Laila Lalami’s Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits is a reflection on unemployment and underemployment and how they affect the lives of some ambitious Moroccan youths.
Set in the late 90s and early 2000s, largely under the reign of King Hassan, the book follows the life of four Moroccans: two men and two women, who hoped that the only distance between them and prosperity was the Strait of Gibraltar that stands between Morocco and Spain.
The book starts with the dangerous journey on a boat to cross the Mediterranean and enter a land where they expect to live in the luxury of milk and honey.
But the hope of the passengers is first punctured by the boat’s captain’s decision to force them overboard to avoid arrest on arrival, though, within a swimming distance of the coast.
This emotional story brings our attention to what economists and sociologists call “The Matthew Effect”. This describes how advantages on the one hand, and disadvantages on the other hand accumulate over time, leading to increased inequality. The concept originates from the gospel of Matthew 25:29,
“for unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath”.
In this book, we can see how those who already possess resources and social connections like Si Larbi, tend to accumulate more for themselves and their family.
Conversely, those lacking resources or opportunities like Faten, Murad, Aziz, and Halima struggle to catch up.
Lalami is the third author of Moroccan descent that I read, and traces of themes explored by the other two are visible in her work. Through Teju Cole’s Open City, I discovered and read Mohammed Choukri and Tahar Ben Jalloun.
The former’s exploit of poverty, resilience, and survival in the streets of Tangier in his ‘For Bread Alone’ can be seen in this book and the latter’s reflection on living and working in diaspora and its effects on kinship and ties in ‘The Last Friend’ is also slightly observed in this book by Lalami.
My attention is drawn to the character of Faten more than any other in this story. How her experiences shaped her is relatable to the transformation of humans when things turn hard.
She is first introduced to readers as someone on the brink of political and religious extremism and an admirer of the writings of Sayyid Kutb. She succeeds in radicalizing her friend, Noura, the privileged daughter of the aristocrat, Si Larbi. But when life hits her, this same extremist ends up as a commercial sex worker in Madrid.
One night in Spain, Faten contemplates her past as the author writes:
“She remembered her college days when she’d decided to wear the hijab and preached to every woman she met that she should do the same. How foolish she had been.
She thought about her best friend, Noura, back in Rabat, and wondered what had happened to her, whether she’d taken it off. Noura was probably still wearing it. She was rich; she had the luxury of having faith.
But then, Faten thought, Noura also had the luxury of having no faith; she’d probably found the hijab too constraining and ended up taking it off to show off her designer clothes. That was the thing with money. It gave you choices.”
From the line of thought above, we can see how economic fortune could have a role in man’s faith. The Prophet of Islam is reported to have a morning routine of prayer seeking refuge from God against poverty and disbelief.
Indeed, poverty can make faith too expensive to afford, and for Faten, faith becomes exorbitant when she is caught by the Spanish authorities upon arrival at Tarifa. She was detained and on the verge of deportation back to Rabat. Faced with the choices of sex for entry into Spain or a disgraceful return to Rabat to continue life under the harsh reality of her status as a college dropout, Faten chooses the latter.
Murad abandons his job as a tourist’ guide in Tangier when the job no longer sustains him. He studied English and the labor market has little or no demand for his services.
His frustration escalates when he discovers that his younger sister’s hand was given in marriage without consulting him despite being the family head following the demise of their father.
He lives in a one-room and a parlor apartment with his mother and two other siblings. The place contains them because two of his other siblings are in medical school through scholarship.
After several years of being turned down with his applications for Spanish work visas, Murad decides to enter the country illegally and is caught upon arrival and deported back to Morrocco. He later settles for a job as a shop attendant and plans to become a storyteller.
In the end, Murad carefully looks at his life as we read in the book:
“Now, he realized, he’d had it wrong. He’d been so consumed with his imagined future that he hadn’t noticed how it had started to overtake something inside him, bit by bit.
He’d been living in the future, thinking of all his tomorrows in a better place, never realizing that his past was drifting.
And now, when he thought of the future, he saw himself in front of his children, as mute as if his tongue had been cut off, unable to recount for them the stories he’d heard as a child.
He wondered if one always had to sacrifice the past for the future, or if it was something he had done, something peculiar to him, an inability to fill himself with too much, so that for every new bit of imagined future, he had to forsake a tangible past.”
Forsaking the past is not good for someone like Murad who decides to become a storyteller. Reading this passage in quotes reminds me of some lines from the Nigerian veteran singer, 2Face Idibia’s “Dance in The Rain”:
“Forget about tomorrow live in today
Tomorrow will be fine so don’t let your worries
Take away the beauty of today”
For Aziz, after his initial deportation, he never relents and his second attempt is a success. But after five years in Spain, with his father dead back at home without him finding out until weeks later, the prosperity he yearns for in Spain, to his dismay comes at a snail’s pace.
In his spell in the country, he only saves 50 thousand Moroccan dirhams, something equivalent to $5,000 today. Based on the cost of living in Casablanca, what Aziz has is insufficient to give him the desired life he wants for himself. He has to return to Spain and keep trying, and now his wife is tired of living alone.
Halima, a mother of three almost died in the strait before her miraculous rescue by her ten year old son. She initially opts to start afresh in Spain after leaving her abusive and lazy husband.
Upon deportation, she starts a petty trading and seems now contented with it.
The celebration of Paul Bowles, the great American writer who lived most of his life and died in Morocco, with his home shown to readers as a tourist attraction center in Tangier is one aspect of the book that I like.
Laila Lalami presents hope in this spellbinding narrative as a very stubborn illusion.
But it appears only Murad and Halima have acknowledged these illusions.
For Aziz and Faten, the struggle continues as they hope and keep striving for a better life in Spain.
However, hope is vital to our lives. It keeps us going even when the future seems bleak.
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