Some Dream for Fools is not about a family to unite in France or to reunite in Algeria. Here, rather, we have split-up family, and their seems to be no solution to that.

The family itself is ever strange. Ahleme, thr first-person speaker, is essentially head of household: her father is apparently disabled from an accident, and her brother is uncontrollable. This book, though, does not fall into sterotype mode and picture Ahleme as bound to the household. Rather, she's up and about, trying out part-time jobs, or simply visiting with friend. The main chacter here is no longsuffering wet blanket.

The book deals with questions of race and religion. One reason those things come up is that Ahleme is a fierce guardian of who she is and where she comes from (but withut any delusional nostalgia). The most astounding gap is the generational tap: she cares both for an invalid and an out-of-control teenager. In some ways, she's the bond that holds the family togeter, because she can communicate with either generation.

Social stratification is in the novel, or perhaps just not that obvious. Anleme takes in the the lower-class haunts and does not waste any time publically calling for change, possibly because this area is "her" home. Nevertheless, she maintans a feeling of fundamental otherness, as if her feelings don't matter because she has much to do and doesn't have time to help herself out. When she feels hurt, frustrated, or hopeless, she often uses that time to turn on her dry wit-- and make the issue go away by changing the subject. Again, she denies herself of the right to be her.

Overall, it had a pretty loose plot (if that bothers you) but is well-condensed in its published form. The supporting characters are fairly well drawn. Recommended.

In this slim novel translated from the French, Ahlème, a 25-year-old Algerian woman living in Paris, struggles with finding a stable job, maintaining her immigration status, taking care of her disabled father, and keeping her teenaged brother out of trouble. Guène’s casual and witty first-person prose, along with the scenes involving Ahlème’s inane girlfriends, impart a distinctive Chick Lit flavor to this novel. Fortunately, there’s an added edge to Ahlème’s story that mitigates some of its frivolity. Take, for example, this excerpt where Ahlème describes her job working at a shoe store:

"I spend my days among feet and I’m remembering that I really hate that. I think a foot is a truly disgusting thing. … I can’t bring myself to look at them. When I have to help a customer try on a shoe, sometimes I think about the Cinderella story and tell myself that if she had disgusting feet, with dirty nails and toes covered in blisters, the story wouldn’t have turned out the same. The prince would have turned on his heels and run after throwing that dirty glass slipper at the bitch’s face."

While Some Dream for Fools is often funny and occasionally interesting, it’s mostly superficial and unsatisfying.

This review also appears on my literary blog Literary License. ( )