Book Review: La Prisonniere by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi


   I've always been fascinated by stories like these. Stories about women who really went through stuff that would break anyone and still survived against all odds. Stories set in parts of the world I'd only heard about. Sure, Google images helps but nothing beats a narration of first hand experience. Stories like Arthur Golden's 'Memoirs of a geisha' which I read as a teenager. This book firmly falls into this category.

   La Prissonniere caught my attention because of the title.  It's the way I'm drawn to all things French. The book details the imprisonment of Malika Oufkir, her five siblings and their mother in the Moroccan desert for 20 years because her father staged a failed coup attempt against the then Moroccan king.  The oldest was 18 years while the youngest was just 3 years old.  Talk  about sins of the father! All this despite the fact that she had practically been raised as a princess in the king's household. The descriptions of Morrocco are so detailed that you can see everything in your mind's eye. I really would recommend this book to anyone with curiosity about Morocco in the 60s and 70s.
Ciao....

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Foodie Fridays: Shepherd's pie with nyama choma

Image
   I've always wanted to try Shepherd's pie but I never did because we don't  have an actual pie-dish. But then I saw this recipe on Kawi Snippets and I just had to try it. She used a baking tin instead...talk about a light-bulb moment! She also used cheese and I love cheese! For the recipe, check out her blog here .    I however added my own twist to the dish. We had some left-over nyama choma ( Roasted goat ) in the fridge so I figured I'd just re-purpose it. I used the same recipe but swapped the mince-meat with nyama choma. I also garnished with tomatoes and parsley. Here's how it turned out: Meat in the baking tin...just needs the potato layer This is before baking. I'm a sucker for garnishes Fresh out of the oven Bon appetite! Ciao...
Read more

We need adultier adults

Image
   This meme is a running joke between me and my friends. Or my friends and I. We occasionally post on social media about how we have successfully 'adulted' for the day. ' Adulting ' being the act of successfully doing something grown- up that you've never done before.Keyword being: successfully. And I know that there is a section of baby-boomers that's sick of this millennial habit of constantly documenting our supposed triumphs for the whole world to see, but I'm pretty sure they'd be doing the same thing if they'd this technology at their disposal in their hey-day. Heck! who I am I kidding?! They did do the same thing.. through phone calls, letters and postcards.    But back to the meme. Being an adult is hard work.. the first time around anyway. I had an experience last year when I accompanied 3 teenage girls to the hospital. Reason being we were at camp and I was a counsellor and they had some injuries that needed to be looked at by a docto...
Read more

Different kinds of people in the exam room

Image
Disclaimer: Based on a true story! He he! I’ve always wanted to say that! I had a Surgery CAT today. Technically yesterday since it’s past midnight. So at some point after finishing the paper and waiting for the question papers to be collected I realised that there are many different personality groups to be observed while an exam is ongoing. They say that stress does strange things to people, well here’s what I’ve seen so far. 1. The star-gazer Or should I say ceiling-gazer. They've read the question, don't know the answer so the look up in the hope that they'll see it. I mean if God can do walls surely He can write on ceilings too! Right? Anybody? Ok, then. But sometimes this strategy actually works and they suddenly remember the answer! 2. The artist Ordinary student who suddenly becomes a Michelangelo during the exam. Their question paper ( if they were handed answer sheets ) or rough paper will be full of creative doodles and will look something li...
Read more