God ; A masterpiece this is the least word I can use to name this book.First , This is my first time I read to Tahar Ben Jelloun and I did really appreciate it alot. Knowing that we , as moroccans, have got such shrewd and prolific writers makes one feel some kind of relieve and pride.I did really like the book; the title, the characters, the events , the way the writer tells us about his private life with his friend ..etcHe, The writer, chooses very provoking topics to deal with, such as ; sex, religion, cheating, bribery, freedom, democracy and so on...These issues were taboos at that time : but he dared and devoted his whole book to discuss them and to not cast aside everything that unfold the truth of our beloved country.I liked him for being sincere ; even if his language is a bit rude ( he could have used euphemism for words that are a bit rude ) , but we are not insulators and the writer has done what he saw is going to suit both his style and at the same time represents reality as it is .Moroccans ,as been represented in the book, have perverted personalities; they do things , but they don't admit it. Either they lie to themselves or lie to themselves which is just the same thing. Tahar for me was a man who dared to reveal the truth the whole moroccans deny.He made it clear that morocco is a country which is full of contradictory realities. It is a country where you can find so many split-personalities, self-contained and self-interested people, where you can find people who do very diminutive deeds and make them appear bigger, people who cheat their wives and act like they are angels , people who are only concerned with silly life matters, people who fear change , people who talk about freedom and democracy while they don't know the real meaning of the words.This book has given me so many ideas and so many wry expressions that I would carry the rest of my life. Not because I don't know my country , but because I was one of those , or still I am , who relished life as it is and never asked questions and because I am just like Tahar and Mammed ;self- absorbed and unwilling to acquiesce that's why the scars of the book will remain forever...Moreover; What I liked in this book too; is the relationship between the two friends, the writer and his friend Mammed; I envied him because he could find a real friend which is just the rare thing that happens nowadays . In a nutshell, that's life , that's humanity and that's morocco !But, Well, I am like the writer , besides everything I love this wretched country !
4.5 Tangiers, 1950's and Ali and Mamet meet at school for the first time. Although they are very different they become fast friends, a friendship that will last thirty years. They separate when they go to different colleges, Mamet wants to be a doctor and Ali studies film, but they meet in the summers back in Tangiers. Their friendship, will be forever cemented when they are picked up for subversive activities, sent to a work camp, where they will labor for 18 months. This is a novel about a remarkable friendship. When I first started reading I thought this might be another book about boys acting badly, sexual scenes and thoughts, drinking etc. The setting of Morocco kept me reading, I had not read many books set there before. So glad I did because this book is so much more. The culture, the politics of the country, the medical situation in both Morocco and Sweden, marriage and infidelity and ultimately a staged betrayal. But who was the betrayer and what was the reason behind it?We hear from Ali, and then Mamet and finally Ramon, a friend of theirs that they had kept in contact with from their school days. He does play a integral part of this story. This turned into a very emotional read for me, what a wonderful journey it was. The extra half star is for the last paragraph of the book, it summed it all up perfectly and left me teary eyed.
What do You think about The Last Friend (2006)?
Maybe I just don´t like reading books that are told from a male perspective, who knows? Though the theme of friendship and forgiveness are universal, I had a hard time relating to this book and found the story and the writing rather rushed.
—Amber
" Parce que vous êtes "le plus suggestif de tous les peintres", je pense pouvoir vous faire revenir au Maroc par la magie du verbe. Je vous imagine en ce début d'année 1832, jeune homme élégant et réservé, quitter votre atelier de la rue des Fossés-Saint-Germain, laissant derrière vous une lumière retenue, empêchée par un ciel gris et bas d'éclater, une lumière brève et faible à laquelle les Parisiens finissent par s'habituer. Vous sortez de ce quartier et vous vous trouvez, quelques jours après, inondé par une lumière si vive, si pleine et même brutale que vous subissez un choc. Vous êtes à la fris en Méditerranée et face à l'océan Atlantique ". Tahar Ben Jelloun rend hommage à Eugène Delacroix, converti à la lumière lors de son voyage en Afrique du Nord. Mais au-delà du peintre génial, c'est la beauté de tout un pays qu'il célèbre : celle du Maroc.
—Mazel
I heard Ben Jelloun speak at the opening of the Berlin Writers' Festival last year, but I had never read him. I read this novel as an introduction to him. It's a simple, early novel, nothing groundbreaking. However, I found it interesting to read a novel about young Moroccan men growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. With the usual bullshit bravado of young men, they navigated a dangerous repressive regime, a shifting moral code in their relations with women, difficulty finding a professional future and maintaining their ties of amity. I found the premise that created the conflict a little unbelievable, though. An apercu of a world I couldn't know otherwise. I plan to read more Ben Jelloun in future.
—Carolyn
