I spent much of last night reading My Men, by Malika Mokeddem, a book that the University of Nebraska Press will publish this fall. I only picked this book up because I thought I should do a better job of reading our translation titles – it’s not something I would have read if I didn’t work here. But very quickly, I was completely sucked in.
Malika Mokeddem grew up in Algeria, a place where boys are so favored over girls that Mokeddem’s father referred to his sons as “my sons” and his daughters as belonging only to his wife. Mokeddem was one of very few girls who continued her schooling beyond elementary school, something she was able to do because of her own strong will and because of the efforts of a doctor, a bus driver, a photographer and several teachers who recognized her ability and her drive (many are men she writes about in this book).
Mokeddem left her village for college in an Algerian city, and after that, escaped to France, where she has lived most of her life since. She became first doctor, then a writer. She had all sorts of love affairs (which would have been nearly impossible and certainly very dangerous in her native Algeria). In this book she describes men who shaped her, angered her, loved her and encouraged her. Also, her descriptions of living in France in the 1970s – her boyfriends, her diverse and very educated group of friends, even her clothes (there’s a great description of a pair of purple velvet overalls) – made me wish I had lived in Paris in 1978.
Anyway, watch for My Men this fall. In the meantime, the University of Nebraska Press is the publisher of two of Mokeddem’s other books, too.
Great to see this book profiled on www.bellatrista.com a website thats as good as a 'word of mouth' recommendation.
More of her work in english please.
Posted by: Claire | September 19, 2009 at 09:58 AM