Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Owen (1969), Edition: First Edition, 181 pages
Description
This powerful and shocking narrative recounts the adventures of Abdeslam, a precocious twelve-year-old Moroccan boy who runs away from his home in the Rif Mountains to Tangier. There he struggles to retain his childlike innocence and native pride while striving to support himself in the corrupt and decadent international port. He takes up with a longshoreman and soon meets a rogue's gallery of friends, mostly hustlers and down-and-outers. With his characteristic brilliance and streetwise charm, Mrabet develops the novel's ambiguous theme of the necessity of violence to retain one's innocence.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Fullmoonblue
Fascinating and disturbing. A great intro to North African fiction, especially for the many colonial and gender issues explored from a young boy's perspective. The protagonist also has a very strange relationship with his faith.
See also Mrabet's short story, "The Boy Who Set the Fire."
See also Mrabet's short story, "The Boy Who Set the Fire."
LibraryThing member MichaelC.Oliveira
Abdeslam, "Lemon" leaves his family after a new teacher arrives at his school. The bright and rebellious youth finds a home with Bachir, a dock worker, Bachir drinks alcohol and frequents prostitutes. The writing at the beginning of the book is choppy with many short sentences, as Abdeslam matures
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so does the writing. Overall an interesting look at how a child sees the conflicts between Western and Islamic cultures. Show Less
ISBN
072064884X / 9780720648843