Secret Son by Laila Lalami – Book Review
Debut Novel by the Author of Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits
Apr 22, 2009 Christine Benlafquih
With her debut novel Secret Son, author Laila Lalami skillfully pulls readers into the divergent reality of modern day Morocco. It's a corner of the world marked by contrasts – at once rich and poor, educated and illiterate, modern and traditional, promising and hopeless.
Rising Above Poverty
Secret Son tells the story of Youssef el-Mekki, a Moroccan boy on the brink of manhood. Raised in poverty by his mother, Youssef is intent on earning a college degree which will enable him to escape the Casablanca slum where he lives.
Youssef’s plans change when he discovers that the father he thought was dead is not only alive, but that he’s a wealthy and prominent businessman. Youssef can’t resist meeting him, and his father is surprisingly receptive to establishing a relationship with the son he never knew existed. He lures Youssef away from the dirty slum and into his affluent world, and for a time Youssef seems destined for a bright future.
Vulnerability to Extremism
Those hopes are dashed when Youssef is forced to return to the trash-filled streets of the slum. It’s while trying to come to terms with his change of fate that Youssef finds comfort in the company of an Islamic group that has set up offices near his home.
Social Divides in Moroccan Society
With unadorned prose that reads quickly, Lalami doesn't just tell a good story, she paints poignant pictures of Moroccan reality. Descriptions of the slum where Youssef lives, for example, are notable not so much for the visual images they conjure – smelly trash, leaky roofs, cramped spaces – but for the hopelessness and bleak future they represent. Lalami's strategic use of some Moroccan words adds flavor and authenticity to her story's setting.
Lalami’s characters convincingly conform to the unwritten norms of Moroccan society. Class divisions are rooted in ethnicity and income, and religious and language divides persist long after French colonialism ended. The illiterate fare worse than the educated, and the educated discover that Moroccan degrees are of little value without connections.
In a society rife with such uneven handedness, Lalami shows that poor young men dutifully accept their fate. Those that rebel or try to rise above their circumstances discover that the line between right and wrong is painfully blurred.
Imbalanced Portrayal of Moroccan Muslims
Although Secret Son is not about religion, Lalami passed on the opportunity to give balance to her portrayal of Moroccans. Morocco's population is more than 90 percent Muslim, yet the reader encounters only non-observant Muslims or those at the other end of the spectrum – extremists. The introduction of a moral character who observes prayers or Islamic dress would have added accurate depth to Lalami’s depiction of Morocco.
About Laila Lalami
Born and raised in Morocco, Laila Lalami is also the author of the critically acclaimed short story collection, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (Algonquin Books 2005). In 2007 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, and she was recently named a Young Global Leader 2009 by the World Economic Forum. Lalami has been living in the U.S. since 1992, when she attended the University of Southern California to pursue a Ph.D. in linguistics.
Secret Son is compellingly good fiction. The story reveals the complexities of modern day Morocco, and enables readers to ponder these issues rather than wonder. Lalami's writing and storytelling are all the more remarkable when one considers that English is Lalami's third language and not her mother tongue.
Title: Secret Son
Author: Laila Lalami
Hardback: 291 pages
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Date Published: April 21, 2009
ISBN-13: 978-1-56512-494-3
Secret Son by Laila Lalami
|
What do you think about this article?
More in Reading & Literature
Latest Articles