The New York Times gave the novel a moderately good review saying that " Secret Son is a nuanced depiction of the roots of Islamic terrorism, written by someone who intimately knows one of the stratified societies where it grows" but "Her English prose, although clean and closely observed, lacks music, and her similes can be predictable". Lalami chose to write the novel in her third language: English, choosing not to use her first two languages: French and Arabic. Lalamis second book, the novel Secret Son (2009), is a coming-of-age story set in the slums of Casablanca. Critic Steven Salaita compared the novel to Anouar Majid's Si Yussef. Like other Arab-American novels, it focuses on themes related to class, gender, religion, migration/immigration and cultural conflict, with a particular emphasis on the cultural conflict that leads to radicalization of terrorists. The novel is a bildungsroman that follows its main character, a Muslim youth named Youssef El Mekki, as he comes of age in the Casablanca slums. Laila Lalami was born in Rabat and educated in Morocco, Great Britain, and the United States. Secret Son is the 2009 novel by Moroccan-American writer Laila Lalami.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |