Some Dream for Fools

May 25, 2009
In her second novel, Guène poignantly chronicles the lives of Algerian immigrant Ahlème and her family in their adopted France, delicately linking anguish and humor in a realistic portrayal of displacement. After losing her mother to violence at a young age, Ahlème becomes caretaker of her father, “The Boss,” incapacitated after a work-related injury, as well as her younger brother, Foued, whose ambitions veer to the criminal. Relegated to working odd jobs, Ahlème drifts, knowing her life might hold more, but held back by the pressing concern of providing for her family. Even though she's lived in France for years, Ahlème remains an orphan of the world at 25, frequently reapplying for residency, hoping to find a boyfriend with documentation. Tellingly, Ahlème muses, “I imagine men with little mustaches in the offices who only have to push a button for it to become an ejector seat and for me to find myself back in the village.” Guène aptly depicts how small joys—glimpsing the cohesive family life that friend Auntie Mariatou leads, celebrating the Boss's birthday—take on weight as Ahlème dreams of the future.

July 27, 2009
Author-activist Schulman (The Child
) painstakingly crafts this meditation on the trajectory of society in the 21st century, but it may serve better as a warning than a novel. When New York's new mayor slowly transforms the city into a utopia through social reforms, the effects spiral out over a poor copywriter, the copywriter's new boss, his girlfriends, their lovers, their lovers' children, etc., in a narrative Möbius strip worthy of an art house film. Despite clever word craft, poetic political satire and biting humor on every page, vague characterization and a meandering plot push this polemic too far toward the abstract and oblique. Even the most adventurous and prose-focused readers will struggle to engage with Schulman's discontinuous style at this length; the only hope is to treat it as poetry, or perhaps modern art.