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The Last Friend, the new novel from internationally acclaimed author Tahar Ben Jelloun, winner of the 2004 International Dublin/IMPAC award, is a Rashamon-like tale of friendship and betrayal set in twentieth century Tangier. Written in Ben Jelloun's inimitable and powerfully direct style, the novel explores the twists and turns of an intense thirty-year friendship between two young men struggling to find their identities and sexual fulfillment in Morocco in the late 1950s, a complex and contradictory society both modern and archaic. From their carefree university days through their brutal imprisonment and ultimate release, the two rely on each other for physical and psychological survival, forging bonds not easily broken. Each narrator tells his version of the story, painting a vivid portrait of life lived within and in opposition to the moral strictures of North Africa. Set against a backdrop of repression and disillusionment, The Last Friend is a tale of loss of innocence and a nation's coming of age.… (more)
User reviews
Ali provides an account of their friendship and what goes wrong, this is followed by Mamed's account; a friend they share provides another view of their problems, and the last word lies with the letter from one friend to the other.
While the closeness and depth of this friendship is described in both accounts, the book somehow fails to convey any real feeling. Could it be that something has been lost in the translation, or perhaps the way such matters are viewed by different cultures? Whatever the reason I was left a little cold when what I was hoping for was an involving and moving story of close friendship.
This is a novel about a remarkable friendship. When I first started reading I thought this might be another book about boys acting badly, sexual scenes and thoughts, drinking etc. The setting of Morocco kept me reading, I had not read many books set there before. So glad I did because this book is so much more. The culture, the politics of the country, the medical situation in both Morocco and Sweden, marriage and infidelity and ultimately a staged betrayal. But who was the betrayer and what was the reason behind it?
We hear from Ali, and then Mamet and finally Ramon, a friend of theirs that they had kept in contact with from their school days. He does play a integral part of this story.
This turned into a very emotional read for me, what a wonderful journey it was. The extra half star is for the last paragraph of the book, it summed it all up perfectly and left me teary eyed.