Tea in the Harem [Paperback]

Mehdi Charef (Author), Ed Emery (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1989

This novel describes the plight of Madjid, a second-generation Algerian growing up in Paris, who is caught between two cultures. In his desperate attempts to make sense of unfamiliar surroundings, Madjid enters into French life, despite his feelings that the culture rejects and insults Arabs.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Majid, the son of Algerian immigrants, lives on the fringes of French society in a dreary, concrete slum. Thrown out of technical school, he hangs out with his friends and drinks, takes drugs, vandalizes the neighbors' property and commits robberies for spending money. Charef has captured the texture of life on the street, the combination of hopelessness and bravado that marks these alienated youths, and as a picture of their despair, this first novel is a modest success. But Charef had more in mind. Early on, he notes that Majid is "neither French nor Arab. He's the son of immigrants--caught between two cultures, two histories, two languages and two colours of skin." The implication is that Majid's pathological lifestyle is somehow a result of cultural schizophrenia--an intriguing suggestion, but Charef never returns to it. He shows us a little of the other side of the coin--the French intolerance that manifests itself in racial slurs and police harassment--but even that seems unrelated to Majid's self-destructive behavior. Ultimately, this is a novel not about culture shock but about the bleak world of a forgotten underclass.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Product Details

• Paperback: 157 pages
• Publisher: Serpent's Tail (1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852421517
• ISBN-13: 978-1852421519
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,822 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beur Literature, December 14, 2000

By 

"rosemarymisdary" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tea in the Harem (Paperback)

I read this book after I read "Lila Says" by Chimo. These books are both similar in setting. It was a depressing but accurate description of life in the arab populated Paris ghettos. The value of life, the dead end feeling, and the chaos and feeling of hopelessness was depicted like I have never read before. The characters seemed real and the surroundings were easy to picture, very vivid. And you felt for everyone in the book especially the families who came to France for a better life and received something far worse- destruction of their culture, detrioration of their children, rascism, and the feeling of leaving a whole familiar world behind and being trapped in a concrete world. more than enyting it also has french characters too that are within the same situation. It is very much telling of the immigrant experience anywhere for arabs- they leave an opressive regime where they are poor and want better and think they are going to have an incredible life some where else, so they leave their country, their language, and their family behind in search. what they find is a world in repulsion with theirs where they are very different and it is hard to survive and with this everything they know is gone and their children are different from they are and feel even more disconnected from their surroundings and their parents world. Well written.

6 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'll have tea in this harem any time., February 16, 2000

By 

Douglas York - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tea in the Harem (Paperback)

Tea in the Harem is an excellent account of life in the slums of Paris. It is at times disturbingly real and deals with Foreigners trying to make a go of it in the mean streets of France. I liked it because it reveals another side of Paris; a bleak, dirty, and dangerous side not often dealt with in books and movies. Anyone who has an interest in racial conflict and poverty will find this book enlightening. If you like tea, and you like harems, then you'll love Tea in the Harem.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Written and Thought Provocing, October 22, 2009

By 

Peter Caproni (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tea in the Harem (Paperback)

Charef sucks you into the slums of Paris long enough to understand how life there truly is. I recommend this book to everyone; especially to middle and upper class individuals looking for an accurate perspective on lower class life.