The book spans twenty years, moving from Sale, to Paris, to Cairo. Irresistibly charming, angry, and wry, this autobiographical novel traces the emergence of Abdellah Taia's identity as an openly gay Arab man living between cultures. Running is the only way he can stand up to the violence that is his Morocco. He's running after the Egyptian movie star, Souad Hosni, who's out there somewhere, miles away from this neighborhood-which is a place the teenager both loves and hates, the home at which he is not at home, an environment that will only allow him his identity through the cultural lens of shame and silence. He's running after his dream, his dream to become a movie director. A lower-class teenager is running until he's out of breath. I suddenly saw things with merciless lucidity. I had no more leniency when it came to the Arab world. And there I was, right in the heart of the Arab world, a world that never tired of making the same mistakes over and over. An autobiographical portrait of a gay Arab man, living between cultures, seeking an identity through love and writing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |