Love when history books aren’t boring!!!!!!

Shantytown Kid is an autobiographical bildungsroman (well, kind of, because it doesn’t trace the growth of the protagonist till adulthood but does treat of his formative years) written by a Frenchman with Algerian roots who grew to become a minister in the French government. I read it for a paper this semester and probably wouldn’t have heard of it if not for that. The book was delightful for the most part, letting humour soften the blow of the harsh reality of growing as an Arab immigrant in a multicultural France. It’s sometimes very insightful but at other times a bit lacking. The episodes which show how the kids treat and think of sex and women were quite disturbing to me, especially the nonchalance with which they were written. And the book also came to an abrupt end. But there are certainly some episodes that I will remember fondly. We’ll see if reading around the text (that is, critical material on it) will make me appreciate it more than I do now – that does seem to happen to me often.

I've read this in both French and English. I much preferred the original French.