3 out of 4 stars
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My Trip to Adele is a tale of 3 persons’: Yaser, Naadia, and Elias. Many a time we hear of a movie that is based on a novel or a novel based on actual events. This time, it is a novel inspired by Adele’s songs.
In My Trip To Adele, Adele is to hold a concert at Arena Di Verona, in Verona Italy and her fans prepare to attend. Among the fans from across the world who purchase tickets for the concert are the above mentioned who seem to take refuge in the melancholic songs of Adele.
Yaser tells the reader his frustrations in marriage. He and his wife Mariam are both medical doctors living in Las Vegas, USA, with their two children. Their marriage is on the rocks. No attempt to salvage the marriage has worked. Yaser remembers his marriage proposal to Mariam which took place whilst Adele’s song played in the background. The song had been a wrong choice for a marriage proposal, and that made them laugh. For that reason, he purchases tickets for Adele’s concert in Italy with the hope that things will work out between the two of them at the concert
Nadia is divorced lives with her son Waleed in Amman, Jordan. Waleed sends a live video to her mother on happenings at a wedding and gets shot whilst transmitting. When Nadia finds out from Waleed the groom of the wedding had been his father, anger surges in her. She defies her uncle and relative who prevented her from pressing charges and she calls the police to report the shooting incident that threatened her son’s life. After going through so much trouble and injustice in the hands of her husband [who just married his third wife], she will not allow anybody put her son through such danger for nothing. This action of her’s angers not only her son’s father but also, her uncle and relatives who believe a woman must allow the men in her family to always take decisions for her. Her husband also takes revenge when she and her son are about to leave the country on vacation, by banning Waleed from traveling with her [permitted by Jordanian law because he is the biological father of Waleed]. Nadia had intended to attend Adele’s concert with her son on vacation in Italy.
Elias meets a fortune teller on the streets of Rome who tells him to go and break a spell cast on him by a lady in Marrakesh Morocco. The woman in question is the mother of his long lost love, Malika. Eight years earlier, Elias met and fell in love with Malika, a prostitute whose own mother had been her pimp in Marrakesh. Heartbroken though, they had to part ways when Malika told Elias she was only thirteen years old. Malika however had been yearning to leave the El-Fnaa Square - which is some sort of a ‘red light district’ - and Morocco as a whole, to live a new life. A promise by Elias that they will met again one day at an Adele concert sped her on to leave when the time was right. Malika’s mother really cast the spell on him out of jealousy to draw him to herself. Malika left Morocco in search of him after waiting for so long in Marrakesh. Elias finds Malika at the Arena Di Verona and she is obviously not the same Malika he had known. She has grown and changed and all of a sudden, all the nostalgia, love and hope of reunion Elias had carried with him from Rome, through Marrakesh to Arena Di Verona disappeared. The new independent Malika who put herself through a lot to meet Elias again including learning to speak English and Italian, tries her best to not show her disappointment as Elias walked away, leaving her to Adele and her other audience.
Yaser and his wife after many troubles and quarrels reconcile. The trip cancelled and thickets given to Yaser’s friend to attend the concert. Nadia leaves the plane before it takes off and returns to her son.
I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. It is a simple and interesting story written by brave young Arabs. Brave because some of the issues are considered sensitive for much of the cultural setting of this novel. But just like the character Nadia, someone or people have to speak up about or against social issues to cause positive change. Some of the sensitive issues include prostitution and sexual exploitation, magic, women’s rights and the modern lady in an Arabic and patriarchal society. Sensitive because, it may have taken the writers a lot of courage to write about the above issues for a number reasons. Obviously, a non-Arab will most likely not have any problem writing about the above issues which are actually plaguing the world all over and may not hesitate doing so.
The story criticizes male chauvinistic ideals of society through Nadia. Nadia represents that lady especially in Arabic or middle eastern societies who is not supposed to speak up for herself, who is expected to stay married, submit to her husband and accept whichever way she is treated by her husband with her ‘mouth shut’. She is supposed to accept every decision the men in her family make for her. She also represents the few woman who are beginning to speak up and who make a difference.
Mariam, Nadia and Malika all have Arabic background but are so different. People are surely different everywhere. Mariam is overbearing, controls her husband but yet very religious. She lives with her husband and children. Nadia on the other hand is divorced and struggling to attain some independence in her community and at work. Malika also worked so hard to break free from her family that forced her into prostitution at an early age.
I think the title My Trip To Adele is appropriate. This is because the three protagonist of the story each tell the reader of their individual attempts to be in Adele’s concert in Verona. Of course the story apart from talking about Adele’s songs also deals with issues including marriage and its associated problems, mystics, love, culture and customs as earlier mentioned. The narrative that moved me most is that of Elias; the only one of the main character who actually made it to Arena Di Verona. At the end, it looks like his attempt to break the spell that was cast on his love for Malika failed. I could feel the disappointment in Malika who apart from waiting 8 years to reunite with Elias had to change a lot about herself including traveling across the sea in a ship which surely was not without risks.
The plot and character are well developed but, it takes a little patience to flow with the development of the story.She felt as though the whole universe had frozen and time had stood still. She
felt as though time had washed her away.
However, I do not like the fact that every chapter ends lyrics of a song by Adele. It became monotonous and predictable.
I also think that certain things do not add up. For example, Elias had no idea Malika was as young as thirteen years old until she said so. If perhaps she was 16 years but looked older, that would sound believable to me. For a girl from an underprivileged background to not look like a child at 13 years, I find that intriguing because I do not think make-up can make a thirteen year old underprivileged girl look matured. Where I come from, children from under privileged backgrounds usually look younger than their real age, but, Malika’s case could simply be an exception. Of cause, Malika is not from where I come from. Another thing that does not add up is Kanza's advice to Elias on digging the past [pg.30]
The thing is, nothing in the story gives any clue why Malika’s mother will tell Elias that it is better for everybody if he left things the way they are.Leave everything the way it is. It’s better for everybody…
I recommend this novel to anyone. I believe if Adele herself reads this novel [if she has not already read it], she will be impressed.
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My Trip To Adele
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