"Last week, Mme DuThingy, the social worker from city hall, came back to the house. This woman, she's really a shit-stirrer. Mom had hardly opened the door when she flashed her perfect white teeth and started up:

'Oh dear, you don't look so good...ooh la la."

If you like the fiery kind of protagonists you see in some YA novels, you will like fifteen-year old Doria. Originally from Morocco, Doria lives with her illiterate mom in the projects of France (in a North African community) a few miles from Paris. When her father leaves them and heads back to Morocco to find a woman who can give him a son, Doria and her mother must find a way to survive. Mom goes to adult literacy training, Doria tries to finish school but has some obstacles along the way. The story is clunky in places, and there were some unanswered questions, but the voice here is powerful, cheeky, and badass.

I actually really enjoyed this book for the most part. I'm not the best judge of how well written something in French is, but this was very interesting and had its beautiful moments. However, the end just lost my interest. It felt like each of the last few chapters were selecting a character arc and wrapping it up neatly, just for the sake of having everything end, even though a lot of these endings didn't really make sense to me. Some examples would be Hamoudi's engagement to Lila and Doria being declared no longer in need of therapy by her psychologist. I didn't feel like either of these had the proper build up and both felt much more like showing than telling when it came to character development.

i wanted to love this book...but i didn't. it's a novel about a teenage girl living in the projects outside paris with her mom. the cast of surrpunding characters is a motley crew of old people, immigrants, people struggling to get by. i guess maybe this is supposed to be a coming-of-age novel, as the protaganist comesover the course of the book to make some strides in having a better relationship with her mom & doing the work necessary to improve her station in life, which may not have happened if she hadn't been through some rough stuff with her criminally-minded buddies & such forth. but it was kind of like a skeleton story, without any real meat on its bones, & as such, i barely remember it, even though i read it only a couple of months ago, & even at the time, i remember feeling a little bit bored. potential...squandered. i don't know.

niestety mocno czuć, że była wydana te 20 lat temu, nie zestarzała się zbyt dobrze. poza tym strasznie infantylny styl pisania.

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

رواية لذيذة. وهل تملك إلا أن تشغف بصوت الفتاة ذات الخمسة عشر ربيعاً .. والتي تسخر من العالم وتتهكم على غبائه طوال الوقت؟

لذييييذة تذوب في دمك بسهولة :)

A book to kiffer, no kif.

Doria is a French teen, born to Moroccan immigrants. Her dad went back home because he wanted a son, and Doria's mom, Yasmina, couldn't have any more children. This leaves the mother and daughter on their own to cope with poverty, anti-immigrant sentiments, social workers, and job-hunting. For Doria there's all the usual teen stuff as well: school, boys, wearing the right clothes, or being mocked for lack thereof. It's a lot to cope with, but Doria's tough, and she and her mom will be okay. At least, she's gambling on it.

Guène, herself the child of Algerian immigrants, also grew up in the projects just outside Paris, lending Doria's experiences the ring of gritty truth. You don't have to know much about French history or culture, because Guène explains it all for you beautifully, but if you do know from the Algerian war and the current racism in the banlieues, there's an added layer here to savor.

The Arab immigrant community Doria lives in is rich with all the good and bad aspects of their culture: parties, foods, henna, yes, but also heavy restrictions on women and girls, and
homophobia to boot. Yasmina, who cannot read or write, seems helpless as things go on around her; luckily, the state pays for a lot of supports, like a therapist for Doria to talk to, and social workers who nudge Doria in directions she may not otherwise have taken, even if they are mostly phoning in their jobs. Doria rarely gets upset about anything, taking the drug dealing and carjacking that surrounds her as simply things people do to survive. She's pretty pissed at her father, though, and from time to time feels helpless in the face of her poverty.

The ending is positive and satisfying, while at the same time being realistic. The title is a wonderful play on the double meaning of some French slang, which I won't spoil for you, as it takes away from reading the book. Doria's voice is one that will resonate with many disaffected teens, and will perhaps give them perspective on their own relatively privileged situations. It's a good pick for adults who enjoy world fiction, too, though they may become a bit impatient with Doria's boy crushes after a while. All in all, Guène has delivered a great novel that makes for a quick and satisfying summer read. Recommended for medium-to-large YA collections, and adult collections where world fiction in translation is popular.

✧ l'écriture est grave vivante c'est délicieux, j'entendais vraiment sa voix dans ma tête, et puis elle est super drôle et n'épargne personne

✧ ça se lit hyper bien, j'ai adoré, trop hâte de lire le suivant, ça a du être dingue pour l'autrice de reprendre le fil d'une narration 20 ans après

Una storia per ragazzi che racconta la vita adolescenziale di Doria, la quale vive insieme alla mamma nella banlieue parigina. Entrambe sono state abbandonate dal padre, che è ritornato in Marocco, e si trovano a vivere dei momenti di difficoltà. Tra assistenti sociali, psicologi, personaggi del quartiere e compagni di scuola, si attraversa questo momento molto delicato della protagonista, fatto di delusioni, illusioni, rabbia e risentimento. Non mancano però la speranza, i sogni, il riscatto, tutti elementi che si fanno strada man mano che la storia si dispiega. La scrittura risulta semplice e scorrevole, con alcuni termini tipici sia degli adolescenti francesi sia della cultura araba di origine dei genitori di Doria. Una storia carina e di compagnia, in grado comunque di far riflettere sulla situazione di queste periferie difficili e apparentemente senza futuro.

سرد بغاية السلاسة، يحكي بصوت فتاة مغتربة مراهقة، فصول من حياتها مع أمها في الأحياء الفقيرة في فرنسا، بعد أن هجرهم والدها لأنه يريد ولدا ذكرا ولم يبد أن أمها قادرة على أن تمنحه.
تستعين الفتاة بلغة ساخرة في الحديث عن نفسها وحياتها، الاشخاص المحيطين بها، الاخصائية الاجتماعية، وتصف البيئة القاسية للمغتربين.
الفصول قصيرة، والسرد يندفع عبر الانعطافات العاطفية للفتاة والتقلبات التي تؤثر على حياة محيطها. كانت قراءة قصيرة وممتعة.

War sehr leicht und schnell wegzulegen und stellenweise hat es Spaß gemacht. Gelacht habe ich jetzt nicht, aber finde, dass es gute Schullektüre wäre, weil es sich mit verschiedenen Marginalisierungen auseinandersetzt und liebevolle Alltagsbeobachtungen verschriftlicht ohne dabei belehrend oder zu analysierend zu sein.

Wording: mich haben einige Wörter sehr aus dem Lesefluss geschlagen. Ich hab die pubertäre Wut der Protagonistin recht nachvollziehbar gefunden, jedoch war das wording eben auch häufig pubertär. So wurden eben racial slurs verwendet, während andere Wörter wie folgt unkenntlich gemacht wurden: “***Autokorrektur”
Hätte einen guten Umgang gefunden, wenn diese Herangehensweisen konsequenter durchgesetzt worden wäre, aber naja das Buch wurde 2004 von einer 19-jährigen Autorin geschrieben und ist damit vermutlich besser als jedes Buch, was irgendein Macker in dem Jahr veröffentlicht hat!

Also irgendwie ein easy Slay aber auch nichts was eins gelesen haben muss und nichts absurd witziges.

Lu par Lyna Khoudri = du miel dans mes oreilles