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65th out of 119 books
—
42 voters
Some Dream for Fools
Ahlème, a young woman living on the outskirts of Paris, is trying to make a life out of the dreams she brought with her from Algeria and the reality she faces every day. Her father lost his job after an accident at his construction site. Her mother was lost to a massacre in Algeria. And her brother, Foued, boils with adolescent energy and teeters dangerously close to choos...more
Hardcover, 176 pages
Published
July 15th 2009
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
(first published January 1st 2006)
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Aug 19, 2012
Ape
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
africa,
france-italy-spain-portugal
This wasn't a long read, and I was looking for something short to read yesterday, so I just got stuck into this book. I think I preferred it over Just Like Tomorrow, as the main character, Ahleme, is in her twenties, rather than the teenager who was the main character in Just Like Tomorrow. Although characters and characters... I do wonder how much of this is actually autobiographical.
It's set in the ghettos of Paris, with Algerian family, headed up by "the Boss", who hasn't been able to work fo...more
It's set in the ghettos of Paris, with Algerian family, headed up by "the Boss", who hasn't been able to work fo...more
This loosely structured novel uses lots of slang, non sequiturs, and some outrageous imagery -- all from the tongue of twenty-something narrator Ahleme -- to illuminate the adaptation of struggling Algerians to their new lives in France. Woven between Ahleme's criticisms of the boys she meets to date, the friends whose spending outpaces her income, and the family she struggles to help adapt to their lives in Paris' outskirts, are subtle reminders of the xenophobia and outright prejudice that con...more
I'm not sure if this was actually a better novel or just a better translation, but I liked it so much more than Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow. If you don't read both at least read this one; in vague terms it's the Parisian narrative that you never hear about; in specific terms it's the snarky, slangy story of a teenage Algerian immigrant girl living in the Paris projects that was actually WRITTEN by a former teenage (and not even that much former... I think she was 23 when this was published) Algerian im...more
Chosen to read while in France because the setting is France. Story is told by Ahleme an Algerian refuge who is unmarried, and trying to hold her family of a invalid father and a teen age brother together. One gets depression as one read of the nihilistic life that will go nowhere. Odd jobs, a few friends, subsidized housing, a few purchases now and then. Life has little to offer for the future.
Some Dream for Fools follows similar themes of Guene's first novel, Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow, displacement, poverty, and coming of age. Some Dream of Fools fails to keep the reader's attention because one wonders if they are reading Kiffe Kiffe again. It follows the same predictable pattern, with the exception that the lead character returns to the bled. This books lacks the comedy and entertainment value of Guene's first book.
Multicultural Paris is not all croissants and chocolat in this tale of a young woman struggling against the weight of circumstance. The reader discovers a contemporary France filled with anxiety about itself. Strong point of view.
First...I keep reading Faiza Guene's books on airplanes and she is far, far too good an author for that. Both her books are beautifully written, funny, ironic, enlightening stories of immigrant lives in Paris. Airplanes are supposed to be for reading fluffy formulaic crap about vampires and/or crime fiction and/or Downton Abbey-like-stuff in book form.
Second, it is awfully interesting to read a book about immigrant stories...as some sort of immigrant. Albeit a very privileged one. (Not feeling t...more
Second, it is awfully interesting to read a book about immigrant stories...as some sort of immigrant. Albeit a very privileged one. (Not feeling t...more
this book is a short read; i got it out of the library at noon, went back to work, and finished it that evening when i got home. it doesn't really have a plot, it seems, although it's entertaining. and she's only 25!
even though nothing happens in this book, I couldn't put it down.
Les réves pour les oufs is a beautiful novel.
I really enjoyed this book. There were bits I giggled at, there were parts that made me sad. Ahlème goes through life in France as a green card Algerian as best she can for her fractured family. I found it absurd in parts, but totally understood where she was coming from on all of it. Like a lot of writers of North African descent she talks about France and its links to its former colonies, but she does it in a bit of a humorous vein. I can't wait to read more of her books.
I was hopeful to finish this book last night in order to finish out 2012 with 35 books. However, I was unsuccessful in my attempt. If I could give this book 1 1/2 stars I would. It didn't do anything for me. This book was just something to read through quickly and that's all it was. It was one of those bargain bin books that I just picked up one day and never got around to read until now, when I needed something to fill in the gaps.
Touching and funny. Between caring for her bewildered dad and her delinquent brother, Alheme struggles with her Algerian roots and the unwelcoming soil of Ivry near Paris. But a trip 'home' shows her no more a creature of the village, either.
Like Katie said, this was a quick read from a fresh Parisian voice. I was drawn to the narrator and her family, but the story never really went anywhere.
May 21, 2013
Hevel Cava
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May 14, 2013
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Apr 15, 2013
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Faïza Guène is a French writer and director. Born to parents of Algerian origin, she grew up in Pantin, in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris. She attended Collège Jean Jaurès followed by Lycée Marcelin Berthelot in Pantin. She began studies in sociology at Université Paris VIII, in St-Denis, before abandoning them to pursue writing and directing full-time.
Her first novel, "Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow" w...more
More about Faïza Guène...
Her first novel, "Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow" w...more
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Oct 18, 2012 06:11pm