Amara Lakhous, the author of the delightfully original Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio, has written another Roman comedy, Divorce Islamic Style, with a similar cast of immigrant characters in a neighborhood of "the Italy of the future," crowded with illegal Africans and Arabs.
Christian Mazzari, a young Sicilian who speaks perfect Arabic, has been hired by the Italian secret service to pose as "a young Tunisian immigrant in search of his fortune." Terrorists have imported 50 kilos of Goma-2 Eco, the explosive used in the attacks in Madrid, into Rome, and it's been traced to a neighborhood call center named Little Cairo. Christian has been given a new identity as Issa--a name that's the equivalent of Jesus for Muslims.
The story unfolds in two alternating first-person narratives. Although Christian/Issa is charming, it's the alternate narrator, a Muslim housewife named Safia, who steals the show. Her humorous candor is illuminating, as she defends a religion she believes in while struggling with its strictures on women.
A few days before her wedding, her fiancé surprised her by asking her to wear the veil. When outraged Safia refused, his family threatened to ruin her reputation by saying she wasn't a virgin. To her own surprise, Safia comes to accept and ultimately defend the veil as her right. Her brave determination to be herself is endearing, as she secretly cuts hair in her friend's apartment to save money to finance an operation for her sister.
Watching the two narratives intersect is half the fun. When Safia breaks into tears talking to her family at the call center, it's Issa who offers her a tissue. When Issa finally gets a job, it's as a dishwasher at Safia's husband's restaurant. When a racist bully knocks down veiled Safia in the marketplace, the fake Tunisian tells him off in surprisingly perfect Italian. Now Safia's husband has invited his new workmate home for dinner, and Safia is cooking--not knowing that her guest will be the romantic rescuer who is haunting her dreams.
It's all classic Italian farce with a Muslim twist: a topical, character-rich comedy of mistaken identity that dares to take on real religious topics and respectfully wrestle with them. Amara Lakhous's frothy soap opera tap-dances its way over touchy prejudices to create an international commedia for the age of terrorism, laced with tributes to Federico Fellini, Vittorio De Sica, Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni--a heartwarming tale of immigrants in collision served up with Italian gusto. --Nick DiMartino
Shelf Talker: An Italian spy and an unhappily married Muslim woman cross paths in an immigrant Roman community.