Helpful Score: 2
Yes, Freud and yes she is apparently some relation,but this has nothing to do with her book.
This book was a very fun read. I bought it at my local second hand bookstore on the clearance table for 2.00. I didn't really expect much from it, it said on the cover that it was now a major motion picture. I never heard about it either. (I have since watched the film, stick with the book).
I started the book and thought it was amusing at the very least for the first 30 pages but then found I was actually enjoying the adventures much more than I thought and before I knew it I had spent the entire day reading it all the way through.
The story follows two girls and their mother into Marrakesh, where they try to survive and adjust to an entirely new country, much different than that from which they came from in England. The story is told from the point of view of a five year old. Which makes it unique but it is written in a more mature and insightful tone. The story follows these three, sometimes with new friends, sometimes with old, to many places highlighting several interesting adventures. The mother decides to become a Sufi and the girls must deal with the challenges of a new country, their mothers immersion into Sufism, and the struggle to survive on little resources.
Not only did I learn some about this part of the country and its people I learned about Sufism. it gives a special richness and uniqueness that can be found from the eyes of a child.
By the end of the book I was very happy I has stumbled upon it. It was pretty well written and flowed well in most places.
BUT>>>> (and there is usually a but)
I did not have a clue how to pronounce many of the new words introduced but it was fun trying.I felt the first two chapters and some parts in the book were a bit confusing, lacking explanation or clarity.
This book was a very fun read. I bought it at my local second hand bookstore on the clearance table for 2.00. I didn't really expect much from it, it said on the cover that it was now a major motion picture. I never heard about it either. (I have since watched the film, stick with the book).
I started the book and thought it was amusing at the very least for the first 30 pages but then found I was actually enjoying the adventures much more than I thought and before I knew it I had spent the entire day reading it all the way through.
The story follows two girls and their mother into Marrakesh, where they try to survive and adjust to an entirely new country, much different than that from which they came from in England. The story is told from the point of view of a five year old. Which makes it unique but it is written in a more mature and insightful tone. The story follows these three, sometimes with new friends, sometimes with old, to many places highlighting several interesting adventures. The mother decides to become a Sufi and the girls must deal with the challenges of a new country, their mothers immersion into Sufism, and the struggle to survive on little resources.
Not only did I learn some about this part of the country and its people I learned about Sufism. it gives a special richness and uniqueness that can be found from the eyes of a child.
By the end of the book I was very happy I has stumbled upon it. It was pretty well written and flowed well in most places.
BUT>>>> (and there is usually a but)
I did not have a clue how to pronounce many of the new words introduced but it was fun trying.I felt the first two chapters and some parts in the book were a bit confusing, lacking explanation or clarity.
Helpful Score: 1
Very interesting story of a woman and her children finding themselves in Marrakech.
Helpful Score: 1
Read today and loved it!
Helpful Score: 1
I didn't know what to expect from the title, but it was nothing like what I found. Told from the perspective of a 5-year-old, this story follows a small family as they go from London to Morocco on a mother's whim and spiritual journey. Well-written and a great picture of a culture I was unfamiliar with through a child's eyes.
Not really very good - but listenable
Grab a sunny day, go and sit outside and indulge yourself in this book. It is a beautifully written story which is an easy read and highly recommended.
Book Description:
The debut novel from the author of Summer at Gaglow, called "a near-seamless meshing of family feeling, history and imagination" by the New York Times Book Review. Escaping gray London in 1972, a beautiful, determined mother takes her daughters, aged 5 and 7, to Morocco in search of adventure, a better life, and maybe love. Hideous Kinky follows two little English girls -- the five-year-old narrator and Bea, her seven-year-old sister -- as they struggle to establish some semblance of normal life on a trip to Morocco with their hippie mother, Julia. Once in Marrakech, Julia immerses herself in Sufism and her quest for personal fulfillment, while her daughters rebel -- the older by trying to recreate her English life, the younger by turning her hopes for a father on a most unlikely candidate.
Shocking and wonderful, Hideous Kinky is at once melancholy and hopeful. A remarkable debut novel from one of England's finest young writers, Hideous Kinky was inspired by the author's own experiences as a child. Esther Freud, daughter of the artist Lucian Freud and great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud, lived in Marrakech for one and a half years with her older sister Bella and her mother. Hideous Kinky is now a major motion picture starring Kate Winslet ("Titanic," "Sense and Sensibility").
The debut novel from the author of Summer at Gaglow, called "a near-seamless meshing of family feeling, history and imagination" by the New York Times Book Review. Escaping gray London in 1972, a beautiful, determined mother takes her daughters, aged 5 and 7, to Morocco in search of adventure, a better life, and maybe love. Hideous Kinky follows two little English girls -- the five-year-old narrator and Bea, her seven-year-old sister -- as they struggle to establish some semblance of normal life on a trip to Morocco with their hippie mother, Julia. Once in Marrakech, Julia immerses herself in Sufism and her quest for personal fulfillment, while her daughters rebel -- the older by trying to recreate her English life, the younger by turning her hopes for a father on a most unlikely candidate.
Shocking and wonderful, Hideous Kinky is at once melancholy and hopeful. A remarkable debut novel from one of England's finest young writers, Hideous Kinky was inspired by the author's own experiences as a child. Esther Freud, daughter of the artist Lucian Freud and great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud, lived in Marrakech for one and a half years with her older sister Bella and her mother. Hideous Kinky is now a major motion picture starring Kate Winslet ("Titanic," "Sense and Sensibility").
