“A Man Among Men” in Algerian Paris: Modeling Motivation and Movement in Jake Lamar’s Rendezvous Eighteenth

"A Man Among Men": Fatima

Also, Ricky’s romantic relationship with Fatima is intercultural and interreligious and is established in the Eighteenth. This relationship is similar to expatriate fiction in that she represents the woman who he would not access to romantically in the U.S.A. She is educated attending one of the most prestigious schools in Paris—Sciences Po, and she wants to live in the U.S.A.—“the land of opportunity” (140). She is the type of woman who Ricky manages would rejected him in the U.S.A. Fatima says Ricky “is too lazy for America. You are like a Frenchman. Or an African. You live for pleasure. Americans live for work” (8). This passage provides insight into Fatima’s adoption of this narrative of American success and ambition. In spite of this, in Paris, Fatima is not out of Ricky’s league, but this relationship does not mean Ricky’s inclusion because he has access to a woman like Fatima.

Though Fatima and Ricky are both of African descent (she is Cameroonian and Moroccan), there are religious differences. That Fatima is Muslim and Ricky is not is a challenge to the progress of their relationship. Ricky situates Fatima’s convictions about marrying within her religion as similar to people would only marry within their race. The narrator states: “Fatima Boukhari had sworn she would only, ever, marry a fellow Muslim. Fatima’s inflexibility on the issue surprised Ricky” (15). Fatima’s perspective is also reminiscent of an experience Lamar accounts in his memoir Bourgeois Blues in which he is in an interracial relationship and the woman he is dating mother tells her “Just don’t marry him” (--). In this way, Ricky’s religion—regardless of race—marks his exclusion. Whereas, Paris gives him access to the woman he desires, his interreligious relationship has some equivalence to the taboo of an interracial relationship. In Rendezvous Eighteenth, North Paris is a space where the interracial romance does not emphasize racial dynamics, but it still does not mean “inclusion.” It is also the space where being the same “race” may not be as important as being the same faith. These relationships broaden the portrayal of Paris from the mid-twentieth century two-sided Paris. 
 

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