Leïla Marouane: La Vie Sexuelle d´un Islamiste à Paris

 

I am delighted to spend part of my summer in company of French and non-English books and authors. But although I have no limits in the topics and genres I am keeping myself busy with, books written with a good dosis of irony and humour are usually lacking from my TBR. Hence, my highest gratitude when I am happy enough to get to read books like La Vie Sexuelle d´un Islamiste à Paris - translated as The Sexual Life of an Islamist in Paris - by  Tunesian-born French Algerian author Leïla Marouane.

I´ve featured several times in the last years books on Algerian topics, by Algerian authors, but I am very far from being really knowledgeable in both subjects. The more I read the more I want to discover more.

Marouane´s character, Mohamed ben Mokhtar, who ´whitened´ his name to a purely French-sounding one, is successful, almost 40, never married, still a virgin, trying to emancipate from his traditional mother, by moving secretly from Saint-Ouen - between Saint Denis and Montmartre - to Paris. While drinking his whiskey - to fall asleep faster, obviously - he has erotic dreams and expectations, mostly failed in real life. The girls of - mostly - Algerian origin he is getting to know during his revolt are emancipated or behave cryptic enough to not leave him any hope. 

Hilarious and ironic, it ends in a charade, keeping the reader intensively curious to figure out what really may have happened to Mohamed. What always impress me and made me think a lot about it is how the question of identity is so drama-free humorously approaches in the French-speaking realm, in a much more ludic way compared to the German literature. Humour is not degrading a topic, it only wraps it in a carefree package. But it can be done when and if you feel at home in all your identities, with no fear or worries that once you are scratching the wounds, you will get infected.

Personally, I am looking forward to explore more French authors and their lightness in declaiming loud with a big smile on their face, the big failures and prejudices of the society they live in.

Rating: 3 stars