Middle East/North African Lit discussion

I am delighted to open this thread for discussing Mhani Alaoui's books. Mhani Alaoui is Moroccan, and teaches in Casablanca. She has two novels. Dreams of Maryam Tair: Blue Boots and Orange Blossoms, her first book, is filled with magical realism/myth to reimagine contemporary Moroccan history. Her latest novel, Aya Dane, tells the story of a talented young artist who faces a mysterious challenge. This second book opens in Boston, and raises questions for the reader from the very beginning!

I'm reading BOTH books, and as you can see, I've created just one thread for discussing Mhani Alaoui's work. However, if the discussion outgrows this thread, we can create separate discussions for the two books (and special spoiler threads if we want to discuss endings or plot points without spoiling them for others who have not read them yet.)

Thanks to Interlink Books for donating a copy of each book for a Giveaway earlier this year. Happy summer reading!

I found a helpful review of Aya Dane on the Woven Tale Press, January 1, 2019. Sorry I can’t figure how to link this article.

I loved Dreams of Maryam Tair: Blue Boots and Orange Blossoms, so immediately ordered Aya Dane. I have a copy and hope to start next week or as soon as I finish what I am reading now!

I started Aya Dane this morning! It’s very atmospheric, but completely different from Maryam Tair.
I am looking forward to delving deeper into this story!

Christina, we're in the process of getting the blurb added to Aya Dane. Thanks for the suggestion! I'm also looking forward to your thoughts on Maryam Tair later.

Jalilah, I'm glad you enjoyed Maryam Tair. I'm also still reading Aya Dane. It is impressive how different the books are, and yet they share Mhani Alaoui's writing style: careful, expressive, feeling. Descriptions are effective, but always concise. The reader gets to know the characters inside and out as the story unfolds.

Here is the link to the review of Aya Dane that Nan mentioned:
https://www.thewoventalepress.net/201...

The Aya Dane description is now updated :)

Melanie wrote: "The Aya Dane description is now updated :)"

Does anyone else find similarities between the characters Aya and Maryam? Both are lonely children who do not fit in anywhere. Otherwise the novels are very different.

I loved Dreams of Maryam Tair, but disappointed by Aya Dane.
Here is my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I hid the spoiler which explains some of the reason I felt let down, so better not read it ( the spoiler) if you haven't finished the book.

Jalilah, thanks for both of your comments. I've finished reading Aya Dane, and have been gathering my thoughts. I totally understand your criticism, and I share it, but I've tried to find valuable contributions in the book anyway. Here's my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I'm reading Dreams of Maryam Tair: Blue Boots and Orange Blossoms next! (And Jalilah, I think it will be favorite of them too.) I'm curious if others will disagree though. This group often surprises me on the diversity of its opinions and preferences!

For comparing the two books, I've started a list of similarities between them. I plan to post it after I finish Dreams of Maryam Tair.

To everyone involved / interested in this discussion, please consider helping to brainstorm questions for the author. The publisher (Interlink) has graciously offered to send on about 5 questions from us to Mhani Alaoui, and return her responses to us. What would you ask? Something about the inspiration for 1 or both books? About her writing process? About what she's working on next?...Keep this in mind while you're reading, and post your ideas here! Hopefully I'll have enough questions to send them to the publisher on August 1st. Thank you for participating!

When I first started reading this book I thought hum, ok, interesting enough. And then I read the description of making tea and I thought gasp I love the language. I can see her making the tea. I’ll keep reading hoping to find more beautiful descriptions. And I did find many places where I thought how does she know how to describe situations, things like this.

I haven’t yet read her other book, but it’s on my list for sure.

I'm on page 65 of Aya Dane and I don't know if I will continue. The character of Aya has all the possible stigmas but the author didn't have enough with it and on top of that she created a character that rejoices in the victimhood and I can't deal with it. I have read Jalilah's spoiler, I couldn't resist, and keeping that in mind, I still can't find justification for certain passages. Then there are the forced images that follow each other as Ari's letter constantly appearing before her, the art book lying on the carpeted floor of the library... It is pathetic, there are ways to create signals in a less forced and exaggerated way.
On the other hand I am tired of the stigma that always represents the East as oppression, old and the West as liberation, modernity, this appears among the comments of critics of Aya's work as well as on page 45, art critics words "Arab women searching for herself", later "distrust of the foreigner", "the fear of she who is different". Page 55 towards the end when Aya asks David how his friends see her and begin to mention issues made up of all possible stigmas... this book doesn't lack a single cliché.
In general, I love the stories of women alone in exile, fiction or real, maybe because I am one of them and I thought I would like this book because I also assumed that the union with the art world would make it wonderful, but I'm going turning pages and the anger is invading me.

Nan, yes! I think the author has lovely descriptions. And Kenza, yes, there is a disturbing binary of E. Oppression vs W. Liberation. I think the author may believe she has transcended it, but I agree with you that it’s still there. I’m curious what you would both ask the author if you met her in a coffee shop for instance...

Kenza wrote: "I'm on page 65 of Aya Dane and I don't know if I will continue. The character of Aya has all the possible stigmas but the author didn't have enough with it and on top of that she created a characte..."

So sorry if my review spoiled it for you! That's why I hid the part that's a spoiler. I'm like that too, tempted to read spoilers.

Jalilah wrote: "Kenza wrote: "I'm on page 65 of Aya Dane and I don't know if I will continue. The character of Aya has all the possible stigmas but the author didn't have enough with it and on top of that she crea..."<

Please! it was my fault, I couldn't resist the temptation!

Melanie wrote: "To everyone involved / interested in this discussion, please consider helping to brainstorm questions for the author. The publisher (Interlink) has graciously offered to send on about 5 questions f..."

I’m woundering where your inspiration for Aya came from. Is her character based on women you met during your research while in school?
Thanks for your novel.

Melanie wrote: "Jalilah, thanks for both of your comments. I've finished reading Aya Dane, and have been gathering my thoughts. I totally understand your criticism, and I share it, but I've tried to find valuable ..."

Yay, thank you Nan for providing the first question! We can ask about five. Any more? I’m planning to send them in a week.

Thank you for the questions! I’ll hope to send the questions at the end of this week...

I really enjoyed Dreams of Maryam Tair, but haven't got my hands on Aya Dane yet. It's on my list for a soon-to-read...but my list is so very long it seems it grows and grows no matter how much progress I make....haha. I've been skipping the spoilers and reviews so I can read Aya Dane with an open mind.

It will be so interesting to hear the replies from Ms. Alaoui to the questions.

I finally finished reading this book. There is so much in it, that it just refused to be rushed! My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I'll post my list of similarities between Aya Dane and Dreams of Maryam Tair later. And I'll keep you posted about the author Q&A...

Similarities in Aya Dane and Dreams of Maryam Tair: Blue Boots and Orange Blossoms:
- female hero secluded/alone, walks her own path
- absentee fathers
- violence against women (including sexual)
- poverty
- religion in extremism and authoritative infrastructure
- madness of female characters
- a wise/humorous woman character
- conflicts of interest that can pull parents' attention away from/toward their children
- hope and beauty in nature/art, and in agents of goodness (whether supernatural beings, as in Dreams, or the "nondescript" teacher in Aya Dane, "whose determination was a thing of heaven, something akin to the work of angels")

These are themes that I see running through Mhani Alaoui's work so far. I've sent off our questions for her to the publisher, and I'll post any responses here. Thanks for participating in this discussion :)