Reading to Write: Laila Lalami

I finally got Laila Lalami's short story collection, "Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits", and reading each story is like a challenge to write. Often, as I write my stories, the issue I face repeatedly is that of appealing to a wide audience while presenting a realistic picture of my story's context. Having been out of Zimbabwe for over fourteen years, I often challenge myself to make the stories capture that setting as I remember and imagine it, but I also work hard to infuse that universal appeal which makes the stories deeply felt, etc. The excitement for a writer is usually that of finding how other writers treat matters of particularity and universality, and Laila Lalami is an expert is this kind of delivery.

She is Moroccan writer based in California, and her works are published in the United States, which, from a writer's point of view, is a milestone. So then it is natural that in reading her, I seek to see how she breaks those barriers that would exclude some readers. She does a good job of capturing the cultural specificity of Morocco while making her stories accessible to a wide range of readers.

I like what the characters convey through dialogue; which is natural, without being necessary in the true sense in which we read things as foreign. The characters are thus defined by the distinctness of their dialogue patterns, which offers some freshness without confusing or demanding too much from the reader, a balancing act of telling and showing, as in this very simple sentence:

"Sabah el-khir," Halima said, forcing herself to be cheerful as she said hello.

Here Lalami managed to give a greeting in its original language while offering a translation with little, almost invisible effort. And this is just one example of the many techniques used in the stories to maintain and share a cultural flavor.

Reading the stories you get the sense that she writes what she wants, and however she wants it to come out, without any constraints,leading to a very appealing rendition; but then you remember that such lucidity is often achieved through hard work.



I am halfway through "Hope", which I am enjoying very much. Perhaps I will be able to share some story-specific thoughts after I finish reading, but for now, let me enjoy the stories, and if you have read the book, feel free to leave a comment, telling me (and others) about your experience reading it.

In my next "Reading to Write Piece", I will share my experience reading Yiyun Li's novel The Vagrants.