Name: Blood Feast
ISBN: 9781952177897

Malika Moustadraf

An arabophone cult classic traces the impact of power, abuse, and illness on the body, by Morocco's foremost writer of life on the margins.

The Complete Short Stories of Malika Moustadraf

Blood Feast

i dawdled writing a note about this book because finishing this, I immediately was thinking about my next — but the translator’s notes gave me pause. malika’s stories about morrocco are dark, gritty, real, and a lot can be said (as the translator’s notes gave extensively discussed) about how these stories were almost always thought to be autobiographical, something that malika, when she was still alive, found issue with. but given the material of these stories, i really hope they weren’t. 

on the writing itself: honestly, i found them too raw — and not in a good way. a lot of the stories ended abruptly, with closures that were just that — closures. nothing satisfactory, just a means to end the piece. the potential would build up into a crescendo before it would abruptly stop, not even giving the reader the luxury of the high coming down. but this can be explained by the translator’s notes on how malika’s life was cut shortly by illness. something something about an artist’s death always making you think about what they could’ve done more, i guess.

but even then, i like the book (always am a sucker for short story anthologies!) for what it is — local color was ripe and present in everything and i like the perspectives provided by the stories. could’ve been better, but i know i’m not the only one robbed by malika’s death. if this is what it takes to share grief, then so be it.

Mika

i dawdled writing a note about this book because finishing this, I immediately was thinking about my next — but the translator’s notes gave me pause. malika’s stories about morrocco are dark, gritty, real, and a lot can be said (as the translator’s notes gave extensively discussed) about how these stories were almost always thought to be autobiographical, something that malika, when she was still alive, found issue with. but given the material of these stories, i really hope they weren’t. 

on the writing itself: honestly, i found them too raw — and not in a good way. a lot of the stories ended abruptly, with closures that were just that — closures. nothing satisfactory, just a means to end the piece. the potential would build up into a crescendo before it would abruptly stop, not even giving the reader the luxury of the high coming down. but this can be explained by the translator’s notes on how malika’s life was cut shortly by illness. something something about an artist’s death always making you think about what they could’ve done more, i guess.

but even then, i like the book (always am a sucker for short story anthologies!) for what it is — local color was ripe and present in everything and i like the perspectives provided by the stories. could’ve been better, but i know i’m not the only one robbed by malika’s death. if this is what it takes to share grief, then so be it.

Josefine

"In fourteen short stories by Morocco's foremost writer of life on the margins, this arabophone cult classic traces the impact of power, abuse, and illness on the body"--

Blood Feast The Complete Short Stories of Malika Moustadraf

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