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La Route de Chlifa
1989, Liban. Ses parents partis au Canada, Karim est resté à Beyrouth. Lorsque les bombardementss'intensifient, il n'a plus que Nada, celle qu'il aime. Dès qu'il peur, le garçon la retrouve. Jusqu'au jour où l'immeublede la jeune fille est détruit. Seuls Maha, sa soeur, et leur petit frère ont survécu. Karim décide alors de les accompagner dans les montagnes sur la route de Chlifa...
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 21, 1992
63 people are currently reading
561 people want to read
About the author
Michèle Marineau
23 books19 followersMichèle Marineau est une romancière québécoise. Elle a ensuite amorcé une double carrière de traductrice et d'auteure de livres pour la jeunesse.
Michèle Marineau is a two-time Governor General’s Award winner. Marineau studied medicine, art history, and translation at the University of Montreal before she became a writer. After she began writing, she started translating the works of other authors. Her first novel, Cassiopée: L’été polonais, was published in 1988. Her books have been translated and published in Canada, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Spain.
Michèle Marineau is a two-time Governor General’s Award winner. Marineau studied medicine, art history, and translation at the University of Montreal before she became a writer. After she began writing, she started translating the works of other authors. Her first novel, Cassiopée: L’été polonais, was published in 1988. Her books have been translated and published in Canada, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Spain.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 226 reviews
June 27, 2022
I like boobs don’t get me wrong but I hate having it said by a horny teenage boy 18 times 😇
June 1, 2013
I read this in French for my French class. My exam was on this book and let me tell you, it took everything in me to finish this. Nothing happens until So, for the first 200 pages it's just Karim in Montreal hating everything then back in Beyrouth where the civil war is still going on. And in Beyrouth all the way to Chlifa it's just them walking...and walking...and walking. They run into close to no danger, there is no action, and most of all there is close to no emotion. I wouldn't have read this if I had the choice because it's so boring.
June 9, 2013
I absolutely and completely hated this book with the loathing power of eighty suns. The characters were tolerable at best, and at worst, I don't even want to go into it. The storyline was vicious and upsetting and just generally not good. I would never recommend this unless I didn't like you at all. That's all I can say.
June 21, 2022
My French teacher said she read this seventeen times... The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over. All the characters are two-dimensional and at various points the author either self-inserts into the voices of marginalized characters or info dumps of all her research, which she recycles onto the page. At least she's eco friendly. It's stereotypical and not a fleshed out depiction of trauma. This author writes women the way men write women - as vessels for the character development of the male character (which is what a couple of the female characters are reduced to).
June 21, 2022
Exceptionally tasteless book.
Why are an 11 year old girl’s breasts a major focus?? Why is it an important plot point that she is jealous of her dead sister’s large ones??
The book relies on random shocking violence carried out arbitrarily against an animal and a child for its climax.
What is the moral of this story anyway? Develop a sixth sense to be able to detect nearby rape in your sleep (this actually happens in the book, no joke)?
Main antagonist is uninteresting, literally a complete stereotype.
I don’t care so much about the presence of the graphic content but rather the lack of reason for it. It doesn’t mean anything, there is no clear moral beyond the basic “don’t be racist” or “protect people from rapists”, there is no allegory conveyed through the cruelty. If the author wanted to criticize racism and anti-immigration, there were surely many better ways to do so that didn’t involve this filth. It’s like the author wanted to write about children’s breasts and nonsensical brutality and then hastily retrofitted the crappy plot in a poor attempt to disguise the content as a young adult book.
Terrible, crass book. Not sure why my french teacher made us read this.
Why are an 11 year old girl’s breasts a major focus?? Why is it an important plot point that she is jealous of her dead sister’s large ones??
The book relies on random shocking violence carried out arbitrarily against an animal and a child for its climax.
What is the moral of this story anyway? Develop a sixth sense to be able to detect nearby rape in your sleep (this actually happens in the book, no joke)?
Main antagonist is uninteresting, literally a complete stereotype.
I don’t care so much about the presence of the graphic content but rather the lack of reason for it. It doesn’t mean anything, there is no clear moral beyond the basic “don’t be racist” or “protect people from rapists”, there is no allegory conveyed through the cruelty. If the author wanted to criticize racism and anti-immigration, there were surely many better ways to do so that didn’t involve this filth. It’s like the author wanted to write about children’s breasts and nonsensical brutality and then hastily retrofitted the crappy plot in a poor attempt to disguise the content as a young adult book.
Terrible, crass book. Not sure why my french teacher made us read this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 16, 2022
It was easily one of the worst book I’ve ever read in my entire life. The characters are flat, the story boring and the rest is just slurs and breasts. Literally. There was some passages that made me so uncomfortable I was going to cry.
Not to mention the first part of the story that’s just white racist and homophobic fuckboys insulting everyone and doing some unacceptable things on girls WITHOUT ANY CONSEQUENCES. I just felt like the author was trying so hard to show us how they were assholes that it didn’t feel realistic. I was also disappointed by the narrator, because I did thought that she would have a much bigger role in the story.
And don’t even get me started with the second part because seriously I can’t count how many times I had to fight the urge to not throw this book out of a window. It was 100 pages of two people walking and talking about breasts at a point where it was getting too uncomfortable.
Overall I hated this book and I am really sorry for people like me who had to read it for school.
Not to mention the first part of the story that’s just white racist and homophobic fuckboys insulting everyone and doing some unacceptable things on girls WITHOUT ANY CONSEQUENCES. I just felt like the author was trying so hard to show us how they were assholes that it didn’t feel realistic. I was also disappointed by the narrator, because I did thought that she would have a much bigger role in the story.
And don’t even get me started with the second part because seriously I can’t count how many times I had to fight the urge to not throw this book out of a window. It was 100 pages of two people walking and talking about breasts at a point where it was getting too uncomfortable.
Overall I hated this book and I am really sorry for people like me who had to read it for school.
December 20, 2018
If I had to torture someone I'd make them read this boring book
March 11, 2022
absolutely awful tbh..
October 3, 2020
Terrible. Full scene where a seventeen year old gropes the 12-year old sister of his now-dead girlfriend. Then he seems to face no consequences for it. Earlier in the book, there's an attempted rape and that character also seems to face no consequences, despite this and his other offensive behaviour. The author is definitely overly focused on breasts. She seems to use them to drive a majority of the story and the character development. Very uncomfortable to read. The main character is vaguely interesting in the first part, and then becomes increasingly worse as the story progresses. The more you learn about him, the less you like him. Don't read this book if you can help it.
May 27, 2022
0.0001/5
Michele better pay for my therapy. I wanted to shrink into myself every time we read this.
Okay, an actual review:
- Karim's character was unrealistic and flat. Each character was there for a singular purpose, it's like they were objects. Nada was there to die.
- The storyline would have been good if most of the chapters wasn't them walking. If we see conflict with other people, the war, or culture.
- It was oversexualized. There's a reason why I like kdramas, so why is this pushed on my in my french class?
- If sexuality is supposed to be a focus, don't make the characters children!
Michele better pay for my therapy. I wanted to shrink into myself every time we read this.
Okay, an actual review:
- Karim's character was unrealistic and flat. Each character was there for a singular purpose, it's like they were objects. Nada was there to die.
- The storyline would have been good if most of the chapters wasn't them walking. If we see conflict with other people, the war, or culture.
- It was oversexualized. There's a reason why I like kdramas, so why is this pushed on my in my french class?
- If sexuality is supposed to be a focus, don't make the characters children!
March 23, 2015
Petit roman,,,,je n'ai pas aimé le lire, je n'ai pas détesté le lire. Je l'ai lu, je l'ai fini, et je me suis dit: "ha bon? C'est tout?". L'idée de base était bonne mais il aurait fallu mettre plus de chair autour, plus de péripéties et l'auteur n'a pas réussi parfaitement à nous rendre copains avec les personnages. J'en ai quand même appris sur le Liban et son passé triste, mais je n'ai pas pu ressentir cette terreur à fond dans le roman. Quand la mort d'une chêvre est le moment le plus palpitant dans le roman...il doit être travaillé davantage! Mais il y avait du potentiel!
April 9, 2022
pros:
cons:
1. problematic
2. problematic
3. problematic
4. problematic
5. boring
i genuinely tried to find a redeeming feature of this book. but truly, there are none.
cons:
1. problematic
2. problematic
3. problematic
4. problematic
5. boring
i genuinely tried to find a redeeming feature of this book. but truly, there are none.
June 7, 2023
nope. don't read this.
sexual tension with two sisters and a goat
sexual tension with two sisters and a goat
November 18, 2022
the worst book i have ever read.
update: this book is FINALLY banned by the school board
update: this book is FINALLY banned by the school board
February 10, 2022
*First before I start, keep in mind that my first language is not French so I may have misunderstood some parts of this book.*
I had to read ‘La Route de Chlifa’ for French class and it definitely felt like homework reading it. First off, the story is incredibly boring. The book is split up into three sections - the first two being larger and the last being short. The first section includes Karim complaining about Montréal nonstop, an unnecessary and uncomfortable sexual assault scene amongst minors that is put in there only for shock value, and that’s pretty much it.
The second section takes place before Karim had come to Montréal, back in Lebanon and it includes Karim getting overly heartbroken over a girl dying that he had just met and scenes and scenes of walking from Beirut to Chlifa with little to no conflict whatsoever. Then, Maha, the girl’s sister who had survived, suddenly dies just before they get to Chlifa in a spontaneous way that adds nothing to the story, and Karim ends up just going to Montréal to live with his parents. That’s literally all that happens in the 173 pages of the second part. The third part just wraps up whatever few ends the previous part left behind (which is probably why it’s so short - there wasn’t much to say about it).
My biggest problem with this book though is that absolutely none of the characters are likeable. Karim, the protagonist himself, constantly complains about everything. What’s supposed to make us like him, I guess, is that he saves a girl from being assaulted which doesn’t make me like him, it just makes me think: “Oh cool, Karim is doing something anyone should do.” I legitimately cannot think of one character that wasn’t pessimistic or annoying in this entire story.
However, some things I did like were how the relationship between Karim and Maha grew as they made their way to Chlifa and how they were bonded by trauma. However, even though I haven’t read many French books and I don’t know how French literature is usually written, I do know that I did not really enjoy the plot overall and am pretty glad I don’t have to pick this book up anymore.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that 1. We never meet the narrator who is supposedly a girl in Karim’s class that has no connection to him or reason to know what he’s thinking at all(???) and 2. That some parts of this were just so weird. Like how one character literally gets away with sexually assaulting a girl, calling people the F slur (or whatever letter it is in French), and being generally awful to everyone. Karim even ends up playing soccer with him at the end. So so odd.
I had to read ‘La Route de Chlifa’ for French class and it definitely felt like homework reading it. First off, the story is incredibly boring. The book is split up into three sections - the first two being larger and the last being short. The first section includes Karim complaining about Montréal nonstop, an unnecessary and uncomfortable sexual assault scene amongst minors that is put in there only for shock value, and that’s pretty much it.
The second section takes place before Karim had come to Montréal, back in Lebanon and it includes Karim getting overly heartbroken over a girl dying that he had just met and scenes and scenes of walking from Beirut to Chlifa with little to no conflict whatsoever. Then, Maha, the girl’s sister who had survived, suddenly dies just before they get to Chlifa in a spontaneous way that adds nothing to the story, and Karim ends up just going to Montréal to live with his parents. That’s literally all that happens in the 173 pages of the second part. The third part just wraps up whatever few ends the previous part left behind (which is probably why it’s so short - there wasn’t much to say about it).
My biggest problem with this book though is that absolutely none of the characters are likeable. Karim, the protagonist himself, constantly complains about everything. What’s supposed to make us like him, I guess, is that he saves a girl from being assaulted which doesn’t make me like him, it just makes me think: “Oh cool, Karim is doing something anyone should do.” I legitimately cannot think of one character that wasn’t pessimistic or annoying in this entire story.
However, some things I did like were how the relationship between Karim and Maha grew as they made their way to Chlifa and how they were bonded by trauma. However, even though I haven’t read many French books and I don’t know how French literature is usually written, I do know that I did not really enjoy the plot overall and am pretty glad I don’t have to pick this book up anymore.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that 1. We never meet the narrator who is supposedly a girl in Karim’s class that has no connection to him or reason to know what he’s thinking at all(???) and 2. That some parts of this were just so weird. Like how one character literally gets away with sexually assaulting a girl, calling people the F slur (or whatever letter it is in French), and being generally awful to everyone. Karim even ends up playing soccer with him at the end. So so odd.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 18, 2020
This was honestly disappointing, but not really that surprising considering every book I’ve read in French class I haven’t enjoyed.
The first part of this book was pretty good in my opinion. But the second part DRAGGED. And then the third part was so rushed and nothing was fleshed out. So there was character development but we didn’t get to SEE any of this character development.
Also could we maybe not seem like were redeeming a not good person at the end please? There was one character who was racist, homophobic, and even sexually assaulted a girl and there were zero repercussions for him. He got off just fine and everyone was okay with it. Like?
And then there’s the fact that the other narrator of this story was useless. She added NOTHING to anything.
Yeah, sad to be leaving high school without having liked a single of the four french books we’ve read, but what can be done about it?
The first part of this book was pretty good in my opinion. But the second part DRAGGED. And then the third part was so rushed and nothing was fleshed out. So there was character development but we didn’t get to SEE any of this character development.
Also could we maybe not seem like were redeeming a not good person at the end please? There was one character who was racist, homophobic, and even sexually assaulted a girl and there were zero repercussions for him. He got off just fine and everyone was okay with it. Like?
And then there’s the fact that the other narrator of this story was useless. She added NOTHING to anything.
Yeah, sad to be leaving high school without having liked a single of the four french books we’ve read, but what can be done about it?
June 14, 2024
ITS OVER! ITS over. it's over 😭😭😭
This book makes me want to...
Here are twenty and one things I dislike about this book. (In no particular order)
1. The cover
2. The authors note
3. The storyline
4. The characters
5. The fact it's on the school curriculum
6. Walking
7. More walking
8. The fact they spent 5 chapters getting lost
9. Random info-dumps
10. The fact that the women are written only for Karims development and nothing else
11. There is no moral. Or anything really
12. Nadas breasts
13. Mahas breasts
14. Karim wanting to touch girls breasts
15. Karim having wet dreams about touching Maha
16. Karim touching Maha
17. The fact that Maha is 12 and Karim is 17
18. The characters (again)
19. How there is no development in the start of the book and how it just talks about David and his gang
20. The fact that everything in the book is just an object for Karim to use
21. Horny boys
This book makes me want to...
Here are twenty and one things I dislike about this book. (In no particular order)
1. The cover
2. The authors note
3. The storyline
4. The characters
5. The fact it's on the school curriculum
6. Walking
7. More walking
8. The fact they spent 5 chapters getting lost
9. Random info-dumps
10. The fact that the women are written only for Karims development and nothing else
11. There is no moral. Or anything really
12. Nadas breasts
13. Mahas breasts
14. Karim wanting to touch girls breasts
15. Karim having wet dreams about touching Maha
16. Karim touching Maha
17. The fact that Maha is 12 and Karim is 17
18. The characters (again)
19. How there is no development in the start of the book and how it just talks about David and his gang
20. The fact that everything in the book is just an object for Karim to use
21. Horny boys
September 14, 2019
J’ai été happée par la force de l’écriture dès le départ. L’écriture est vraiment facile à lire et prenante. On voyage entre le beau et le douloureux si rapidement.
L’action déroule vite dans la première partie.
La deuxième partie a été un peu creuse pour moi particulièrement durant le voyage de Beyrouth à Chlifa. Par contre, la fin de la deuxième partie est des plus surprenante et saisissante.
J’ai bien aimé la troisième partie et comment le livre se termine.
Tout au long du livre les réflexions et les différentes perceptions sont bien apportées. Le point de vue externe est intéressant et la comparaison avec celui de Karim est très pertinente.
L’action déroule vite dans la première partie.
La deuxième partie a été un peu creuse pour moi particulièrement durant le voyage de Beyrouth à Chlifa. Par contre, la fin de la deuxième partie est des plus surprenante et saisissante.
J’ai bien aimé la troisième partie et comment le livre se termine.
Tout au long du livre les réflexions et les différentes perceptions sont bien apportées. Le point de vue externe est intéressant et la comparaison avec celui de Karim est très pertinente.
January 6, 2022
dont read this book
April 28, 2022
this book was ass
July 5, 2018
I read this book for my grade eleven french class and....wow I was not expecting to love it this much. The characters were complex and the plot was tragic in a beautiful way. A seriously amazing read with profound depth. I would definitely recommend this novel to anyone :)
December 18, 2022
i didn't pay attention and then skimmed the last 5 chapters. but i suffered too much to not count this as a book i've read
July 10, 2024
This might be the worst book I’ve ever read tbh
September 1, 2018
Wow, wow et rewow. Un livre écrit il y a plus de 20 ans et toujours malheureusement aussi d'actualité. Un récit de guerre, de violence de haine. Marquant aussi de voir que malgré le changement de pays, la haine entre les différences est toujours présente et fait preuve d'une violence inconcevable. Pour tous les Karim et les Maha, pour s'ouvrir, La route de Chlifa est à lire.
January 12, 2024
So bad I wanna give you a zero…but that’s not possible so I give you a one.
February 24, 2023
J’ai fini ce livre en classe aujourd’hui. La fin du livre fait pas de sens, la narratrice n’est même pas spécifié! En plus, la façon que les garçons parle des filles dans se livre est tellement bizarre et irrespectueux. Il y avait tellement de parties au sujet de seins qui était complètement inutile.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 17, 2015
This book will make you question the meaning of life, and not in a good way. By that I mean you may seriously consider whether the positives of life outweigh this book. Nothing happens. It is a painfully boring book.
August 11, 2024
really bad and it js enraged me sm
(the only good part was the start)
1) karim is a terrible character and is disgusting
2) the whole book after the start is so boring
3) plotholes EVERYWHERE
4) My-Lan deserves better
5) Antoine Milad
(the only good part was the start)
1) karim is a terrible character and is disgusting
2) the whole book after the start is so boring
3) plotholes EVERYWHERE
4) My-Lan deserves better
5) Antoine Milad
October 18, 2020
I lost all my will to live when they were discussing a twelve year old’s breasts. Why does the language school board hate it’s students...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 226 reviews