About two years ago, I reviewed Leila Slimani’s The Country of Others, the first part of a projected trilogy based on her own family’s experiences living in Morocco as the country gained independence from France. That novel primarily revolved around Mathilde, a French woman from Alsace who married Amine–a Moroccan soldier who served in the French army during World War II–and moved to Morocco to be with him. Slimani beautifully expressed the family’s situation of being caught in between, neither fully accepted by the French or by the Moroccans. The historical period of the novel was also interesting–a new country being born after a period of anticolonial struggle.
Watch Us Dance is the second part of the trilogy (once again translated by Sam Taylor from the original French). Slimani made the decision to skip the actual moment of independence in 1956 and pick up the story in the mid-1960s. Amine has now become a successful member of the Moroccan bourgeoisie– a transition which is underlined by the installation of a swimming pool on the family farm. In contrast to the first novel’s focus on Mathilde and Amin, the sequel focuses primarily on the next generation–their children Aicha and Selim. In the course of the novel, Aicha returns home after studying medicine in her mother’s native Alsace and begins a relationship with Mehdi, an economics student known as “Karl Marx” for his radical views. She eventually marries Mehdi, who becomes a member of the government. Aicha herself becomes a successful obstetrician and, by the end of the novel, gives birth to a baby girl (presumably based on Slimani herself). We can assume that the final volume of the trilogy will tell the story of Aicha’s daughter.
Aside from Aicha, the other major character in this novel is her brother Selim. While he was a baby in the first novel, he is now a moody teenager who leaves school and runs away with hippies. This allows Slimani to describe the atmosphere of late 1960s Morocco, when the country was a favored destination for young tourists from Europe. There is even a cameo appearance by Jimi Hendrix.
In addition to the family drama, there are references to the political context of the era, with several coup attempts against King Hassan II and the actions of the secret police against dissidents. However, the political context is less important in this sequel than it was in the first novel, where the anticolonial mood against the French was a major theme.
Overall, I found Watch Us Dance to be more disjointed than The Country of Others. The narrative often switched between characters, many of whom were new and it was not immediately clear why the reader was supposed to care about them. In contrast, The Country of Others was mostly tightly focused on Mathilde and Amin. However, I would still recommend the book to fans of the earlier novel. I will eagerly await the final volume.
Thoughts Of A Bibliophile 