conspicuous consumption of “Mercedes-and-Marlboro” students. His only friends are Amin, a law student, and Maati, who works for an Islamic extremist group, the Party, which operates a cafe to attract local youth. Hatim, the Party’s chairman, shows Youssef a magazine demonstrating the degenerate journalism (a piece on Morrocan vintners) of a reporter named Benaboud. Also featured in the magazine is a tycoon named Nabil Amrani, who resembles Youssef, right down to the piercing blue eyes. Youssef confronts Amrani, who is thrilled to learn he has a son. Amrani sets Youssef up in a luxurious apartment, where he enjoys the Mercedes-and-Marlboro lifestyle. Amrani, hoping to groom him for the family business, gets Youssef a high-paying job. But when Amrani leaves for Los Angeles to reconcile with his estranged daughter Amal, Youssef is summarily ejected from both job and apartment. In a far-fetched development, Hatim convinces Youssef, who up to now has been impervious to the Party’s propaganda, to see his domestic dilemma as directly linked to the persecution of Muslims. Impulsively, Youssef agrees to execute Benaboud.
An absorbing tale that, alas, ends too abruptly.Pub Date: April 21, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-56512-594-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2009
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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