Hideous Kinky

A young English woman sets off on the hippie trail to Marrakech, accompanied by her two small daughters. The youngest, aged five, tells the story. Needless to say, it doesn’t go terribly well — the money soon runs out, the rest of the group drifts off back to Europe, Mum’s boyfriends come and go, spiritual quests get overtaken by the problems of finding food, clothes and accommodation.

Freud turns out to be very good at the young-child-narrator thing, which is a very difficult trick to pull off. She (mostly) manages to steer a safe course between the obvious hazards of being either twee or annoyingly knowing, and it’s quite easy to suspend disbelief and take this as a plausible picture, informed by Freud’s own childhood show more experiences, of what the world might look like from a five-year-old perspective, even when we know that it has all inevitably been filtered through hindsight and adult awareness. It’s often very funny as the airy impracticality of hippie culture is brought into confrontation with the serious life-skills of the local people, surviving in poverty in a difficult environment, and the child’s perspective actually turns out to be perfect because of the way she can enter into sympathy with people from very different cultures without any preconceived notions about them. show less

I did not have high hopes because I do not like the title and my copy has a terrible movie tie-in cover with an enormous picture of Kate Winslet on the front. I also knew it was told from the point of view of a small child, which never seems to work well. To my surprise, I actually really enjoyed this.

The narrator (age 5) and her sister, Bea (age 7), are dragged along on their hippie mother's adventure from London to Marrakech. In Marrakech, they are submerged in the culture as they tag along while their mother does what she wants and explores spiritualism. They are often hungry, dressed insufficiently, their health is seriously neglected, and they are put in dangerous situations as they follow their mother's whims. But, they also show more experience the beauty of the country they are in, enjoy the food, and meet some kind people along the way. Seeing Morocco through a five year old's eyes was a unique perspective and very effective.

Freud does several things right in this book. One is that though she does use the perspective of a five year old, she doesn't use a child's language. She does this just right, where you aren't annoyed by having to read little kid language, but you realize that the perspective is different than it would be from an adult (or even from the slightly older, more worldly sister). This book would have been absolutely intolerable to me if it was told from the selfish mother's point of view. Experiencing through the five year old's POV, who loves her mother, wants to please her mother, and just accepts what is happening as it comes, made the plot and all the mistakes the mother makes tolerable.

This is my second book by Esther Freud and I'm impressed. I'm going to continue reading her novels. show less

Hideous Kinky is a story that is told by a young English child about the travels her mother took she and her sister on. They go to North Africa and because the narrator is so young, she turns five during the course of the story, she recounts their chaotic life in a matter of fact manner. I couldn’t quite grasp the mother’s thought processes as she repeatedly put her family at risk, but it seemed that she mostly followed her whims and the children were left to cope as best as they could.

The girls run barefoot through the streets, make friends with beggar children, they eat hashish candy, and are given henna hair treatments by their prostitute neighbours. While the narrator seems to find this life normal, it becomes obvious that her show more sister, Bea, is missing security and stability. The mother takes up with a street entertainer, Bilal, which has the narrator hoping that he will become their father.

Hideous Kinky works wonderfully on some levels but fails in others. While the child’s narrative rings true in her complete lack of insight or comprehension about her bohemian mother and other characters, overall I found it difficult to believe that these were the words of a five year old as they were entirely too richly descriptive and detailed. I was frustrated by not knowing the back story, the hows and whys of how they came to be in Morocco and why the mother acted as she did. However, I will remember this book as a colourful travelogue that at times both charmed and intrigued me. show less

Heard a lot about this novel and watched most of the film with that woman who won that Oscar. Anyway, polished this off very quickly. It’s one of those books you can read in a rainy afternoon when you’re wishing you were somewhere else and need a novel to make you realise where you are is lovely.

Freud writes this in a way that transports you into the mind of a small child travelling in a foreign country with parents who don’t quite tell you the whole story. I should know because my parents carted me off to the Middle East when I was 5 for six years and I didn’t have a clue what was going on but was fascinated by pretty much everything I encountered.

This isn’t Cider With Rosie at all. Bad stuff happens. But everyone’s alright show more in the end. The bad stuff is mostly the fact that her mother hasn’t got any way of supporting herself as her meagre resources run out in Morocco. From a trusting child’s point of view though, Esther seems to integrate herself pretty well into her new home. Her sister though goes even further, being older and doesn’t seem to suffer from the occasional pangs of self-doubt and worry that dog Esther.

1960s Morocco is vividly brought to life with all the character it would have had. It’s not as vivid as My Family and Other Animals, but it’s pretty well depicted. In the end though, I found it a little short and, because of her age at the time, I wondered if she was old enough to really relate in depth what she experienced. It’s vividly described, yes, but the ability to reflect on our experiences from the perspective of later life is something I wished the book had more of.

That said, it’s a classic for sure, capturing an era that has, for better or worse, long gone form the shores of Morocco. show less

"Mum...wants to have adventures. She told me", 1 Mar. 2016

This review is from: Hideous Kinky (Paperback)
I really enjoyed this child's-eye recollection of a lengthy visit to Morocco with a hippy mother and slightly bossy older sister back in the 70s. The country is vividly depicted, and the child's automatic acceptance of what seems to us utter fecklessness on the part of the mother comes through well. Hashish, a local boyfriend and a decision to embrace Sufism (and hitch-hike with the younger girl to a religious centre in Algiers, while off-loading the older onto a family in Marrakech) strike the 21st century reader as unwise; and while the narrator accepts things, her older sister is hankering after things like school, a father figure show more and mashed potato.
Humorous moments abound - I loved the hennaed prostitutes constantly stealing the baby's nappies as turbans. show less

Esther Freud tells her autobiographical fiction through the eyes of a child. An emotionally untethered mother decides to leave dreary England for the exotic culture of Marrakech, Morocco with two young girls in tow. For money they rely on the kindness of strangers, selling homemade dolls by the side of the road, sewing clothes, and other small ventures. Occasionally and unpredictably, Lucy and Bea's father would send money from London and they would eat well for awhile. While mother is exploring mysticism and unconventional relationships in the interest of self improvement, Bea and Lucy invent ways to not miss home and their father. Bea, being the elder, wants to replace London in Marrakech with school and stability. Lucy is young show more enough to want a replacement for the father they left behind. She sets her hopes on some interesting characters. show less

Feckless mother or enlightened childhood?

This for me feels a hard book to review as I have mixed feelings about it or maybe just the message that's intended.

This is a tale of two young children taken to Morocco in the 1960's by their hippy mother and their experiences there.

There is no doubt that the book is well written from the point of a young girl which is maintained throughout,no mean feat in itself, but that also means that the narrative becomes meandering just like their mother's wanderings and also no explanations are ever given. We see an abundance of experiences from the naive point of view of a child who sees adventure everywhere with no thought of the consequences wanting to make friends wherever they whether they be old or show more young,male or female,wealthy or pauper. The depiction of life in Morocco is very atmosphere as we see the daily struggle that many people have,particularly women in a male dominated country,just to survive the daily grind.

However,if the message is a feminist one then it becomes a little muddled IMHO. The mother sets of to Morocco to find herself yet her reliance on men soon becomes painfully obvious whether it be waiting for the children's father to send money out or a local male,Bilal etc,to provide for them either financially or as company and protection. We also see a young girl who must rely on her mother for everything because she is not old enough unlike Bea to stand alone this becomes more and more desperate with time as her mother seems to become ever more oblivious to her children's needs.

Despite the mother seeming to feel that they are living some sort of idyll in Morocco the children become ever more desperate for the trappings of Western life, Mars bars, Christmas etc.

Now whilst I found this book an engaging light read it failed to really grab me and am unsure quite why it is on the '1001 books before you die' list but that could just be me.Feckless would be my vote. show less