Finished reading this book Friday morning on my metro ride in to work. This was a great book for the metro since you could pick it up and put it down without losing any train of thought or end during a critical piece of analysis. Not a great book at all. It was cool, since the perspective was intriguing: French-born Moroccan adolescent girl growing up in poor suburbs around Paris with her Moroccan mother and absent father.

The timing of this book was good, given the riots last year in the suburbs of a nation that bases its national identity on liberté, egalitie, and fraternitiem, but seems to turn a blind eye on its large immigrant communities surrounding its largest cities, e.g. Paris and Marseilles. The book is also interesting due to its young author, herself a child of Algerian immigrants who grew up in the projects outside Paris.

Overall, not a great book, maybe not even a good book, but perhaps a necessary book. And, as noted above, it’s a quick read.