THE ALLEYS OF MARRAKESH

The author's stay in the strange and romantic city of Marrakesh, French Morocco, makes an unusual story and gives top billing to the everyday life he experienced and to his intriguing and vivacious neighbors and friends. There's no synthetic pussyfooting in his attitude toward the Muslims in the old part of the city he chose and, from the evening with a guide persuaded him to room at his cousin's hotel to his departure after a year's stay, Mayne took the people and their ways into his heart. An aristocratic Sino-Frenchman introduced him to auctions; he found teachers of Arabic; a middleman served as his housing agent in a haphazard but determined fashion -- the Insha' Allah way of the Muslims; he met a French woman whose poultry lived a fast life. Among his neighbors was the woman who kept her lover under control by posnets, the trio of housekeepers whose idiosyncrasies and attractive sparkle matched their down to earth humanity. Sightseeing is at a minimum but do insist once in a while that he view with wonder and it is through the people of Marrakesh that the city -- and this book -- come vibrantly and colorfully to life. A delight.