Road to Chlifa

The narration of Section One begins with an anonymous narrator speaking on behalf of all her classmates in their Montreal school in 1990. As students arrive, one—Nancy Chartrand—notices the presence of a new boy, Karim. She tries to engage him in conversation, asks if he’s Arab, and observes that he’s “not much of a talker,” although he is cute. Our narrator confirms Nancy’s opinion, writing that Karim is “the desert prince type” (12).

She tells us that the school has many immigrant students; one Canadian student, Sandrine, has a “Consciousness-Raising Committee on the Situation of Immigrants” to which she tries to recruit new students. Karim isn’t impressed by her overtures, nor is he fazed by nasty comments by a male student, Dave, who questions his sexuality in addition to making frequent comments about his race. The narratorsays that, while no one could “get a rise of out Karim,” no one “left him in peace,” either (17).

Karim’s diary presents his perspective. While his brothers, who arrived in Montreal earlier than Karim, said that they were “invisible” in their new schools, Karim feels like “some animal being inspected by potential buyers” (14). He is put off by the Western capitalism, vanity, and promiscuity he observes in Canadian culture, and by Canada’s cold winters.