Driss Chraïbi (Book order)

Driss Chraïbi Book order

July 15, 1926 – April 1, 2007

Driss Chraïbi, a Moroccan author writing in French, transcends the reduction to a single major work and theme. His oeuvre, marked by constant renewal, delves into colonialism, racism, the condition of women, consumer society, and Islam. He uniquely wove his early literary explorations with his studies in chemistry, resulting in an original, scientifically structured style, particularly evident in his controversial early novels. Chraïbi masterfully critiques the dissonance between ideal and reality, whether in religious practice, societal norms, or the challenges of cultural integration, with later works offering a more melancholic reflection on identity and the past.

The Simple Past

172 pages
7 hours of reading

3.3(86)Add rating

The Simple Past came out in 1954, and both in France and its author’s native Morocco the book caused an explosion of fury. The protagonist, who shares the author’s name, Driss, comes from a Moroccan family of means, his father a self-made tea merchant, the most devout of Muslims, quick to be provoked and ready to lash out verbally or physically, continually bent on subduing his timid wife and many children to his iron and ever-righteous will. He is known, simply, as the Lord, and Driss, who is in high school, is in full revolt against both him and the French colonial authorities, for whom, as much as for his father, he is no one. Driss Chraïbi’s classic coming-of-age story is about colonialism, Islam, the subjection of women, and finding, as his novel does, a voice that is as cutting and coruscating as it is original and free.