June's Room

Handful of Honey: Away to the Palm Groves of Morocco and Algeria

Handful of Honey: Away to the Palm Groves of Morocco and Algeria - Annie Hawes I adore this book;this is my second reading..I have been fascinated by north africa ever since reading Paul Bowles' works in my youth and feasting on the tale of the intrepid victorian traveller Isabelle Eberhardt , who married an algerian soldier and died in a flash flood in the algerian sahara. Add a dash of 'Hideous Kinky' by Esther Freud and I was hooked...
I haven't made it to Morocco yet but found the descriptions vivid and enticing and would love to go someday.
And as for Algeria..well, I have seen something of it through the eyes of my Algerian husband whose Algiers-dwelling family has made me very welcome, but this book looks at a lot more history and culture than I have yet been able to learn about. I laughed at her descriptions of some of the people and situations she encountered, and cringed at some of the faux-pas she made. I also think that the women are a lot less child -like and much more complex than she was aware of...of course with the language barrier she had no way of knowing that..
The book finishes just at the point where the political situation was starting to get difficult, and I doubt she would have been able to make her trip a couple of years later, but I'm glad she did because I so enjoyed the book..