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Secret Son

by Laila Lalami (Goodreads Author)

3.34 of 5 stars 3.34 · rating details · 465 ratings · 125 reviews

Youssef el-Mekki, a young man of nineteen, is living with his mother in the slums of Casablanca when he discovers that the father he believed to be dead is, in fact, alive and eager to befriend and support him. Leaving his mother behind, Youssef assumes a life he could only dream of: a famous and influential father, his own penthouse apartment, and all the luxuries associa...more

Hardcover, 291 pages

Published April 1st 2009 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill (first published January 1st 2009)

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Hope & Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami

Books Set in Morocco

15th out of 75 books — 23 voters

A Street in Marrakech by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami

Before You Visit Morocco

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Community Reviews

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Apr 20, 2009 Erika rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, world-africa, fiction, 5-stars, contemporary-literature, author-giveaways

If I had to sum this book up in one quick phrase, it would be: hauntingly beautiful.

Lalami's writing style is beautiful. Sophisticated but not too over the top. Easy to read, but not juvenile. The story itself I could not stop reading. Youssef's relationships with his mother, his friends, and his new-found father are at times heartbreaking. There is a lot of emotion in his story and Lalami knows how to write it well. Despite being heartbroken, I could not stop reading.

Then there is the political...more

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Apr 07, 2009 Bill rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone, especially anyone interested in Morocco

In this superb short novel, Laila Lalami deftly limns the rise and fall of Youssef El Mekki, unacknowledged bastard son of prominent businessman, disillusioned activist, and bon vivant Nabil El Amrani. Seemingly sprung from the trap of the Casablanca slums when he learns that his father, far from being dead, is in fact a Moroccan tycoon, Youssef is soon caught in a complex web of familial and political intrigue. A mark of this novel's quality is its ability to portray what for many Americans is...more

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Apr 16, 2009 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was so excited when I found out I won this book from the GoodReads giveaways. The book came rather quickly directly from the publisher.
This was written by a Moroccan author who lives in California. I enjoyed the book. I could imagine some of the descriptions having been to Morocco. The main character Youssef lives in the slums outside of Casablanca. I liked the character Youssef and overall thought the book was good. However, I was a little disappointed in the ending of the book.
Lalami also p...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 11, 2009 Lucian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, first-reads

Simply, Secret Son is passionate and exciting. The reader drops into Lalami's Morocco and begins to recognize the the city and the people. It becomes home a home within words.

The plot constantly pushes forward and the characters are compelling and complex. It's hard to finish because you want it to keep going.

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Mar 04, 2009 Jason Lundberg rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 0wnz0red

Once again, Lalami brings Morocco to life as a vibrant conflicted country, with a deep heritage in both the East and West. Youssef el-Mekki is a Casablancan slum-dweller on his way to uni; smart and resourceful, and fatherless, or so he thinks. Lalami's prose is thoughtful and evocative, revealing her setting as similar to the wildly lively cities of India or Turkey. There are no easy answers for her characters, and hearts and lives are easily broken. A wonderful follow-up to Hope & Other Da...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Alison Whiteman rated it 4 of 5 stars

The author writes about the slums of Casablanca and Morroco in a hauntingly beautiful manner. His life is divided between his lower class or caste upbringing by his single mother and the discovery of the wealthy father who abadoned them.

Youssef struggles with a political climate similar to the current one in The United States. Government run schools churn out college graduates with no marketable skills. The available jobs consist of mainly police and security recruitment. Corporations are infil...more

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Apr 03, 2010 Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-audio-books, 2010fiction

Secret Son, by Laila Lalani, narrated by Lameece Issaq, produced by audible inc. downloaded from audible.com.

Youssef El-Maki is 19 and lives in the slums of Casablanca with his mother. He believes his father to be dead, but finds out that his father was married already and deserted his mother, so he was illegitimate. His father is still alive and an important and rich man. Youssef presents himself to his father, despite his mother’s dire warnings. His father, who has wanted a son and only had a...more

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Mar 30, 2010 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: borrowed

Secret Son tells the story of Youseff El Mekki.

He has grown up in the slums of Casablanca with his mother, and now he is going to college, working and dreaming of a better life.

He believes that his father died in an accident, before he was born, before he had a chance to marry his mother. But he discovers that story is not true, it was a fabrication by his mother to try to protect them both. His father is very much alive.

Indeed he is a wealthy, if somewhat shady, businessman. A man who has a dau...more

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Jun 08, 2009 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars

Youssef El-Mekki grew up in Casablanca, in the slums of Hay An Najat where houseflies "grazed on piles of trash, competing with cows and sheep for tea grounds, vegetable peels, and empty containers of yogurt." One young man by circumstance, another by birthright, at nineteen Youssef learns shocking details about his real father that thrust him into a world of sudden luxuries, luxuries that at once elevate his circumstances and separate him from the places and people he loves.

Amal Amrani, by cont...more

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May 13, 2009 Elevate Difference rated it 5 of 5 stars

Having read Laila Lalami’s short fiction collection Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, I was thrilled to find out she was working on her first novel, Secret Son. Often when I read first-time novelists, I notice some difficulty with dialogue (my own biggest downfall when I’m writing fiction), awkward clichés, and pages of text that don’t really keep the story moving. Lalami managed to escape all these snares and Secret Son is a joy from the beginning to the end.

On her personal blog, Lalami says s...more Having read Laila Lalami’s short fiction collection Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, I was thrilled to find out she was working on her first novel, Secret Son. Often when I read first-time novelists, I notice some difficulty with dialogue (my own biggest downfall when I’m writing fiction), awkward clichés, and pages of text that don’t really keep the story moving. Lalami managed to escape all these snares and Secret Son is a joy from the beginning to the end.

On her personal blog, Lalami says she was recently asked why the main character is a man, and her response is “Youssef c’est moi”. One might ask just how a woman writes a book about a man, and if the book qualifies for a review from a feminist perspective. If you ask this, you need to read Secret Son.

The story is set in Morocco and tells of Youssef El-Mekki’s coming of age. Youssef is a young man who lives in the slums of Casablanca. He believes the story his mother has always told him: that his father died in an accident when he was very young. He lives as a fatherless child in a patriarchal society. The shocking discovery that his father is not only alive, but also rich, is a seeming fairy tale come true. His mother Rachida warns him that his heart will be broken, but Youssef moves away from her and into an apartment offered by his father. It is not so difficult to imagine the direction the story takes, and eventually Youssef is sent back to his mother after his father’s wife finds out about his existence.

There is commentary on the desperation of life in Casablanca for poor young men who feel drawn into the “family” of fundamentalist leanings or the escapism of drugs. The difficulties posed when living in multiple cultures and the self-discovery of an alternative way are explored when Youssef’s half-sister Amal studies in the U.S. and falls in love with a non-Muslim Latino. The truth of Youssef’s birth and his mother’s precarious living situation reveals an all-too-common truth of a class-conscious society, where the higher classes abuse the women of the lower classes and then discard them.

Although Youssef is the main character, the exploration of women’s roles—and the often stifling and hypocritical expectations put upon them—is a theme throughout the novel. Amal’s rebellion against her father and cultural norms—by insisting on studying in the United States and living with a non-Muslim, non-Arab man without marriage—is a perfect foil for Rachida’s story of love and betrayal by Youssef’s father Nabil, and the ultimate rebuilding of her life.

One of the most interesting things for me as both a writer and reader is the way the story’s narrative actually changes when different characters are speaking. For example, we see the initial meeting between Youssef and Nabil first through Youssef’s narrative and later through Nabil’s. When Nabil reminisces about the meeting there are inconsistencies between the two descriptions. In another area, a visit by Amal to Rachida also varies markedly between the two versions.

Unlike some books, the narrative does not clearly delineate that this part is from one point of view, and this other part is told from another. Instead, the story unfolds organically and it is up to you to catch these interesting discrepancies. I asked Lalami if it was intentional, and she explained: “The technique of using inconsistent dialogues in different points of view is absolutely willful on my part, and in fact I had to stop my copy-editor from trying to make it consistent. You are absolutely right that this is something that reinforces the fundamental fact that we each hear different things in a conversation.”

Lalami’s first novel is a jewel that takes her previously published short stories out for a longer spin and produces a beautiful and moving expose of Morocco’s duality—a duality that exists for many who are straddling two differing cultures. Lalami has taken the threads of several stories and sewn them together into one whole that shows how our lives entwine and how our choices change each other in both tangible and imperceptible ways.

Review by Aaminah Hernández(less)

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Mar 04, 2009 Malcolm rated it 5 of 5 stars

The following review initially posted on POD Book Reviews and More: http://podbram.blogspot.com/2009/02/s...

Youssef and his mother Rachida live in a one-room house with no windows and a tin roof held in place by stones in a Casablanca slum. When it rains, the roof leaks. When it’s not raining, they live in the yard beneath a sky as spacious as Youssef’s dreams.

When it rains, they carry their life back inside the whitewashed house: the divan, the food bowls, the clean clothes off the line, and th...more The following review initially posted on POD Book Reviews and More: http://podbram.blogspot.com/2009/02/s...

Youssef and his mother Rachida live in a one-room house with no windows and a tin roof held in place by stones in a Casablanca slum. When it rains, the roof leaks. When it’s not raining, they live in the yard beneath a sky as spacious as Youssef’s dreams.

When it rains, they carry their life back inside the whitewashed house: the divan, the food bowls, the clean clothes off the line, and the black and white photograph of his father that hangs in the yard above the divan. The young man who forever smiles out of that old photograph was in his 20s, not so many rears older than Youssef is now as he prepares to enter college in Casablanca.

He thinks often about the man in the picture who died in an accident, his mother told him, when Youssef was two; he was a well-respected man, a dedicated school teacher and, as Youssef learns a few pages into Laila Lalami’s powerful debut novel, an invention.

As Rachida’s secrets unravel, the following facts emerge: Youssef is the product of his mother’s affair with a married man, a man who is not only very much alive, but a wealthy and influential Casablanca businessman. While his doting mother is content to play the role of the grieving widow, as Youssef sees it, and to eke out a living in a slum, he is now free to escape from all that’s been denied him into a life of achievable dreams.

Against his mother’s wishes, he leaves the windowless house to discover his true identity. While she prays her son will make something of himself by staying in college, he has set his sights on greater things. He leaves Rachida’s whitewashed house with food for thought. When the rains came, a volatile Islamic fundamentalist group called “The Party” brought aid to the flooded slum while the state handed out promises it would not keep.

Readers of Lalami’s collection of short stories released in 2006 may reflect on the title of that highly acclaimed volume, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, as Youssef makes his way through a labyrinth populated by corrupt commercial interests, inept government employees, “The Party,” and news media with a spider web of conflicting agendas.

Lalami’s prose and plot in Secret Son are devoid of moralizing and sentimentality, and therein lies the power of her story. The story is not unkind; it’s ardently realistic. While the conclusion of Youssef’s essentially illegitimate journey into the treacherous world outside his claustrophobic station is by no means predictable, it’s as inevitable as Icarus’ fall from the spacious sky.(less)

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Mar 17, 2013 Noor Goandal rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a book by Lalila Lalami called Secret Son. Youssef El Mekki, is confused. His mother had fed him up with lies about how his father was, "She had told him that his father was a good teacher, that he loved to read books, that he always helped her with chores around the house." Page 24. She had told him that he had died while fixing a neighbors roof, had been playing the role of a grieving widow all his life. His mother didn't want to live by the real story so she made up the one in which Y...more This is a book by Lalila Lalami called Secret Son. Youssef El Mekki, is confused. His mother had fed him up with lies about how his father was, "She had told him that his father was a good teacher, that he loved to read books, that he always helped her with chores around the house." Page 24. She had told him that he had died while fixing a neighbors roof, had been playing the role of a grieving widow all his life. His mother didn't want to live by the real story so she made up the one in which Youssef would never be in doubt. His mother tells him that his real fathers name was Nabil Amrani and that she was his wife's nurse while she was pregnant. He had given her money to get Youssef aborted instead she had left everything behind, her father who had given her up for the orphanage just so that she could go to school and live a life, and the town she had grown up. With the money his father had given her she bought a little house in Hay an Naj, a slum, and started work as a nurse. She had raised him as both a mother and father hoping that he would never think of being in need of one. One day, Youssef sees a picture of his biological father in a newspaper, and from then on he wants to find him and meet him, hoping that he would reclaim his post as the forgotten son. When Youssef finds his father he is disappointed because the minute Youssef has told his father he was his son, Youssef’s father’s eye showed genuine surprise. After they have talked a bit Youssef’s father, Nabil, asks Youssef to move into his spare appartemnt along with his mother. Youssef goes home to his depressing home and tells her what his father proposed. Youssef’s mother does not want to move into Nabil’s apartment so Youssef leaves his mother to stay with his father. Nabil tries to prepare Youssef for the position of the son he never had and tries to make sure that Youssef takes over his business after him. Youssef stays with his father for 2 years, until the day Youssef’s mother tells Nabil’s wife to change the locks for the apartment, and Nabil’s family makes him choose between Youssef or his wife and daughter. Nabil chooses his wife and daughter leaving Youssef to his mother. Youssef is traumatized because his father just left him. Nabil had made him drop out of college and leave everything behind, and then he just left him. It hurt Nabil, he had loved Youssef the first day he had talked to him, and leaving him was leaving a part of his family. Youssef does not have a direct description in the book. His description is one that a person has to imagine himself, make him look anyway they want. The book only describes his eyes, and to me that is the most important part to know about a person because the eyes tell the story. His eyes as described in the book were, “Sky blue, bright turquoise-nearly out of place on his face.” Page 11. My favorite character from this book is Youssef’s mother because no matter what mistakes Youssef made she was always there in the light welcoming her back, she didn’t want anything more than to have Youssef smile every second of his life. She is really strong. This books genre is fiction and tragedy. I would recommend this book to people in 10-12 grade because it was really mature and not exactly something younger people would have enjoyed, I enjoyed reading it though so I would say that this book is for people who are not scared of feeling grateful, or super sensitive because this book’s story was far rougher than reality. (less)

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Feb 05, 2011 Alexa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 666-challege-bookcrossing, tbr-pile-2011-challenge

Wow. Did not actually see that coming...the ending destroyed me. I loved this book, couldn't put it down and if there were a way to give it 4.5 stars, I would.

Loved the setting - I knew absolutely nothing about modern-day Morocco (I have to say I'd be a bit afraid to go there after reading this)(I love to travel, but my travel is pretty sanitized; for my more exotic destinations I'm more of an armchair traveler). Anyway, this novel was a heartbreaker, and unpredictable, and evocative. It would...more

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Apr 21, 2009 Pamela Pickering rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, recommended

4.5 Stars! After reading some of the other reviews I wish I could be as eloquent as they have been but alas, I am not a writer--just a simple reader. Nevertheless, I continue. I was surprised at how taken I was with this novel. Would I have picked it up off a bookseller's shelf? I'm not sure. However, I certainly appreciated Lalami's writing style and found her stark descriptions of modern Morocco, it's culture, and its struggles quite captivating. Gently, Lalami pulled me into Youseff's life an...more

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Feb 28, 2010 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars

At 19, Youssef El Mekki discovers he is actually Youssef Amrani, the illegitimate child of a rich man. His father had an affair with a servant. When the girl got pregnant the mother threw her out of the house. When Youssef meets his father, the dad gives him money and allows him to live his apartment that he keeps for affairs. So the young man went from poverty to richess. Back in the slum where he lived with his mother he was being primed to join a fumdamentalist cell with terrorist asperations...more

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Sep 20, 2009 Lillian rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of Monica Ali

Recommended to Lillian by: This is the 'Seattle Reads' selection for 2010

Youssef El Mekki has been raised by his mother in a one room house in the slums of Casablanca. At eighteen our hero discovers that his father, whom he thought dead was a very alive and wealthy businessman. They finally meet and learn about each other but learn more about themselves.
I thought this story only mildly interesting and overtly predictable with far too many coincidences. It is curious that it received such critical acclaim including a starred review. The most appealing aspect was the s...more

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Feb 27, 2011 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: dysfunctional-family, family-fiction, parent-and-child, coming-of-age, morocco-fiction, class-divide

The identity of the "secret son" is revealed early in this novel, set in Casablanca, Morocco. Lalami explores themes of family, identity, love, class divide, displacement and betrayal. Though I wish characters had been more completely developed, I appreciate the glimpse into culture, politics and social unrest in contemporary Morocco. I'm following current Moroccan protest attempts & police violence since reading this!
Laila Lalami, who grew up in Morocco, has ties to Portland--received an Or...more

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Oct 03, 2009 Abby rated it 2 of 5 stars

Meh. Another lackluster choice for Seattle Reads (this is the pick for 2010). I really can't see what the book groups will have to talk about except (as one of my colleagues who shall remain unnamed commented) all the ways this book doesn't work. As a family drama/tragedy it's not bad reading, especially the mother/son relationship (I felt that the father/daughter relationship was completely predictable and embodied all of the worst cliches about patriarchal societies). But the social critiques...more

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Aug 17, 2010 Jacki Potratz rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009

This is the story of Youssef El Mekki, who lives in the slums of Casablanca with his single mother. She has kept many secrets from him, but he's about to enter college and join a fringe Islamic group and he's curious and determined to find out the truth about his family. His mother has always maintained that his father died in an accident, but Youssef finds out he's alive, and is intent on meeting him. Will his father accept him? Does he have siblings? Will he prefer his father's lifestyle over...more

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Jun 26, 2010 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a 3.5 star book for me. It involves the story of a young man in Morocco who grew up with a single mother in poverty. He learns about and then meets his father, who is affluent and powerful. If the book had stayed focused on the core relationships (mother/son; son/father), I would have loved it.

But the author wanted to say something larger about the politics in this country, and the relationship between western commerce and culture and Moroccan society. This leap into the political didn'...more

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Dec 09, 2009 Baklavahalva rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book gains in beauty and intensity and heartbreak as it gets going. What I love about Lalami's novel is that it more or less equates ruthless West-oriented capitalists and Saudi-loving fundamentalists (while never resorting to caricature with regards to either). Everybody preys on innocence. Lalami's sympathies are with young people (and how well she depicts their inner world!), and none of the adults, not even Youssef's hard-working, sagacious mother Rachida, realizes the danger of requirin...more

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Apr 21, 2011 Paula Margulies rated it 4 of 5 stars

I thought this book was excellent: beautifully written, with wonderful characters. An impoverished Morroccan boy, who believes that his father is dead, discovers that he is alive. The boy, Youssef, experiences a brief supportive and loving relationship with his dad until his father's family intervenes. My only complaint is with the ending, which involves an out-of-character decision by Youssef and leaves us with no real closure on the story. Otherwse, brilliant, engaging writing about a part of...more

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Aug 16, 2010 Polly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Secret Son was not the most well written book I've read and parts of the plot seemed formulaic. However, it was worth reading _ interesting to have a glimpse into contemporary Morocco and the different societal pressures at work there. There are the wealthy "haves" who want to preserve the status quo and make Morocco a tourist mecca for Europe. There are slum young men who are totally disenfranchised with few opportunities for advancement. And there are organizations targeted at the disenfranchi...more

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May 31, 2009 Jesse Bacon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: realistic-global-poverty

Lalami is also a fabulous blogger and critic, and this is her first novel. Well, Hope and Other Danger pursuits was a series of similar stories. Here she combines a rather soap-operatic plot (fatherless son discovers truth of his origins) in a very nonsentinmental fashion. She also inverts the usual perspective of these things: only two chapters are from the upperclass characters pov, just enough to illustrate the gap in their perceptions. Finale feels a little rushed. Also an entry in the "why...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Ian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: a-kindle, modern-novel, orange-booker-listed, around-world-80-books, family-relationships, friendship

This is the story of Youssef El Mekki, a Moroccan student who has been brought up in poverty in the desperate slums of Casablanca by his widowed mother. His world is turned upside down when his mother reveals that his birth father is not actually dead, but that she had a brief sexual liason with a wealthy employer who abandoned her when she fell pregnant, merely offering to pay for an abortion. This revelation about his father sets Youssef on a path to find him. We then follow him as he tracks d...more

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Oct 16, 2012 Meghan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Plot Summary
Yussef has lived his entire life with his widowed mother in a slum of Casablanca. But cracks in the facade of the stories she has told him reveal a different reality that suspends him between the honorable poverty he has known and a world of wealth and compromise.

Initial Thoughts
I was honestly disappointed that the ending turned out the way it did. While of course we expected the Party to engage in terrorist activities, I’m not certain that the way Lalami developed Yussef’s characte...more Plot Summary
Yussef has lived his entire life with his widowed mother in a slum of Casablanca. But cracks in the facade of the stories she has told him reveal a different reality that suspends him between the honorable poverty he has known and a world of wealth and compromise.

Initial Thoughts
I was honestly disappointed that the ending turned out the way it did. While of course we expected the Party to engage in terrorist activities, I’m not certain that the way Lalami developed Yussef’s character made his involvement in them make sense. Too, I thought the thin motivations that supposedly drove his mother to keep making decisions that ruined his life over and over again didn’t really make a lot of sense considering her background nor considering how the obvious and terrible ramifications always seemed to come home immediately and apparently. Here is a woman who literally ended her son’s opportunities at having a lucrative career; why did she persist in the deceptions that kept him alienated from his father’s family? Obviously it’s a weak argument to say, “Things didn’t have to be that way,” because in real life, too, they don’t have to be the tragic ways they often turn out. But things didn’t have to be that way even from a literary perspective. There were a dozen other more interesting and more logical ways for the story to work itself out, and that was what frustrated me.

Implications of the Text
Of course I’m going to have to defend that last bit, because I understand the implicit arrogance in a privileged white, western woman complaining that the plight of a character based surely on lived or at least second-hand (rather than fourth- or fifth-hand, as my information must be) information is somehow not working out “the way it had to.” Please understand that I mean that as a purely literary complaint. Given the development of the story and characters up to the end, I don’t find the necessary elements in play to demand the ending that Lalami gave us.

However, I do suspect that she is writing a story perhaps in response to a question that sounds something like, “How could someone participate in an act of terrorism? What could possibly inspire such actions in such a young person?” And I think that there’s a certain amount of struggle evident in the author’s attempt to answer that question herself. Many of the details she includes about Casablanca and its various cultures and communities are accurate and authentic; this is, thankfully, not the romanticized Casablanca of Bogey and Bergman’s white-washed, colonized vision.

Given all of that, for me, the implications of the text are vast. It teaches me to have compassion for young people in cultural situations in which the combined ingredients of extreme poverty, awful national infrastructure, dynamic religious input, and the desperately frustrating lack of employment and uselessness of higher education come together to create persons in whom acts of desperation seem to be the only actions capable of rendering a result of any kind. It teaches me to question my assumptions about actions of violence at the door. It teaches me to check the privilege that blinds me to the conditions and realities that other people live in - both those who have less privilege than I, and those who have more.

I see a culture that is often unfair to women but not necessarily the cripplingly oppressive environment we’ve been taught pervades the entire so-called “Muslim world,” and it makes me want to understand the nuances that inform our often misguided Western opinions of life for Muslim women. I see a culture in which those who are desperately poor can still attend college, but, in a situation that feels all too familiar in a college-degree boom here in the U.S. right now, a college education may not be enough to propel a life out of the slums and into more comfortable economic circumstances.

I see a family situation that could repeat itself anywhere: a wealthy man of privilege assumes the maid he knocked up went through with the abortion he paid for, and when his 20 year old bastard knocks on his door that rather sends his life into a tailspin.

I see a world that is dangerous for reporters who speak a truth informed by western values of free speech and a perhaps more liberally inclusive view of various lifestyles and perspectives, and instead of chalking that up to ignorant, barbaric religious perspectives, I remember my own difficulty in writing such truths at a private Bible college’s student newspaper in Seattle, Washington (no conservative town by any stretch of the imagination). I see a world in which ideologues prey on the uncertainty and frustration of young people who have few opportunities in the world, and I can’t help but think of a chapel full of students who will easily be a generous annual salary’s worth in debt by the end of a simple four-year degree being asked to give still more money charitably to building projects for the university, being given guilt-laden religious pressure to do so. Our worlds aren’t so different in the ideas we encounter, though I’m an ungrateful fool if I don’t acknowledge the vast set of resources at my disposal that the characters in Secret Son do not possess. But I am equally the fool if I do not recognize our similarities and allow it to form in me a compassionate view, and a drive to learn more about a reality about which I have held false assumptions.(less)

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May 22, 2011 DubaiReader rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audible, 2011

Review for the unabridged Audible version.

It is very hard for me to review this book as I struggled to understand the narrator, who had such a strong accent and put the sentance emphasis in the wrong place so frequently, that I felt I probably missed a lot of the detail. Having said that, the story itself has stayed with me and I'm rating it as a 4 star book in spite of the narrator. Perhaps it would have done better if I'd read it in hard copy, I wish I had.

I really felt for Youssef el-Mekki, a...more

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Mar 27, 2011 Lila rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: north-africa-and-middle-east, read-on-kindle

Beautifully written, the story is a sad but poignant one, with moments of great hope and points of dismal dispair.

I think I loved it so much because it was the first book I've read that was set in Morocco, and the cultural element of the book really spoke to me. I loved that I could understand and relate to all the context and various situations, the status quo etc. The references and remarks to various parts of Moroccan culture made for a great reading experience as I felt I could fully grasp t...more

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Sep 18, 2010 Lisa Vegan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Lisa by: Monica

Shelves: fiction, novel, bookclub, gr-author, orphaned-and-quasi-orphaned-kids, reviewed, altta, lt-author

This book has such an enjoyable writing style; it’s very accessible and the book is a really quick read, and a pleasant read, despite its tragic subject matter. This book had a good mix of the personal and political, heavy on the personal, which I liked.

I got a great feel for various parts of Morocco and what it feels like to be an immigrant. I admired how while parts of this story are about big issues, the significance of the psychological aspects of family, including what’s happened in past g...more This book has such an enjoyable writing style; it’s very accessible and the book is a really quick read, and a pleasant read, despite its tragic subject matter. This book had a good mix of the personal and political, heavy on the personal, which I liked.

I got a great feel for various parts of Morocco and what it feels like to be an immigrant. I admired how while parts of this story are about big issues, the significance of the psychological aspects of family, including what’s happened in past generations, and of friends and community, and most of all the importantce of each person’s psychological makeup was shown clearly.

It was a little weird at first but I ended up appreciating the separate sections to show the different points of view of the various characters. It was a bit jarring, but it was effective.

This book is all about betrayal, both with malice and with supposed love and protection in mind. It’s also about the feeling of not belonging. It’s about poverty and injustice and other ills that can lead to poor conclusions.

I understand depression despair, rage, and I could empathize greatly with most of the main characters, the privileged and the poverty stricken. But, I was still not so sold on some of the events, not really. I was a bit stunned by the ending, even though I had a good idea of what was coming. I felt some relief that in the end the characters did seem realistic and true to how they’d been crafted.

My two main complaints about this book are what I consider a weak ending and the lack of humor. Yes, there are characters in good humor and even characters that experience amusement, but I was never amused. Perhaps it’s because I knew the gist of the plot before I read the book, but I felt that the book kept to a very narrow range of tone.

I was very engaged when I was reading, at least up until toward the very end, but the way the story ended left me unsatisfied; I was gratified by how some of the subplots played out, but ultimately I was disappointed; I think I would have been much more pleased by so many different endings, sad or happy or any mix of the two. This is wonderful storytelling but the story ended up letting me down.(less)

4 likes · like · see review

Apr 14, 2010 Anne rated it 1 of 5 stars

Disappointing. Writing was simplistic, dialogue unimaginative, plot unbelievable. Possibly if you had no exposure to other parts of the world you might learn something. But there are so many books that do a much better job of this (Brick Lane, The Inheritence of Loss for example). Disappointed that it was chosen by Seattle Public Library for it's Seattle Reads promotion. I only finished it because it was easy reading and my book club chose it because it was part of Seattle Reads. Seattle would b...more

2 likes · like · see review

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About Laila Lalami

Laila Lalami was born and raised in Morocco. Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, and was short-listed for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2006. Her debut collection of short stories, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, was published in 2005 to critical acclaim. Her f...more

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“He needed time to adjust to real life, where heroes and villains could not be told apart by their looks or their accents, where there were no last minute reversals of fortune.” — 4 people liked it

“His anger took many shapes: sometimes soft and familiar, like a round stone he had caressed for so long that is was perfectly smooth and polished; sometimes it was thin and sharp like a blade that could slice through anything; sometimes it had the form of a star, radiating his hatred in all directions, leaving him numb and empty inside.” — 2 people liked it

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