عبقرية البساطة بجد
الحدث اليومي المعتاد عندما يتحول لمادة شيقة ساخرة تصلح للكتابة
أتمني أن يكون لفايزة جن مؤلَفَات أُخري
ندمت اني أنتهيت منه سريعا

Heard about this book and this writer at a conference I attended recently. It sounded like, and turns out it's true that, Guene is inserting into a western literature a much needed new voice. Specifically the voice of the younger, urban, immigrant underclass just surviving in and around Paris. Doria, the adolescent protagonist of the novel, is a young woman of Algerian descent living with her mother in the projects just outside of Paris. (The father has abandoned the family.) Like any adolescent she's fiercely embittered (think Holden Caulfield) and decidedly outspoken, also very very cynical about the adults in her life, perhaps most so about the adults--teachers, social workers--who claim to want to help her and her mother. To be honest, the book struck me as mostly a study in voice. And there sure is a strong one carrying it all the way through. It was harder to discern the arc of a narrative, although one is there, and it becomes more clear the closer one gets to the end. I can't say I adored this book--it has some glaring weaknesses as a novel--but I sure am glad I read it. I would recommend it to others.

In livre léger et drôle qui raconte de manière simple la vie d’une jeune adolescente vivant en cité. Cela dit rien de transcendant mais j’ai hâte de lire kiffe kiffe hier qui vient de sortir !

The main character's jocular contempt for her situation (suddenly fatherless and adrift in a Paris banlieue) reminded me of the protagonist from Murakami's Rat trilogy. A delight.

3.5 ⭐️ grappig boekje, en toch vol met wijze uitspraken!

4.5 stars. Like a lot of French students, I had to read this book in high school. I picked it up this summer to reread so I could practice my French. It’s a great book for high school students—super funny and super relatable. With Doria, Faïza Guène has created such a realistic, vibrant teen character. One of the most important things I look for in a book is a character’s voice. Here, Doria’s voice clearly shines through. She is funny and sarcastic and cynical and dreamy and just the tiniest bit insecure. She is cognizant of the ways in which her life is unfair because of her class and gender, and she sees right through other people’s bullshit. However, her humor keeps the book afloat.

This is a good book for intermediate French students who want to stretch themselves. While there was a lot of vocabulary that I had to look up, I could read most of it and understand it. In addition, it’s a great resource for learning how ordinary French people speak. Guène includes a lot of slang (both French and Arabic). She also includes a lot of idioms and writes in an informal style that mirrors French speaking patterns. I would also recommend the English translation if you can’t/don’t want to read the French version.

J'aimais bien ce livre. Faïza Guène est écrivaine avec plein d'esprit et douée. Son histoire est pure, qui le fait une bonne lecture. J'aimais spécialement la representation brute de la banlieue - un lieu en Paris qui est normalement généralisé comme pauvre et louche - qui était peint plus charmant. C'est une vraie représentation qu'on doit apprécier!

Citaat : Vaak zegt hij gedichten van Arthur Rimbaud voor me op. Wat hij zich er kan van herinneren tenminste, want de shit vreet wel je geheugen weg. Maar als hij dan zo aan het voordragen is met dat schoffiesaccent en die gebaren van ‘m, dan vind ik het geweldig, ook al snap ik niet veel van de tekst.
Review : Kiffe Kiffe Demain, het debuut van de negentienjarige Frans–Algerijnse Faiza Guène, werd bij het verschijnen in 2004 door de Franse allochtone jongeren met gemengde gevoelens onthaald. Enerzijds was er de herkenbaarheid, anderzijds het onbehagen omwille van de herkenbaarheid. De literaire recensenten waren echter dermate lovend dat het boek in een mum van tijd een bestseller werd.

De kansarme Doria uit een Parijse voorstad werd op mum van tijd een antiheldin.



Doria is veertien. Haar Marokkaanse vader heeft haar Algerijnse moeder verlaten om bij een jongere vrouw een zoon te verwekken. Alles heeft zijn voor- en nadelen. En uiteindelijk vindt ze dat zowel zij als haar moeder zonder de tirannie van de afwezige vader beter af zijn. In haar armoedig bestaan waarin het morgen kifkif is, met andere woorden dezelfde ellende, wordt ook wel zon gebracht door een drugsdealende poëzieminnaar en een puberale medestudent die haar bijles geeft en ook meteen haar eerste kus.



Morgen kifkif is een zalig boek dat zowel doet schaterlachen als tot nadenken stemt.

De 15 jarige Doria is de dochter van een Marrokaanse vader en een Algerijnse moeder en woont in één van de Parijse banlieues. Als haar vader er op een dag vandoor gaat - naar Marokko en naar een nieuwe, jongere vrouw - blijft ze samen met haar moeder alleen achter.

Hartverwarmend boekje over het dagelijkse leven van een puber met allochtone roots in een cité.
Sommige scènes geven de typische problematiek de jongeren in de Parijse voorsteden weer, maar andere dingen zijn dan weer zo universeel en zo tijdloos dat ze ook voor mij heel herkenbaar waren.

Het debuut (2004) van de toen 19 jarige Faïza Guène, zelf van Frans-Algerijnse origine.

Heel graag gelezen.

What a little gem of a book. This was published adult but has mega YA appeal, as it's about a 15-year-old girl growing up in the projects about half an hour from Paris. She's dealing with her father ditching her and her mother, who is illiterate, as he heads back to Morocco in order to attempt marrying a woman who can sire him a son (that's all that matters in his culture). It deals with urban issues in a way that's cross-cultural, about the challenges of growing up between cultures, and what it means to figure out who you are and what you do when your world's been blown apart. It also looks at what happens when the people you've come to know and rely on for certain things -- their always being there, their always NOT being there -- change and mold into their own lives and new paths, too.

Doria's voice is amazing. It reminded me a lot of what Blake Nelson does with his characters. They're funny, but they're also deeply hurting and that hurt comes in those really funny moments, making them even more searing. Doria's also not one of those girls who is a miracle, and I think that's what made it resonate so much. She's NOT good at school and she doesn't care. But it doesn't at all make her worthless or driftless. She's 15 and just trying to figure it out as best she can. Even when the school reassigns her to a trade she doesn't care about, Doria's actions and reactions are real and authentic to who she was.

A couple of choice lines:

"Always keep a little hope and don't be scared of losing."

"I wonder why they're called wisdom teeth. The more they grow, the more things you learn? Me, I've learned that it hurts to learn."

Incredible character and her journey as she comes to understand a life without her father.

I’ve always been fascinated by the power of voice in fiction. The way a narrator tells the story can draw me in or push me away.

It's not just about the words they use but the perspective they bring, the attitude they have toward the story they're telling—their quirks, their honesty, and the way they see the world.

A strong voice makes me feel like I’m sitting across from someone with a story to tell, and that connection is what keeps me turning the pages.

It's not surprising then that when I first read Faïa Guène’s Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow, it was Doria’s voice that pulled me in. Her raw, unfiltered perspective gave life to the Paris projects in a way no omniscient narrator ever could.

Years later, I’m still thinking about how Guène’s choices taught me that voice isn’t just about how a character speaks—it’s how they invite us into their world. So I re-read the book, and I love what it's teaching me as a writer....

Want to read more? Click here and keep reading!