Rating: 
Summary: A missed opportunity
Review: The treatment of the Oufkir family was horrendous, awful, inexcusable. No one denies that. But this account of their ordeal missed the opportunity to make their pain known to the world.Never did I feel the suffering come through the pages of the book. Never did I feel what it was like to be there. The pain must have been dreadful, but the shallowness of the presentation made it very forgettable. I don't know if this presence was missing because the events were dictated to the writer, and therefore lost in the second person, or if they were lost because Malika Oufkir didn't tell the story in her native language. The pain that came through most clearly was the pain the family felt *after* their jail release, during the time of house arrest. I felt their pain at having missed out on so many years of their lives, but not at the great injustices meted out to them. I'm afraid that with such shallow accounts of their imprisonment, many people will not feel a strong motivation to speak out for human rights abuses, such as theirs.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible Lives
Review: I read this book after seeing Malika on Oprah. I am not a book club reader, but received this from my son(8 years old) for Mother's Day. It was hard to get into this book at first, and it is very jumbled as it is told directly to a woman from Malika. It is obvious she is recalling experiences that were extremely painful. This has made me realize that we are very fortunate individuals in America, we live lives of freedom. I cannot imagine life as it was for the Oufkir family. They had stolen years, decades to make up for. What a tragedy, and horror to live with forever. I will pass this book along as it made me appreciate many little things I have taken for granted. It is a great book, horrible lives.
Rating: 
Summary: too much day to day
Review: What happened to this moroccan princess and her family is horrific. People should know and understand that this type of thing still happens. But reading this book was like wading through mud. There was just too much day to day.... Not enough drama. The book could probably be cut by two-thirds, and it would be just enough. Of course the other side of the coin is that the author and her family put up with 20 years of this day to day. So why shouldn't we. Most of the members of my book club were unable to finish the book. To get the story out, there needs to be more drama. Less day to day
Rating: 
Summary: I felt like I was there!
Review: I loved this book sooooo much. Even though it was an Oprah book, which I normally get bored with. I immediately sent it off to my mom. I felt her pain, lonliness and fear. I feel like after reading this Malika is one of my close friends, Great Read!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: Well, I was very excited to read this book & learn about Malika's imprisonment. I find it inspiring to read about people who have such courage & stength. The book didn't quite measure to my standards though. First, I felt the story could have been better told if it was told as a "story". It was to some extent, but not quite, because she was narrating and not just leting the story come about. Second, I guess it was just hard to feel a lot of pity for her, after reading about the hollocaust & other cases of more "extreme" punishment. Don't get me wrong, a great injustice was done & it's horrible, because these people are scarred forever. But especially the first few places they were held, wasn't quite like the prison I expected. It was more of a house arrest. Also, it did leave you hanging- why did her father start a coup?? It was an alright read. It was just hard to stay interested at a lot of points. However, I wish Malika & her family all of the justice & happiness they deserve.
Rating: 
Summary: Not such an accurate picture
Review: First of all, I do not want my negative review of the book and my following statements to be misconstrued as support for the inhumane conditions that Ms. Oufkir and her family were exposed to. However, not everything in the book is so accurate. My personal problem with it is when she talks about her family's conversion to Christianity because they felt that the "Muslim" God had abandoned them. This can confuse people at best because Muslims have the SAME God as the Christians and Jews. Sorry, Malika, God didn't abandon you, people did. Secondly, it is worth mentioning that while obviously General Oufkir was her father and she quite normally has affection for him, he wasn't the best of people. He tried to assassinate the King of Morocco! If he had succeeded in dethroning the King, Morocco would have probably become a military dictatorship, much to the detriment of its people and economy. Yes, it's sad that General Oufkir's wife and children had to pay the price for his actions, but keep in mind that the King's own children would have been killed if his coup attempt had succeeded! So it isn't as though he was a saint and King Hassan was a monster.
My third point is, to all of those who commented on how Amnesty International should investigate into human rights violations in Morocco and elsewhere, there's no need. Look right here in the U.S. People are rotting away in jail here, too. So fix your own problems before you try to fix anyone else's.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: This is a very well-written account of a fascinating life. The story really stuck in my head. To live through such torture and still be able to have a positive outlook is remarkable. Somehow they managed to write this in such a way that it does not have any overtone of self-pity. I've recommended this to several friends who have also enjoyed it very much. It helped me renew my sense of how blessed I am to live in this country.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing story of personal triumph
Review: "Stolen Lives" is Malika Oufkir's personal account of her life as an adopted daughter of the king of Morocco, then later a political prisoner in Morocco as she and her family paid for the sins of their father. It was interesting to learn about the traditions in Morocco. It's amazing that she was basically just taken away from her parents at a young age in order to become an adopted daughter of the king, since he had a daughter the same as as Malika and the daughter needed a playmate. Malika gives an interesting account of the ways of the court- the traditions, the festivals, the reverence paid to the king and the concubines. As a child, she never had a normal life- she was essentially a prisoner inside the court. I would have liked to have read more vivid and detailed accounts of the court- not gossipy, just from a cultural standpoint. I had a hard time picturing many of the scenes she described due to vagueness. After her father, a revered military man, was executed after leading a coup against the king, he was executed and the family sent into exile, even though the family had nothing to do with the coup. The conditions were incomprehensibly inhumane. I'm amazed that Malika is able to talk about it so freely, for she even admits she's haunted by the demons. It's difficult to even empathize despite her account, for I've never experienced anything like she went through. It's a story that sounds more like 15th century Europe than 20th century Morocco. Her youngest brother was only 3 when they were imprisoned. She describes how amazed he was with the world when a few of them were able to escape. For instance, he finds something hard on the ground but didn't know what it was- it was simply asphalt. I was shocked that I had never heard of her story, and I am upset that the US media has not focused more on political prisoners such as Malika and her family. No, I'm not a card-carrying member of Amnesty International or anything, but it is important to bring stories such as Malika's to light. As her story reveals (but without going into too much detail), when the international media learns of their plight, circumstances change. Malika is very forthright with her opinions and emotions. She describes how her feelings towards the king were so mixed with the love of a daughter towards her father and with the hatred of the wrongly imprisoned towards the captor. Her whole view of the world has changed, and yet a lot of her original opinions never changed. I recommend this book!
Rating:
Summary: Tragic!
Review: The story as a whole was very tragic and I felt for the captives but the writing left a little to be desired. An event of this nature is horrible and for it to last that long is mortifying and a reader should be left with that feeling when they are reading it. Yet, the book lost me about half way in. I kept wanting there to be some human element to the story but it was sadly lacking. It was a quick, blow by blow, run down of 20 years of hell. For readers now seeking to understand life in the Middle East this is the wrong book. It does not go into enough detail about why things like this happen. It is not enough to just reveal that they do. I feel that authors have the responsibility to enlighten their readers with a complete image rather than half of one.
Overall it was a good book but I was not overly impressed with the writing style or the text.
Rating:
Summary: Moving
Review: What an amazing story, despite been well written or not, it is worth reading. I could not put the book down. I am glad that in the end, the Oufkir family has managed to reclaim their lives.
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