Rating: 
Summary: Stolen Lives. Eyewitness account.
Review: "Stolen Lives". A sad and painful case of yet another flagrant miscarriage of justice! No one deserves to go through what Malika Oufkir and her family have endured. No one!
Oufkir Dynasty touched so many Moroccan lives in so many painful ways, dating back to the days of the French occupation. During the so-called dark years, my people's lives were wiped out by the thousands in Morocco. Courtesy of the infernal machinery engineered and sat in motion by Mohamed Oufkir! The General (as his father before him) provided all the lead that's needed to engrave the names of friends, family, and some of our brightest fellow countrymen in the yet unwritten Moroccan history books..
Not even a footnote about it in your book Malika! Thanks anyway for sharing you misery with all of us since privilege and fame are so hard to share. Even for a good Christian.
Indeed Malika missed a great opportunity for the story of the millennium that would have rivaled "Gone with the Wind"
Hollywood? Malika left out all the juicy staff: Violence, killings, betrayals, rackets, sex, unthinkable orgies, power.. The WHOLE TRUTH. Hollywood would have loved it. Dommage!
Rating: 
Summary: A POORLY WRIITEN AND POORLY EDITED TRAVESTY
Review: This is a book that on its face held a lot of promise. Any story in which a mother and her children, as well as faithful family retainers, are unjustly imprisoned in squalid conditions for twenty years for an ostensible crime comitted by the familial patriarch would certainly be of interest. Wrong! This is a tepid and disappointing book, poorly written and, most certainly, poorly edited. It is so filled with contraditions and inconsistencies, as to create somewhat of a credibility gap for the reader.The story revolves around the Oufkir family, who were, at one time, a prominent, highly respected, and well known Moroccan family. Their story is told by Malika Oufkir, who is the eldest daughter of the late General Oufkir, who was executed in August 1972, immediately following an aborted attempt to assassinate King Hassan II of Morocco, for whom he was the Minister of Defense. General's Oufkir's treasonous action was the catalyst for the tragic turn of events that were to ungulf his family. After the aborted coup, the General's immediate family was placed under house arrest and four months later, along with two loyal family retainers who volunteered to share their fate, were whisked away to the first of several desert prisons that were to house them for the next fifteen years. As Malika tells it, hers was initially almost a fairy tale story. Brought up in luxurious surroundings, she suffered early heartbreak when, at the age of five, she was separated from her family and "adopted" by then King Muhammad V, so as to be a live in playmate for the King's daughter. This adoption is never really explained, and one has no idea what her parents thoughts were on this issue. Malika lived in the Palace in the lap of luxury for many years. As a teenager, however, she moved back with her family, where, there too, she continued to live a very privileged life, steeped in luxury and money. After the Oufkirs' circumstances changed, theirs is truly a tragic story. There is little doubt that the conditions in their desert prisons were deplorable and squalid. With inadequate sanitation, insufficient food, no medical care, or educational provisions, the family was truly living a life of privation. Cutoff from the outside world, as they were, they truly were disenfranchised. Their escape from their last desert prison, an escape which brought their plight to the consciousness of the public, was amazing. But for their escape, there is no doubt in my mind that they would still be languishing in a desert prison today, barely alive, if not already dead. I salute their determination and ingenuity in making a deperate break for freedom. The problem lies in the telling of the story, which is so poorly told. Many things are left unexplained. No effort is made to ground the events which led to their family's downfall in a historical context. Whatever Malika said seems to have been what went into the final draft of this book, even if she contradicted herself a page or two later, which is the main problem with the book. There are so many inconsistencies with what Malika herself says, that the discerning reader is left to question much of what she represents. Malika comes across as a somewhat self absorbed, vapid woman to whom fate dealt a harsh and unusually cruel hand. Her self absorption is most evident in that she barely acknowledges the sacrifice of the two faithful family retainers, who voluntarily shared their fate, nor does she discuss the impact that this had on them. It is also a little disconcerting that more does not come through about the perceptions the other family members had about this hellish experience. Their insight might have provided a little more balance and interest to the narrative. In the hands of a good writer and and excellent editor, this book might have withstood scrutiny and met expectations. Sorry, Oprah, your book club selections are usually excellent. This one fails to make the grade.
Rating: 
Summary: What a Pity!
Review: Malika and her family went through a truly horrendous ordeal. Too bad for the interested reader that this book does not do the horror, injustice, and the family's strength and determination justice! "Stolen Lives" is a vapid, childish attempt to elicit tears from sentimental and superficially activist American women. It's so easy to imagine this story as a starting point for an interesting account of the social and political environment in Morocco. Where are the intelligent editors who can take a fascinating personal story and turn it into a book that can provide the reader with a thought-provoking learning process instead of a late-night tear-jerker?
Rating:
Summary: disappointing
Review: I very much looked forward to reading this book after seeing Ms. Oufkir on "Oprah", but after finishing the book, I am left with
many questions and more than a fair amount of skepticism. Ms. Oufkir's descriptions of the brutal conditions she and her family endured sent chills down my spine, but at the same time, raised my antenna in terms of authenticity. So many things seemed utterly implausible, such as her description of their starved, emaciated bodies digging their way to freedom using only the lid of a sardine can and a spoon handle, and then being too "bloated" to fit through the tunnel they had dug. At one point, Malika's brother molds a "fake" gun from a mixture of flour and other materials, swearing that it passed for real. She describes her torn, swollen, and bloody feet in one sentence, and in the next, she is donning a pair of high heeled sandals. This family spent more sleepless nights than would be humanly possible to endure- staying awake to avoid the rats that crawled all over them, but miraculously never bit anyone. I now intend to do my own research regarding the historical accounts of the political climate in Morocco during this time. Too many questions remain unanswered, primarily why this punishment was chosen, and why their plight was ignored by international human rights organizations for so long. Taken with a very big grain of salt, however, this could be an interesting read.
Rating: 
Summary: Words of Praise
Review: Powerful, riveting, poised, bright, courageous, articulate, intelligent, loyal, warm, genuine, kind, considerate, forgiving are words that readily come to mind when I think of Malika Oufkir.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiration!!!!!!
Review: This is a story that will remind you how fragil and changeable life is. It is a story that inspired me to live and fight no matter what! But most of all always to believe in the future!
Rating: 
Summary: Adversity and The Human Spirit
Review: This is a true account of a family from Morocco who are imprisoned for twenty long years after an attempt to execute the king was led by their father. The story is told through the eyes of Malika Oufkir, the eldest daughter. The family endures such brutal abuse both physically and emotionally that it is miraculous that any of them survive it. Malika and her mother are two of the strongest people I've read about in quite some time. Throughout the ordeal they keep their spirits up for the young children and only cry when no one else can see them. They teach the children several languages, math and most importantly the love of family. They entertain them with stories and plays and remind them of the importance of creativity. When they finally escape their desert jail by digging a tunnel, we see the turmoil that still exists long after they are free of their constraints. This true account really is evidence of the strength of the human spirit to endure and live on. To see such violation of the most basic human rights is a travesty that should always remind us that injustice should never be tolerated. I only hope that Malika and the other members of her family along with Achoura and Halima find the peace that they so deserve. Their courage is moving beyond any words.
Rating:
Summary: From a reader in Cambridge, MA
Review: This book is unbelieveable!! I couldn't stop reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't be put down
Review: This story has the effect of a fairy tale complete with castles and dungeons. There were, however, inconsistencies - several "just happened to have this and that" incidents. In the mug shots they appeared rather wholesome to have just escaped an ordeal.
Rating:
Summary: Review of Stolen Lives
Review: The premise of this book is fascinating, however, that's where it ends. Tragic though the story may be - it is poorly written, choppy in delivery and lacking in evidence of mastery of the craft of writing by the author. It's unfortunate that this potentially riveting story gets in it's own way through simplistic presentation and a meandering unimaginative plot line.
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