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Oser vivre

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Entre l’être et le paraître, entre le vouloir et le devoir, entre le « je » et le « elle », ce récit à deux voix, porté par une écriture à la fois tendre et violente, raconte l’histoire d’une femme déchirée. Par ses rêves désespérés d’indépendance et de liberté, son besoin de sécurité dans la chaleur rassurante d’un foyer, ses tendresses maternelles, sa passion interdite pour un autre homme… Le mal-être de la vie vécue selon les autres, dans une société qui tolère l’hypocrisie mais ne pardonne pas la différence.Salué dès sa sortie par la presse, pour sa finesse et son audace, étudié dans plusieurs universités et donnant lieu à de nombreux débats, le roman Oser Vivre a été consacré best-seller en quelques années.

271 pages, Paperback

Published September 25, 2000

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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Profile Image for Nada Salim.
2 reviews1 follower
November 21, 2016
une de mes premières lectures de la littérature féminine marocaine, un livre facile à lire et un style fluide. certes, je ne me suis pas identifiée à l’héroïne parce qu'on a pas grand chose en commun mais dans le livre il y a la description de la vie d'un couple qui devienne monotone et qui n'apporte pas grand chose ni à l'homme ni à la femme.
ce livre suscite une réflexion sur le mariage comme institution au Maroc.
Profile Image for Moushine Zahr.
Author 2 books83 followers
June 22, 2017
This is the 4th novel I've read from this author and this book was the author's first novel and bestseller published first in 1999. This fiction novel is about a young woman from a wealthy family in Fes who chose to marry a man instead of finishing school, who became an unhappy housewife with 2 children with no finished education and job prospect, living her entire life around her self-centred traditional husband. The story is generally well written with the characters well developped. The author detailed realistically well the psychological dilemma the woman has been living ever since getting married between living her own life in a modern and independant way or sacrificing her life at the service of a husband in a traditional way.

The novel and the story are great, well written, interesting to read, and accurate. However, I didn't like the structure of the novel and one important aspect was missing.

The book is divided in 2 parts even though I found it unnessary. The author used 3 text font:
- the bold font was used to describe the present scene,
- the time roman font was used to describe her marriage in past scenes,
- and the italic font to write what the characters wrote themselves in various scenes.

This excessive division is disruptive for the readers when reading. Many times the author just let out a continous flow of her personnal thoughts on woman's situation in Morocco and seemed to have forgotten to write and develop more the fictionnal story. Although the author's arguments are true, many of them should have not been written with the fiction story, but in another book.
Furthermore, there are one missing aspect. The author set correctly the main characters within their families and society in general, but she forgot to mention the historical setting. When was this story supposedly happening? As a Moroccan, I was able to assume that the main female character was born in the 50's or 60's and marriage held in late 60's or 70's. However, a reader unfamiliar with Morocco might believe wrongly that the story was happening in the 90's. The female character is part of an entire generation of woman born in the 50's or 60's right after the independance of Morocco, who first had access to education in high school and university. Many of these woman were caught between continuing the traditions by becoming a housewfife with children and dependent solely on her husband or marrying after finishing university and working.
The woman's situation in Morocco today is still not as it should be, but it is not as it used to be in the 60's or 70's and it all depends on her social class.

I recommend people to read this novel, especially if interested on the woman's situation within the society, even if I found some structural problems, but the readers should definitely be cautious on whether this story is still accurate today or not.

Profile Image for Amina.
43 reviews27 followers
July 8, 2016
Magnifique histoire
la liberté demande beaucoup .. Nadia A pu la retrouver qu'après 30 ans d'éxistance et de résistance aux pouvoirs extérieurs, des idiotes coutumes et des faits "stupides" de notre communauté.Ali, homme féroce,inconscient et rude s'oppose a Mehdi le doux,le merveilleux ,le sentimental..
L'amour de Nadia s'évapore de sa tête pour prendre place dans un très profond endroit au fond de son coeur ! mais refait surface tout en laissant de douloureuse traces physique et mentale;mais heureusement que a la fin elle a oser vivre comme un petit jolie oiseau.
1 review1 follower
November 13, 2014
C'est un livre que toute fille marocaine doit lire, ça représente la réalité et surtout le vrai visage du mariage marocain. c'est l'histoire de Nadia, une fille issue de la bourgeoisie fassi qui se marie à l'âge de 18 ans avec l'homme qu'elle aimait, elle croyait qu'elle allait vivre une histoire de fées mais la réalité était totalement le contraire.
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