The last friend

The last friend, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Barcelona, Empúries, 2005 (2004)

Do not know if it’s a great novel, as it says on the back Bernard Pivot, but I know it is a book that reads very well, very comfortable, willing, and that fills you with optimism.

At the end there is a final precipitation that makes the reader the feeling of speed, excessive desire of the author to create a short and concise. We were left wanting more. Also the second part, focusing on the voice of the second friend, Mamed, does not provide too much data, repeats the story from another point of view, only the final, the destruction of friendship to preserve the suffering of the first, Ali, before the second cancer. A bit far-fetched, bear the destruction of the friendship of the person you love, to prevent their suffering! Idea curious approach to story: friendship between men. It developed not entirely appropriate.

It’s tough playing with friendship, because sometimes doubt, really, what is friendship. It appears that the Eastern world is valued more. In ours, is a value in extinction. I myself if I look in my past, I’m almost without memories. I think friends are parallel to your growth as a person at a particular time, when you pass a stage are lost. The Moroccan writer’s book brings to this maintenance.