Driss Ksikes gives us a vivid intergenerational short story in ‘Fuckin’ Family’ (‘Putain la famille’).
For a long time, family seemed to me to be a vast territory.
—Driss Ksikes, ‘Putain la famille’
The story comes from Ksikes’s collection L’homme descend du silence and was translated by Matthew Brauer.
The Moroccan writer and playwright, who was named ‘one of the six best African playwrights’ by the National Studio Theatre in London, is featured in the latest issue of TriQuarterly, the literary magazine of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA.
‘Fuckin’ Family’ melds a man’s performance of his personal history with the memories of the relatives that made up his family. He relates how his perception of his family changes with age, during lean and fat years, protest and political upheaval and bouts of madness. Cleverly, the tale also questions performance and what effect it has on the performer.
