A refreshing character study loses steam in a worn-out plot.
Moroccan author Alaoui’s debut offers a glimpse into the daily pleasures, frustrations, and even dull moments in the life of a working-class woman in Morocco.
Thirty-four-year-old Jmiaa Bent Larbi has been making a living as a sex worker in Casablanca for nearly 15 years. Ever since her abusive ex-husband, Hamid, abruptly immigrated to Spain, she has been steadily courting clients outside the local market to support herself and her daughter, Samia. Jmiaa works alongside several other women who live in her building, and together they spend evenings drinking, chatting, and arguing as they wait for men to pass by. Jmiaa is unashamed of her life; she's proud of her knowledge about the profession and her ability to provide for her family. “I’m only explaining the bare minimum to her,” she asserts when asked to help a new recruit. “It took me years to learn what I know; I’m not about to give everything away.” Still, when Chadlia—a young filmmaker Jmiaa calls “Horse Mouth” because of her toothy smile—presents her with an exciting opportunity, Jmiaa jumps on board, and over the next three years, her life changes in ways she never could have imagined. Alaoui depicts Jmiaa’s character with humanity and grace. While certainly not avoiding sex, Alaoui makes the noteworthy choice of decentering this element of Jmiaa’s life. Instead, by digging into her difficult relationship with her mother, the fierce loyalty of her cherished friend Samira, and her fish-out-of water experience working with Chadlia, Alaoui emphasizes that Jmiaa’s work with clients is simply one part of her story. Throughout, Jmiaa’s narration adds levity and showcases her bold and irreverent nature. At the same time, it is her fiery independence that makes the later chapters—centered on her work in film—feel disingenuous. Following a typical savior narrative, Chadlia swoops in with funding to offer the possibility of a more socially acceptable, glamorous life, and thus the story begins to plunge into the tired trope of the American dream.
A refreshing character study loses steam in a worn-out plot.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-189274-679-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Other Press
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
An emotionally acute study of manliness.
Scenes from the life of a well-off but emotionally damaged man.
Szalay’s sixth novel is a study of István, who as a 15-year-old in Hungary is lured into a sexual relationship with a married neighbor; when he has a confrontation with the woman’s husband, the man falls down the stairs and dies. Add in stints in a juvenile facility and as a soldier in Iraq, and István enters his 20s almost completely stunted emotionally. (Saying much besides “Okay” sometimes seems utterly beyond him.) Fueled by id, libido, and street drugs, he seems destined to be a casualty until, while working as a bouncer at a London strip club, he helps rescue the owner of a security firm who’s been assaulted; soon, he’s hired as the driver for a tycoon and his wife, with whom he begins an affair. István is a fascinating character in a kind of negative sense—he’s intriguing for all the ways he fails to confront his trauma, all the missed opportunities to find deeper connections. To that end, Szalay’s prose is emotionally bare, deliberately clipped and declarative, evoking István’s unwillingness (or incapacity) to look inside himself; he occasionally consults with a therapist, but a relentless passivity keeps him from opening up much. His capacity to fail upwards eventually catches up with him, and the novel becomes a more standard story about betrayal and inheritances, but it also turns on small but meaningful moments of heroism that suggest a deeper character than somebody who, as someone suggests, “exemplif[ies] a primitive form of masculinity.” István’s relentlessly stony approach to existence grates at times—there are a few too many “okay”s in the dialogue—but Szalay’s distanced approach has its payoffs. Being closed off, like István, doesn’t close off the world, and at times has tragic consequences.
An emotionally acute study of manliness.Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781982122799
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
An evocative, kaleidoscopic affirmation of life from the perspective of Death.
The personification of death stumbles on companionship in the small British city where he lives, as he continues standing sentinel beside people in their last moments.
Narrator Travis Smith is “inside everything”—ebullient mayflies, skittish deer, and the people around him. He’s privy to how long they’ll live and to every intricacy of their lives, his job to stand witness to people’s dying moments. He’s never challenged this role, even as the ever-present noise sometimes overwhelms him. But Travis finds his isolated, detached life disrupted by Dalia, a midwife, and her two young daughters, who live in the flat across the hall. Through them, he unintentionally becomes a participant in life in a new way. The novel captures the seemingly contradictory idea of beauty in scenes of pain. The violence of a car crash is juxtaposed with the natural world surrounding it, the banality of everyday life continuing even as one life stops. This tension is woven throughout, as readers glimpse Travis’ work as a witness to people’s dying moments. In short passages in which Travis describes a person’s end and salient events in their life, we see a well-etched character for whom death can be relief, terror, or perhaps the ultimate injustice. Author Reeves has a keen eye for the salient detail, making the reader become emotionally invested in characters seen only briefly. As Travis’ narration moves from his work to the quiet yet increasingly meaningful time he spends with his neighbors, it illuminates a microcosm of the cycles of life and death, as glimpsed through the natural world and scenes with community members. Conversations feature crisp dialogue and moments of silence that emphasize how loss and grief can’t always be articulated and comfort can’t always be given. As Travis’ relationships with his neighbors grow, his sense of himself as a person outside his role also evolves, and his job begins to burden him emotionally. Through Travis, we see the beauty of love and small moments of companionship and connection, all the more powerful for the fact of life’s brevity and unpredictable end.
An evocative, kaleidoscopic affirmation of life from the perspective of Death.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781668216361
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
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