The Sexual Life of an Islamist in Paris
SynopsisPlot
Basile Tocquard is a handsome, wealthy, Parisian bank manager. Born in Algeria, his life was once devoted to Sundays with his mother, family reunions, pious sobriety, and devout Islamism. But now the time has come for him to find a suitable apartment in the trendiest neighborhood in Paris, for aperitifs at the Deux Magots and the Café de Flore, for shopping sprees at the most exclusive boutiques in Paris. And for a sex life free of prohibitions! Thus his adventures begin. Unfortunately for him, but to the delight of the reader, his story is filtered through a rather unsympathetic female narrator who refuses to show our hero the attention he feels he deserves.
Story
About this book
Basile Tocquard is an Algerian-born bank manager living in Paris, handsome and financially comfortable. For years his life followed a strict pattern: Sunday visits with his mother, family gatherings, religious observance, and careful sobriety. He now decides to break from all of it. He sets out to find a stylish apartment in a fashionable neighborhood, to frequent the literary cafés of Saint-Germain-des-Prés such as the Deux Magots and the Café de Flore, and to pursue a personal life free of the restrictions he once accepted.
The novel's structure holds a notable complication. Basile's story is told by a female narrator who views him without sympathy and declines to grant him the admiration he believes he deserves. This tension between the protagonist's self-image and the narrator's sharp perspective shapes the entire book, turning what could be a straightforward tale of reinvention into something more layered and unpredictable.
Leïla Marouane, born in Algeria and based in France, uses this setup to examine questions of identity, religious expectation, masculinity, and cultural dislocation. The Paris that Basile enters is defined by consumer luxury and social performance, and the distance between who he was and who he wants to become supplies much of the novel's friction.
