SECRET SON by LAILA LALAMI

   I am writing this review of this novel, Secret Son by Laila Lalami(published by Viking, a Penguin Group,2010),from Kerala, a southern state in India. This is June, rainy season in this part of India. Drought  is something which we have heard of. Seasons do their role almost very punctually and we,therefore,get rain, hot weather,spring,winter etc in time. Although there have been exceptions, nature ‘s schedule seems to be fixed here every year. We therefore find it interesting when we read the beginning of ‘Secret Son’ with the sentence ‘Rain came unexpectedly, after nearly three years of drought. ‘But  Youssef’s and his mother’s living conditions are not unfamiliar to us. Especially ,a single room with grimy walls, doors and roof is what you can find even in our cities which can boast of skyscrapers.

   When it rains unexpectedly, the first priority of both the lady and her son is made clear. She grabs the soup pot by its ears and takes it to the one room home.Meanwhile,Youssef takes the framed black and white photo of his father who gazes back at him with the looks of a gentle man in his twenties.

   This beginning itself tells us about their meagre belongings and the novelist,Laila Lalami makes the setting clear. The narration is such that you never feel the pressure  to quit reading out of boredom. You read about Hay-An-Najat,a poverty stricken rural hilly area where the mother and her nineteen year old son live in one of the tin-roofed houses.

    In a moment of self realization,the teenager understands who he is: He is none other than a slum dweller, the son of a hospital clerk, a man with no illusions about his place in his society.

   The title ‘Secret Son’ denotes the secrecy behind his birth. Although his mother is known as a widow in Hay-An-Najat,the son is the fruit of her fornication, in a sense or in other words, a Mr Nabil Amrani,a well-known business tycoon of  Morocco is equally or more responsible for his birth. The unglittering realities surrounding the secret son leads him to the situations in which even running errands for his mother seems insurmountable for him. At a point, home becomes his only place to hide from the inquisitive eyes around.

   Youssef’s friend Amin tells him once:

   “I should have known better to befriend a son of a whore.”

   The words sting his heart leaving a stark burning sensation. The very thought of his existence tortures him.

   The novel  is introduced as a tale of contemporary Morocco. Where exactly is Morocco in the world map?

   I looked up the map to find it in Africa. It is only a few kilometres away from Spain too. We can guess the answer to the question why the country has not been a member of African union yet. As we know why  Indians are still proud of speaking English(at least the rank and file),we can understand why the ‘widow’-as Youssef’s mother is scornfully considered by the villagers-is said to put on airs, simply  because she can speak French flawlessly. Although it is a positive element in the society, it exacerbates the resentment of the people towards her.Similarly,Youssef’s half sister Amal is suspected  to be an Arab by a middle aged school registrar in the U S first.Later,when it is found out that she is from Morocco, the man says that she ‘does not look Arab’ in a tone that suggested it was a compliment. When she sells her car too, the American car dealer asks her if there are hidden explosives in it.

   The teenager Youssef goes in search of the secrecy behind his birth and finds Nabil Amrani,his rich father. He enjoys the affluence of his father’s set up for some time only to be  thrown to utter disappointment later. As his mother has often told him, ‘appearances are deceiving’ and he realizes it.

   The novel has four parts but it does not make any change in the serial number of its chapters. The part three ends with chapter 14.Then as we can see before the beginning of each part, words of a well-known writer are given. You  read the following words of Joseph Conrad before you enter chapter 15:

The way of even the most justifiable revolutions is prepared by personal impulses disguised into creeds.

   It hints at the catastrophe and tells us what can happen to secret sons or sons of poverty in a society into which Islamic fundamentalism digs its claws.

   We can find the novelist,Laila Lalami in both Rachida(Youssef’s mother),an embodiment of the morality of the rural poor  in a country like Morocco and Amal(Nabil Amrani’s daughter),a girl who prefers the American life style with her partner Fernando, a U S citizen, to the traditional life of a woman in one of the richest families in Morocco.

   I would say, here is a fantastic novel which takes you to many live issues of the contemporary world without letting you feel that it invites you to those issues deliberately.
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