Lulu in Marrakech

by Diane Johnson

Book Overview

"Timely and provocatively incorrect."--Oprah.com (Mysteries Every Thinking Woman Should Read)

The two-time Pulitzer Prize and three-time National Book Award-nominated author of Le Divorce returns with a mesmerizing novel of double standards and double agents

Now, Diane Johnson brilliantly exposes the manners and morals of the cultural collision between Islam and the West. Lulu Sawyer arrives in Marrakech, Morocco,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452295599
• ISBN13: 9780452295599
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: Plume Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

we need looks at the Muslim religion

I liked this book alot, I like all Diane Johnson books that I have read. I imagine Lulu looking like Valerie Plume, a pretty CIA agent. Anything I can get that explains the Muslim religion to me is welcome. And, this book provides quite bit, the quotes at the beginning of each chapter for instance. Goats in trees, I couldn't get over that and yet an earlier reviewer here says that is not true in Morocco. Where then, is it true? I would like to know. Respectfully submitted, Janet Rosenkranz.

Not her best...but witty and entertaining

So thrilled to find this in the bargain bin! The other (somewhat militant) reviews are correct...it's not quite as good as Le Divorce. It just doesn't have the same sparkle. All the elements of Diane Johnson's fiction are there though: Culture/class strata clash, witty and revealing wonderings that we've all thought but never said, quick "denouement" with an unexpected death (of course). I read it slowly, in 30 minute bits at lunch (I speak French all day at my job.) I think it's better this way because it's set in a series of interesting tableaux. Lulu has one of the world's most interesting jobs, but Johnson makes us see it as just like any other job. Sometimes things go right and wrong, but we never should get too attached, never let our jobs define who we are. Lulu is just an ordinary girl in love limbo, just like the rest of us at our desks. Entertaining escape reading for the intelligent.

Good Stuff

I know a lot of people didn't like this one, but I thought it was an interesting read. I think it is one of those novels that gets you thinking about a subject, as you enjoy the story. It contained a lot of observations about the interactions of people from different cultures, and rather than telling us what to think on the subject, the author asks the readers to make our own conclusions. Maybe not everybody's cup of tea, but if you're willing to think about ideas while reading, you might find it entertaining.

Johnson on her game

The hostile reviews to Johnson's latest novel come as a surprise to a long-time fan of her work. Factual errors? Possibly, but let's remember that Shakespeare has a ship sail to the coast of Bohemia. Johnson's recurring love of the American Girl/Woman is a major part of her writerly charm--Isabel in Le Divorce and now Lulu Sawyer, both Californians aswim in a culture they are not quite on top of. Johnson's candid heroines are free of cynicism, and they operate at a high level of self-awareness, one that allows them to acknowledge their own comic foibles and prat-falls. In Lulu, Johnson's characterizations of minor characters are once again spot on--Posy the politically incorrect pregnant wife of the poet laureate, the oh-so-British Mrs. Cotter, the suave Moroccan agent whom Lulu trusts perhaps too much. Johnson has rarely plotted her story better than she does here. It moves toward its chilling climax at just the right pace, and Johnson is as good as Dickens at using coincidences in a manner that seems surprisingly natural and convincing. I cannot judge the accuracy of her characterization of Islam, but to this reader, Johnson is yet again at her best as cultures clash about Lulu.

From S. Krishna's Books

When I first heard about Lulu in Marrakech, I was ambivalent. I thought the premise sounded really interesting, but I was afraid of the treatment that Lulu was going to get. Was it just going to be an airhead of a girl Legally Blonde-ing her way through Morocco? Was she going to stumble upon some sinister plot while wearing her designer bathing suit and sipping fruity drinks by the pool? Thankfully, Lulu is intelligent and resourceful. She doesn't bumble her way through the novel; instead she does her best to make important contacts and ask inconspicuous questions of everyone around her. That being said, she is a normal girl without extraordinary spying skills; her role is more observing than anything else, and she does it well. Those of you who are familiar with Diane Johnson might look at my genre categorization and say "this is the author of Le Divorce, and you're characterizing this as contemporary fiction instead of chick lit?" Yes, and I stand by it. There is a search for love in this book, but it takes a backseat to everything else that is going on. More than anything else, this book is about women. There's Gazi, a Saudi woman who is living in an oppressive marriage and Suma, a French Muslim woman who has fled to Morocco after her brother accused her of losing her virginity and threatened to kill her. Lulu often speculates on the treatment of women in Islamic countries in Lulu in Marrakech. She says that the culture might have its areas of beauty and renown, but as long as women are treated so poorly, she can't see it. Most of us are aware of the poor treatment of women in many Muslim countries. Seeing it through Lulu's eyes is extremely interesting, especially as she gains the trust of those around her. The CIA part of the plot is a bit convoluted and insubstantial, but Lulu's experiences and the situations she finds herself in the middle of are worth reading. I believe Johnson wrote this novel in order to discuss women in different countries and cultures, and she does a great job. I'd definitely recommend Lulu in Marrakech to anyone who is interested in reading about a woman's plight in a Muslim country, but wants to avoid the heartbreaking and depressing first person accounts.