Hope And Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005) - Plot & Excerpts
Laila Lalami's debut Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits is an exquisitely written linked collection. I know Laila from her blog. So I know this is her first book and I know the steps she has taken to get here, but even so, as I read this book, it was difficult to believe that it was a debut. The writing, to me, seems incredibly seasoned--clean, efficient, evocative. Essentially, I forgot that this was Laila writing within the first few words and, instead, fell into the world as it was written. The protagonists of these stories are Moroccans looking for a different (I would say better life but I'm not sure that's true--many of them, though anxious to get across the Strait of Gibraltar, are fearful of what life on the other side will hold) life in Spain. Ironically, the one person who actually makes it without being deported back to Morocco, does so at great personal expense. She makes her living as a protitute, leaving behind her morals and beliefs. She is, essentially, lost. My favorite character is Halima, who tries to leave Morocco in order to save herself and her children from her husband. Instead, she almost loses everything, except that her young son saves the family from drowning in the frigid waters. It is because of this that she believes he may be special, but the truth is that it is she and her enduring hope which make her the special one--the survivor, the saint. The book ends with another favorite character, Murad, the scholar, the writer. It is from him, the storyteller, that we learn the essence of this book: His father started every story with "Kan, ya ma kan," "Once there was and there was not." The timeless opening line was fitting, it seemed to him, to the state he found himself in now, unable to ascertain whether the tales he remembered were real or figments of his imagination. It is that sense of rebirth, creation, crawling from the water into a new world that proves itself unreal, only to be sent back and to begin again--to forget and to remember, but to always be present and to always hope, no matter what the consequences. And what we learn is that this book is not only about Moroccans looking to escape to a different life, but about all of us who have hopes, who wish to overcome. It is universal. A beautiful debut. Read it.
Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits opens with a group of Moroccans attempting to cross the Strait of Gibraltar on an overloaded inflatable zodiac to find better lives and economic opportunity in Spain. In a blend of short stories and cohesive narrative, Lalami examines the lives of four of these hopeful immigrants, looking both at what drove them to make the attempt, and what happens to their lives afterwards. She touches on Western tourism to Morocco, gender relations, radical Islam, and governmental corruption in Morocco. While the stories are interesting and well-written, there was something intangible missing from this collection. I was reminded of Joyce's Dubliners, also a short story collection about people whose only commonality is their city; while Joyce manages to evoke a sense of love for Dublin that transcends the terrible situations his characters face, Lalami does not idealize or even personalize Morocco. These characters are sad and lonely and struggling, but they have no redeeming loyalty to their country. Perhaps this is the difference between writing about people stuck in a Westernized nation and people who long to be in a Westernized nation. Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits was the first of several books I'm reading prior to my trip to Morocco and Spain this summer. It was interesting to me because I want to know more about the country, but I do not know that I would recommend it to a casual reader. I also did some brief research on the frequency of immigration from Morocco to Spain, and found an interesting article saying that with Spain's recent economic crisis, the immigration flow has reversed and now Spaniards are immigrating to Morocco to find economic opportunity, which would be akin to Americans going to Mexico to find jobs.
What do You think about Hope And Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005)?
"Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits" provides a window on a different world. It is a finely crafted book written by a woman who takes both her literature and her homeland seriously. You have to care about Morocco and you have to care about the plight that millions of people in the Third World endure to care about this book also - and you should. "Hope" provides us with a insider's understanding of how countries battling with the onslaught of Western modernity - the aspirations it inflames and the limitations it imposes - transform and mutate in ways independent of governmental policy and intention. It personalizes the headlines one sees about immigrants killed in their efforts to reach "the world" (in this case Spain, but probably relevant to Haitians hoping to reach Florida). This is what literature does better than anything else, creates characters through which we can actually "live" the meaning of news reports and Ms. Lalami achieves it with this book. It fascinatingly details the battle (and the embracing) of sectarian Muslim thought in the Middle East and North Africa: the religiously pure and doctrinaire Faten exercises a death grip on a westernized middle-class friend only to be chased from her country to Spain, where she becomes a prostitute fulfilling the Arab Harem fantasies of Spanish johns. The men in "Hope" struggle with a loss of identity and roots as they ponder the difficult launch northward and into the industrial world. They struggle with imposed, idle lives of quiet desperation and apply their good, but inapplicable, educations to piquant and humorous observations of tourists in search of a Morocco that can only be found in books or with the help of a guide adept at moving aside the cobwebs of the past. All in all, easy to read and engaging.
—Stephen
Although this book was written 10 years ago, it remains timely in that it illustrates the problems that are still being faced by people trying to cross the Mediterranean in sub-standard boats in order to leave their home countries in Africa and get to what they hope is a better life in Europe. The immigrants in this particular book are fleeing Morocco for Spain. Cleverly structured, the book takes us on that journey in part 1 and we meet some of the people making that dangerous crossing. Part 2 gives us the backstory of four of the people and we learn why they have taken this desperate measure; part 3 meets up with those same people a few years after the crossing. The characters are varied - an abused wife, an educated man who cannot find employment commensurate with his skills, a husband who leaves his wife behind, and a young religious woman whose only crime was to discuss her religious beliefs with the daughter of a powerful man. A short work, but nicely done and beautifully written.
—Candice
Heartbreaking and heart-lifting stories about humans who take huge risks to emigrate from Morocco to Spain across the Strait of Gibralter - fourteen kilometers to what they hope will be a better life. They do this to save themselves economically, spiritually and physically. They risk death or capture or exploitation in desperate attempt to escape harm they and their families have suffered. Some of them find their lives turned completely upside down and some of them find themselves. If you want to gain a truer understanding of why people cross borders, this book will give it to you.
—Sandy
