A Street in Marrakech

Rating:
Summary: One Family's Year-Long Experience Living in Marrakesh
Review: I am an American woman who has been living in Marrakesh for the past 9 years. I just read this book. Even though it was written in the early 1970's, I found it to be a very accurate portrayal of life in the old medina, even now. The author and her husband are anthropologists, and both spoke fluent Arabic upon their arrival, from having lived previously in Iraq and Egypt. Therefore, the author was able to converse with people daily, and understand completely, what they were saying. This is something I have never been able to do. Because of this, she is able to give a VERY detailed look at an aspect of life which is nearly impossible for most outsiders to penetrate--the hidden life of Medina women, which takes place behind high, closed walls. What she describes is very similar to what I have experienced here of life with my Moroccan husband's family, and the people who live around them in the Medina. This book is NOT a study of political or historical conditions--it is the detailed, personal history of one family's year-long experience of living, and immersing itself, in the life of Marrakesh.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful and realistic
Review: I read this book in preparation for a return trip to Morocco and wish I'd read it the first time. This is a story of what it's REALLY like to move to a foreign country--non-western--and try to live as the people do. For those of us who have read books like "A Year in Provence" and suspect that it all sounds too good to be true, this book is a refreshing change. It's told from a woman's perspective, and focuses on domestic life, the sharp difference between public and home behavior in Islamic societies, the pervasiveness of religion, and male-female roles. I would have liked a bit of a broader perspective--the author's descriptions of public unrest and a strike were tantalizing, and I would have liked to know a bit more about what was going on in the country at the time, but she describes pretty clearly why Europeans or Americans, well-meaning though they may be, wouldn't necessarily be met with open arms.

Rating:
Summary: Sensitive, informative and interesting
Review: My long time fascination with North Africa, culminated in the mid 1980s when my husband and I lived in Algeria for one year. Since then I have tried to enlarge that experience by travelling through the area and reading about the different cultures living in North Africa. How I wish that in 1984 I had already read Elizabeth Fernea's account of her year in Marrakech! Marocco and Marrakech are obviously different cultures from that of Algeria, but the detailed descriptions Fernea gives us about feasts, customs and manners, so very sensitively rendered would have helped and would also have alerted me to the minefield of possible "faux pas" -- which in retrospect I committed by the dozens!
From my experience this is a very credible account of life in the region. And most important -- it is not patronizing. Marrakech life is presented with humor, with that perplexing foreignness that is typical to Westerners in North Africa, and with respect for religious differences.
The book reads very well, it is full of curious data and also of excitment. A great read!