Faïza Guène is the voice of a new generations of writers writing in French, allowing the identities to permeate irreverently the unique discourse dictated by the elites. The counter-discourse of authors like her challenges the rhetoric aimed at imposing the definition of the ´good citizen´.
Guène´s Discretion was my first encounter with the work of this author, who started to publish from a very early age. In comparison, Kiffe Kiffe Demain is more direct and less elaborate, nevertheless echoing the France of the suburbs, through the eyes of Doria, 12 years old Muslim girl living in the suburbs of Paris.
Her mother is illiterate, but working hard to learn how to read and therefore find a better paid job. The father went back to Morocoo and married a woman that can give him a child, preferably a boy. The neighbours do equally have stories to tell: one is enjoying the 6 months during which her husband is spending time to the other wife, in the home country; there are potential matches she is trying to find for her mother and boys ending up in prison.
In Arabic, kif-kif means ´same old´, but the title is less pessimistic as we might expect. Instead, Doria´s voice - very well represented - is a focus on the life as it is. No ´French dream´ or immigrant´s sadness. A teenage girl can see the world through the ´quartier´ where she is living, without expectations therefore without disappointment. It´s a humorous take on life that I love. After all, isn´t the life short enough to cry about its shortcomings?
Her matter-of-factly attitude and the hilarious way of sharing her everyday story leaves you with a big smile on your face, while introducing to the reader a world as any other world. The stories though are part of an ambiance and of a context, and their unicity resides in the story themselves.
Rating: 4.5 stars
