6/19/2023 0 Comments Tangerine by christine manganPassing comments like” “It appears Tangier is done. The novel’s action takes place in 1956 as Morocco is about to gain its independence and there is unrest in the streets. I can get just as much a feel for Tangiers from a guide book.Įqually missing is the historical context. those sentences tell me nothing about the smells or sounds of the place. ” Typical of the scene setting elements of this novel. “The labyrinthine curve of them: dark and packed, with vendors that stood behind stalls or sat on the floor, their bags and buckets of wares splayed out before them. “I found the souks electrifying”, says one of the two principal characters on her first exploration of the city. But Mangan’s descriptions tend to the general, rather than the specific so we never get far under the skin of her location. The bustle of the souks, the oppressive heat and humidity and the chaos of the narrow streets are all in evidence. If you pick up Christine Mangan’s debut novel Tangerine, expecting to be thrust into the heady cultural melting pot of 1950s Tangiers, you’d be sadly disappointed.
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