Maybe closer to 4 stars.An English couple accidentally kills a young Muslim fossil seller on their way to a lavish party in a remote area of Morocco. The lavish homestead they are visiting is both fascinating and off putting in its excess and debauchery. I most enjoyed the tensions between the "Godless infidels" (westerners) and the Muslims. An examination of the assumptions Muslims and westerners make about each other, the ways in which they misunderstand each other, and how they can each feel superior to the other. Of course, in this setting, the westerners are so bacchanalian it's easy to understand the contempt they receive.Good writing and would make for an interesting discussion. My son once brought home a project he made in grade school. It was a bottle half filled with water dyed deeply blue and the other half filled with transparent baby oil. The surface between the oil and water was continuous and smooth like a mathematical surface. Gently rocked from side to side, viscous blue waves slowly rolled across an imaginary surf. Shaken, the interface became a frothy fractal of bubbles ranging from the visible down to the microscopic.Having just read Lawrence Osborne’s The Forgiven, I am reminded of this exotic interface. The novel takes place in Morocco. Somewhere north of Errichidia, is an exquisitely renovated ksour owned by two modern day, wealthy, European bohemians who are throwing a large weekend party. The ksour is staffed with Moroccans, largely young Muslim men and boys who grew up digging, prepping and selling Devonian fossils to tourists for a subsistence living. A tragedy shakes the bottle and we are momentarily allowed to explore the mix of these two cultures. One chapter near the end reminded me a bit of Andre Gide’s The Immoralist as one character seems transformed by her experience in somewhat the same fashion as Gide’s protagonist is transformed by self-discovery.
What do You think about The Forgiven (2012)?
Somewhere between a Graham Greene classic, and Ian McEwan of old. Really enjoyed it.
—deeders425
A must read from Sunday Times, May 2013
—Whose_That_Girl
