Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud 10 out of 10

 Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud

10 out of 10

In the iridescent True History of the Kelly Gang by radiant Peter Carey (adapted twice only recently for the big screen) the magic word is ‘adjectival - http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/11/true-history-of-kelly-gang-by-peter.html - in the ferociously fun Little Big Man by Thomas Berger the mantra is ‘Medicine’ - http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/12/little-big-man-by-thomas-berger.html - and in this superb novel it is in the title…Hideous Kinky, for this is what the two girls, Lucy who seems to represent the marvelous author, Esther Freud, daughter of acclaimed (if absent in the childhood of the girl, at least as depicted in the opus) painter Lucien Freud and great- granddaughter of the titanic Sigmund Freud, and Bella aka Bea, the latter being the elder of the two.

Because it has a background set in north Africa, mainly Marrakech in morocco, it has reminded me of The Sheltering Sky - http://realini.blogspot.com/2012/05/sheltering-sky.html - and Justine - http://realini.blogspot.com/2011/12/justine.html - and the Alexandria Quartet in general, seeing as mother Julia takes her two daughters on a Journey of discovery, a Quest for the Holy Grail, the introspective parent would seek the Truth in Sufism – alas, to the near abandonment of her elder daughter, Bea, making her a puzzling, complicated, at the same time admirable, yoga practicing, meditative, patient, resilient, if also emotional, far from perfect mother – to the city of Marrakesh of all places…

The journey does not start all that well, when they have to return to the European shore, because at the customs in morocco, in fact just before that line. A man asks to be taken for a ride and given that he is suspicious, perhaps known to the local authorities, they are denied entry on the first try and once they return to North Africa, they are allowed to cross into the country, but not before they take the trip twice…

As the Marshmallow Test has proved – studies have been made to see how children that have proved resilience and those who have not will have performed years later – Grit, Resilience are more important than IQ – just as high EQ would also bring more benefits – and in that, the trip to morocco and then to Algiers and other exotic places will have proved instrumental in building up character, toughness, grit into the little girls, if they survive that is, if Bea does not die or suffer irremediable consequences from her mouth infection, if the younger one, who is also the narrator of the story will have managed to exit the issues that lead to her wetting the bed, longing for the father figure aka the untrustworthy Bilal – who at one point would write a message in Arabic, referring to the duties according to the Koran, the zakat that would help the mother and children survive by…begging and also would push them to run into the night, without paying for the rent…

It is all a very intriguing journey and rich experience in Communicating Across Cultures ( a course which I had to take in a class, not in the wild streets of North Africa, albeit I had the chance to visit Cairo and that history was quite frightening, I wonder how those little girls survived without being permanently scarred – and they meet very poor children, who have to beg, the Fool, women who are their neighbors and help them, but also steal form them anything they can find, from nappies that they use as turbans to pants…

The ‘Henna Ladies’ live with them in the same cheap hotel and at the start of their communication – which would be made possible once Bea starts learning Arabic words and translate, albeit Bilal would help, then Mum would also get to know many words and understand the others – they offer to take care of the hair of the little one, making her enraged in the process when she sees that the result is an orange coiffure…once their friend moves in, with her baby, Mob – it has that name because her father is an…anarchist – the Henna Women start stealing the nappies, to the outrage of the mother, who sees them wearing the stolen items on…their heads…they are so immune to shame or embarrassment that they would wear the pants they also steal – when mother is waiting in line to use the toilet, the pants disappear …

Mum is meditating and uses yoga postures, she is interested in spiritual matters and she is invited to use her skills on a relative of a man they meet, Ahmed, and the result is magical, the woman that is about to die, comes back to life, albeit it is a psychological technique – after all, this woman comes from the family of Sigmund Freud – and a matter of the placebo effect, or perhaps the Japanese Ikigai, giving the lady a reason to stand up from the bed, return to life…positive psychology studies and in particular the classic by mesmerizing Victor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and brilliant scientist, would have much to say about that - http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/mans-search-for-meaning-by-victor-frankl.html

Once Mum has decided upon Sufism, she wants to embark on a physical Quest, not just the spiritual journey, prompted maybe in part by the lack of trust in the unreliable Bilal – they also have problems in getting food on the table and paying the rent at one stage, so he does have to go to work wherever he can get a job – but this has an impact on both daughters, Bea is keen to continue to go to school and travelling to Algiers and to see the spiritual leader of the Sufi would not ensure continuity, while Lucy is very worried that her mother would just turn into a Sufi and disappear – this fear might explain in part her wetting the beds where she has to sleep, which have to be changed constantly…

They have to hitchhike at one point and they find themselves trapped by the inability to communicate with the driver of the truck on the wrong tracks, they even get terrified that they would die, once they reach the mountains, there is not enough space for two vehicles and when they cross another, it looks like they may end up in the abyss…besides, the man does not understand the girl needs to urinate, or does not care about it, and mum has to keep her hanging from the truck to pee out of it…

Once they start on the way back to Bea and Marrakesh – the girl had not wanted to join them and will be lost for a while, for when they return they do not find her, making the decisions of her mother more incriminating – Julia suddenly jumps off the train with her girl and they would arrive to look for the other daughter even later…

This is really ‘Hideous Kinky’, or adjectival and Medicine, for it is a Joy ride, with ‘bad medicine ‘along the way, but with incredible adventures that include the hammam, poor peacock and dogs with vicious lice, magic, a bildungsroman with eccentric, challenging, attractive and repulsive characters that dazzle and elate…

You can find this book on The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction