A great book for learning French slang vocabulary, and also for seeing the world from the perspective of a teenage daughter of Moroccan parents living in a Parisian immigrant neighborhood. Her insights are pretty predictable and the story isn't that great, but I enjoyed the cultural experience. ( )

La vida d'una noia francesa, filla d'emigrants, que descriu la seva vida quotidiana. Un llibre interessant per diferent.
Molt bonica l'edició i amb moltes notes dels traductors. Ara, hi ha un munt de faltes d'ortografia, i fins i tot de puntuació, imperdonables. ( )

Doria lives with her mother in the Paris banlieue. She's an angry teenager: angry at her father for leaving them to go back to Morocco and find himself a peasant wife to bear him a son; angry at the lazy racism she and her mother encounter daily; angry at the social workers for pretending they understand and care. Fortunately for the reader, Doria's anger comes out as cynical wisecracks, which had me laughing out loud. But there are signs that some of this is just teenage bravado, and beneath that is a young woman who cares not just about her mother but also about her own future.

This was a sassy, energetic read which I really enjoyed. It's not perfect - sometimes the intention of the author shows through a bit too much (this bit's uplifting, this bit shows that Doria is smarter than she pretends to be), but hey, this is a first novel and Faïza Guène was only 19 when it was published, so I think those flaws are fairly minor. ( )

Aquired via BookCrossing 04 Sep 2009 - Not So Secret Stationery parcel

This was brilliant! A fresh young voice; the author is from the Parisian inner city which she describes so well, and the writing is funny, heartfelt and moving. The translation is great and not at all clunky. Doria is an Algerian living with her Mum in a seedy tower block. Around them are other Algerians and a great collection of characters, aunties, spoddy cousin types, a well-meaning counsellor, the evil boss at her Mum's place. Both Doria and Yasmina grow and change during the book, both learning new skills and ways to deal with life. Although the banlieus have been written about depressingly and have been the scenes of terrible clashes and riots, this is basically a life-affirming and positive book, while not skirting the more serious issues. I'd love to read more by this author. ( )

Written almost, but not quite, in diary form, "Kiffe Kiffe tomorrow" follows fifteen year old Daria for a year in the slummy Paris suburb "Paradise". She's born of Moroccan parents, but her dad has left the family and remarried in the home land. Daria's mum can't read or write and works as a hotel cleaner.

This book is very similar to many other european tales from the suburbs, frontlines of the failure of intergration. There's a fair bit of poverty (including heartbreaking little episodes like getting laughed at at school because your second hand t-shirt turns out to be a pyjama top), a bit of well-meaning but stupid authorities, a bit of islam, a bit of drugs, some oppression of women, a bit of reluctant love (with the most obnoxious boy ever, of course), a fair bit of anger and frustration and a hefty dose of humour and self irony. It's cute, well-written, young and fast. But I think it could have done with a little more structure. And above all, a little more teeth so to speak. If you haven't read this story many times before though, it's a good YA novel. ( )