Spy novels, spy manuals, Othello, Edith Wharton, and the Koran supply the cryptic quotes introducing each chapter of Diane Johnson’s Lulu in Marrakech. Lulu is in Marrakech ostensibly to research female literacy programs. But her covert mission as a CIA agent is to keep an eye on the expats (including her new boyfriend Ian) and other donors who may be funding terrorist networks.
Lulu is drawn to Ian as husband material, but she suspects he isn’t telling her everything. When Gazi Al-Sayad shows up on the doorstep after leaving her Saudi Arabian husband, Lulu’s suspicions are unveiled…in a few more chapters. (Lulu is a novice after all.) With the help of her secret contact, Colonel Barka, Lulu eventually unravels the clues. Which leaves this reader to wonder, didn’t she read the epigraphs?
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"He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, as in all fortunes." -Barrow
Contents
Index
About the author
- morningstar
- When she's not caring for her husband and two children (and sometimes even when she is), she can be found reading "a novel."
2 comments:
Just found this at our school library and am headed down to check it out.
Lulu is not a sympathetic character. This was a super disturbing book. the author talks about colonialist attitudes, but her characters fall into them completely. Marrakesh does not become the rich character it deserves to be but rather is viewed only through critical eyes, and the Moroccan people are stereotyped.
I found her actions reprehensible as well.
So, not a good read for me.
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