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40x40

Laetitia Sadier recommended The Smiths by The Smiths in Music (curated)

 
The Smiths by The Smiths
The Smiths by The Smiths
1984 | Rock
8.2 (11 Ratings)
Album Favorite Watch

"It really is just this album. After this I think it was all downhill, and I never followed Morrissey's solo career. Musically I felt it was lost on me. I think the real power that hit me was in this record; the urgency and the energy of the record. Also I lived in France; I was a French adolescent when I first heard them, it was either 'This Charming Man' or 'Hand In Glove', and obviously in the UK it was a complete social phenomenon, everyone knew The Smiths, but in France you were really leftfield if you knew The Smiths or listened to The Smiths. And there were corners in those songs that were totally mysterious and fascinating and unpredictable. That was what I loved about them: there was a kind of beauty that you couldn't catch. I'd never heard this type of songwriting before. I think in the UK and Ireland there is the folk tradition, and I feel more depth in the folk music I've heard that's British, and more unaffected beauty. I've heard little French folk music, but what I have heard is highly repetitive, and nothing poetic or haunting or deep. It maybe had its uses at the time, but I don't feel that it has crossed that barrier into the modern world as well as the British folk music. So I don't know if it's because of that, if the roots would come from that and that differentiated it, because at the time I lived in France. But it had a huge resonance because it was new and different. It was beautiful. It had confidence and spunk to it, and of course Morrissey was a tremendous energy and singer. With the lyrics you would learn words and the meanings were not readily thrown at you; you had to think more deeply about what he was saying. The irony and all of that made it very fascinating. I don't own this record, but I'm sure if I played it today I would still enjoy it very much."

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40x40

ClareR (5686 KP) rated The Country of Others in Books

Sep 19, 2021  
The Country of Others
The Country of Others
Leila Slimani | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is a fascinating look at Leïla Slimani’s own family history.

Mathilde falls in love with, and marries, Amine Belhaj, a Moroccan stationed in Alsace. After the war, she sails to Morocco to live with Amine on his family farm. Life is so different to that in France, and Mathilde struggles to adapt. The French there shun her because of her husband, and Moroccans are suspicious of her because she’s French.

It’s a time of great upheaval in the 1950’s, as the Moroccans fight for independence from France, and life becomes increasingly dangerous for the Belhaj’s.

It’s a challenging life for Mathilde: she has to work hard, and Amine has a very fixed idea of a wife’s role. When she doesn’t stick to his rules, voices her opinions or disagrees, Amine beats her - he’s a violent man, scarred by the things that he saw and experienced in the war.

Mathilde does manage to insist that their daughter, Aicha, goes to a good French speaking school, and Aicha proves to be a good, diligent student - but the other girls at school are poisoned by their parents views: they’re very unkind and bully her.

There is a real feel for the heat and dust of Morocco. The contrasting cultures and religions of Christianity and Islam are shown, as well as the roles of women and how they are restricted in the light of their religions and it’s traditions. It looks at what it is to be a foreigner in a strange land; belonging, both in a country and a family; and the Moroccan struggle for independence from France.

This is going to be a trilogy, and I’m already fully invested in it - I can’t wait for the next book. Sam Taylor’s translation is perfect, and I hope that they’ll be translating the subsequent books as well.

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for helping me (yet again!) with my NetGalley reading, and to Faber for my ebook copy through NetGalley.