Laila Lalami

Fouad Laroui’s brief column for this week’s Jeune Afrique is about Dutch-Moroccan novelist Abdelkader Benali’s recent experiences in Morocco, which he was visiting for the Casablanca Book Fair. A few cross-cultural surprises for Benali, such as

Il faut savoir qu’en Hollande les gens ne se font jamais la bise. On ne se serre même pas la main. On se dit « Hi » à bonne distance. Et voilà notre Abdelkader assailli de poutous par des gens qu’il ne connaît que très vaguement. Bonjour, smac-smac ! Bienvenue à Casa, smac-smac ! Tu te souviens de moi, on s’est croisés il y a deux ans ? Smac-smac ! Abdelkader veut bien qu’on l’appelle par son prénom, et même qu’on l’appelle Mohammed, mais qu’on l’embrasse à tout bout de champ, non, ça, ça lui semble étrange.

Benali’s first novel, Bruiloft Aaan Zee, was translated into English as Wedding by the Sea. Check it out.

A few days ago, Stephen Colbert asked Congressman Lynn Westmoreland, the lawmaker who sponsored a bill that would make it possible to display the Ten Commandments in courthouses, to name those same commandments:

Stephen Colbert: What are the Ten Commandments?
Lynn Westmoreland: What are all of them?
SC: Yes.
LW: You want me to name them all?
SC: Yes.
LW: Uh. Don’t murder. Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Uh. I can’t name them all.

Watch the response here. Hilarious.

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The Guardian reprints its original (1924) review of E.M. Forster’s A Passage To India. Quaint.

Over at the New York Times, Laurie Goldstein profiles two increasingly prominent Muslim figures in America, Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir, both of them American converts to Islam. It’s an interesting piece. Hamza Yusuf comes across as someone who is still maturing in his philosophy and finding his way. And I can see why Zaid Shakir would appeal to young kids.

But when you get to the end of the piece you find this little nugget of wisdom from the young Imam Shakir:

[Imam Zaid Shakir] said he still hoped that one day the United States would be a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law, “not by violent means, but by persuasion.”

“Every Muslim who is honest would say, I would like to see America become a Muslim country,” he said. “I think it would help people, and if I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t be a Muslim. Because Islam helped me as a person, and it’s helped a lot of people in my community.”

It drives me absolutely up the wall when people say things like “every Muslim [fill in blank].” Will people please, please, quit talking for everyone? And I don’t care if it’s an imam or if it’s one of those ubiquitous “experts on Islam” who say they know what the rest of us think. Look, I’m Muslim, and I don’t want America to be a Muslim country–or any kind of a religious country, for that matter.

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For some time now, I’ve been looking for an English-language edition of Mohammed Choukri’s For Bread Alone, translated by Paul Bowles, but the book is out of print and used copies are very hard to find. First editions are ridiculously expensive. Given the state of fiction in translation in the U.S., I am not holding my breath for an American edition sometime in the future, either.

Luckily for those of you who would like to finally get your hands on this seminal Moroccan novel, Telegram Books in the UK is re-issuing it this month, so I’ll be sure to pick up a copy when I’m in London in July. You can also get it on Amazon.co.uk. You’d better get a copy and read it, or you are dead to me.

Ron Charles, writing in the Washington Post, is not particularly taken with Monica Ali’s new novel, Alentejo Blue.

Monica Ali’s debut, the sensitive, subtly witty Brick Lane , was one of the best novels of 2003. Now, with Alentejo Blue , she’s produced one of the best books of 1926. This spare, unrelentingly depressing story about several lost generations might have delighted Gertrude Stein and made Hemingway green with envy, but whether readers will want to subject themselves to it now seems doubtful. Searching for this title online, don’t be surprised if you get a pop-up ad for Prozac.

Other reviewers appear to agree. I’m really disappointed, but let’s face it, I’ll probably pick up the book and give it a try anyway.

If you’re wondering what to take the beach: The Guardian asked Monica Ali, John Banville, A.S. Byatt, Dave Eggers, Francis Fukuyama, Kazuo Ishiguro, HIlary Mantel, Pankaj Mishra, Audrey Niffenegger, Orhan Pamuk, Sarah Waters, and many many others about their summer reading lists.

Audience: About 35.
Anxiety index: 1 (out of 10).
Surprise guest(s): DC blogger Natasha Tynes. Author John Kropf.
No. of Moroccans who said hello: 8.
Book given away: None. (I forgot to pack one!)

My trip to our nation’s capital last week was my very first, but for some reason I wasn’t nervous at all about my reading. The weather was great, the turnout was excellent, and, even better, the audience was really engaged. I asked people what they wanted me to read. They suggested “The Fanatic,” and I was happy to oblige, especially because it’s not a piece I read from very often, since it’s pretty long. In any case, the reading went very well. Some questions I was asked: Where will your book be published? (Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Brazil.) Has your book been translated into Arabic? (No.) Do you want to translate it into Arabic? (Of course. Though the translation that’s closest to my heart is one into Darija–Moroccan Arabic–which I’ll do myself, after I finish the novel I’m working on now.) Do you feel that when you talk about problems in Moroccan society you’re airing dirty laundry? (I understand that concern, particularly given the vicious images we see reflected back at us from the media. But as a writer I have to do what feels true to the characters I create. I hope the world in the book is complete enough and plausible enough that it will ring true to the reader.) Do you want to write non-fiction? (Yes. Maybe. But fiction is my first love.)

During the signing period, I got to talk to several people, some of whom had been to Morocco, and I wanted to mention in particular one guy who served in the Navy a few years ago. He was on deck when his ship passed through the Straits of Gibraltar, and he saw some harraga being stopped by Moroccan and Spanish coast guards. I also loved meeting four college students who were interning in Washington for the summer. I have no idea how they heard about my reading, but here are some photos they posted. I signed some extra copies at the store, so if you missed the reading, here’s your chance to get them from a cool independent.

Tonight I’ll be reading from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits in Washington, DC. Here are the details:

Thursday the 15th
7:00PM
Olsson’s Books & Records — Dupont Circle
1307 19th St., NW
Washington, DC

Hope to see you there!

Alison Bechdel, whose Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is one of the best graphic memoirs I have ever read, will appear at Powell’s City of Books tonight at 7:30pm. If I were in town, I’d be there. (I take some comfort in knowing Alex will get our copy signed, but it’s just not the same.) I’ll have more to say about this book in the near future, so watch this space.