It's hard to describe this book without giving too much away, so I'll start by saying that it's terrific. Four Moroccan people attempt an illegal crossing to Spain; the book is about their reasons and the aftermath. The "Before" section sketches each person's life as it was in Morocco, and lets us see the compelling hope and desperation that fuel the decisions to leave. In "After," we find out what happened to each one.

I was left wishing for more, in a good way. Without being polemical, this book pushes the reader to ponder questions about the poor and/or abused who hope for a better life, as well as the social and cultural roadblocks they encounter. Ms. Lalami's writing is sympathetic but not pitying--for three of her people, at least. She doesn't seem to have much (or any) sympathy for Faten, whose "Before" chapter is entitled "The Fanatic" and whose "After" fate is surprising (at least it was to me).

This is a thoughtful book that I'd recommend to anyone.

Great book - quick and interesting reading. The author writes in a manner that keeps the reader intrigued.

This is the finest work on modern Morocco that I have ever read. It shows the country as it is, when in an extremely rapidly changing culture almost every other well written book on Morocco shows the country as it once was. I was moved for the extremely well-written characters, though to call them characters if far too limiting, for they truly became people under Lalami's pen. I could identify aspects of many different friends and aquaintances that I had grown to know in the three years living in Morocco, including a year in the ghetto of Dar Baida/Casablanca. The places and culture are so accurately described I at times had difficulty remembering that this was a fictional work.

Lalami writes what is basically a slice-of-life, or rather multiple slices of life, with an intriguing motif of flashbacks and flash-forwards that keep the reader guessing what will happen next, and being consistently rewarded with unexpected yet in-character results. Beginning the story in the middle was in no way gimmicky, but rather served to draw us to the characters all the more.

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits showed the real physical and spiritual poverty of a great nation struggling to find their way, struggling to make ends meet, in the midst of 30% unemployment and no real hope for succor. Lalami has been criticized, for she also reveals the truth of Morocco: a wonderful country and culture, but with drugs, alcoholism, prostitution, rampid joblessness, cheating in schools, objectification of women, sexism, spousal abuse, rising Islamists, and laws against speaking anything negative about the king. It is a country with great need. Lalami also manages to show how rapidly the country is changing. The 1st and 2nd sections of the book take place around 1999, when Hassan II is king, and much more adamant about arresting and imprisoning people who speak against the monarchy, creating a near police state at times, where people feared to speak in public. Mohammed VI, his son and successor, has been much more open in allowing freedom of speech and of the press, supporting women's rights, encouraging democracy, and caring for the needs of the poor and minorities. Thus the third section of the book, taking place around 2004, lacks some of the oppressive feal of those previous days.

The one criticism I have of the book is minor, both as a plot development and in importance of the point. Yes, homosexuality is present in Morocco, as it is in every country in the world. Yet Lalami seems to suggest that one character is known to be gay because he engages in physical touching of another guy. This doesn't make sense. Arab countries and Morocco lack that peculiar extreme expression of homophobia that is present in the West and particularly America, where men can't touch each other or be physically intimate because it might be interpreted as gay. It's common to see two straight guys with their arms around each other in a cafe or holding hands as they walk down the street. I was therefore unable to relate or understand this one part of the plot. But that was the *only* aspect that did not make sense from my experiences in Morocco.

In reading this, I was moved with compassion for the people of Morocco all over again. At the end was a feeling that there was no hope for succeeding and having it all. Those who are successful monetarily lose their culture, morality, and family. Lalami shows us that in Morocco, at present, hope is truly a dangerous pursuit- and not that reasonable of a pursuit either.

Through the stories of four people who try to cross the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain in an inflatable boat (the Zodiac), Laila Lalami paints a vivid picture of life in contemporary Morocco, and the poverty, political repression and desperation driving these people to risk their lives in search of a better one. Some fail, some succeed and Lalami does a kind of "before and after" comparison of their lives. Despite dire circumstances, Lalami tries to show that these people still dare to hope, or perhaps, that they have no choice but to hope, as the alternative is despair. Lalami's characters draw one in, she is a great storyteller and writes beautifully.

This was a very odd book. The conflict happens in the very first pages of the book, and is resolved immediately. Then the rest of the book is a look back at how they arrived at the conflict, and a look forward toward what happened after the conflict. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't overly satisfying, either. Partially, my disappointment stems from what could have been in this book had it been organized differently.