Suzanna Clark’s A House in Fez: Building a Life in the Ancient Heart of Morocco is a story about an Australian couple who become enamored with the Medina in Fez, Morocco, where they make an effort to create a second home. The story is told from the author’s Western perspective and outlines the process she and her husband, Sandy McCutcheon endure restoring the property they buy. The reader experiences Fez from an outsider’s perspective as Clarke and McCutcheon integrate into Moroccan society. She relays the sights, sounds, and smells of the Medina, and the reader is instantly enchanted by her magical descriptions. Through Clarke’s story and encounters with the people working with her to restore the property, the reader gains a unique understanding of Moroccan culture as it pertains to hospitality, work ethic, and general social interaction. The reader also experiences her journey developing friendships and connections to other locals, which allows deeper insight into the culture specific to Fez. Ultimately, she and her husband complete their project and build Riad Zany after a long, frustrating, but fulfilling process.

        I enjoyed this book and found it useful as an introduction into Moroccan social culture, since  I am participating in Duke in the Arab World, staying in Fez for three weeks. I appreciated how Clarke foregrounded  the history of Fez, as it  truly gave life to the city and served to make it a more vibrant place in my imagination. I have heard and read so many wonderful things about Fez, and Clarke creates such vivid imagery, which further fuels my excitement to be surrounded by so much history and rich culture. One of the most interesting points in her book is how Fez is such a unique city, having maintained its charming, historical nature. She discusses how other cities like Marrakesh have  a greater number of  inhabitants, tourists, lights, and  malls, and that they cater  to tourists. While Fez has preserved ancient landmarks, architecture, and infrastructure, the city of Marrakesh has replaced or modernized these things. This was especially important for Clarke, as through the process of restoring the Riad (adding modern plumbing, electricity, etc.), she and the workers make an effort to retain much of the original beauty of the house, specifically the tiled mosaics in the house.

        Clarke describes all the beauty and allure of Morocco while also mentioning some of the challenges that foreigners may experience. Most significantly, the language barrier proves to be a difficult obstacle. While Sandy decides to study Darija, the Morrocan Arabic dialect, Clarke makes an effort to improve her French, which is useful because French is. Clarke further points out cultural differences, like dress code and treatment of women, which she briefly addresses after some of her interactions with local women. She offers a sentence here and there about how there are differences in women’s rights in her home country of Australia versus those in  Morocco, but she never provides a detailed discussion, which could have been interesting. For instance, after expressing appreciation for communal bathing, she mentions how she would not feel comfortable discussing saunas, a shared experience between men and women, because of the differences in their two cultures. However, I was grateful that Clarke depicted the variety of friendships she forged with traditional women like Khadija and progressive or liberal women,like Ayisha. It allowed the reader to understand that there is a spectrum of values and political beliefs among women in society despite the relatively conservative patriarchal sociopolitical structure  in comparison to Australia (although compared to some other Muslim-majority nations like Saudi Arabia, Morocco is progressive).

         Clarke is a talented writer whose words bring to life a historic and beautiful city. I would argue, however, that there are some significant issues with the book regarding her portrayal of Moroccan culture through a limited perspective. was how Clarke often voices Western concerns or even complaints, such as the slow pace of work or inconvenient methods of purchasing or locating certain products, despite the fact that she is now in a Moroccan context. She began the book genuinely passionate about integrating into a new society and meeting new people, but she ends up mostly with friends who came from other Western nations. She often portrays her frustrations with the relaxed pace of Moroccan society and seems unreceptive to the cultural lack of privacy. It seems to me that as she is an outsider moving into someone else’s neighborhood, she could express more graciousness. I will point out, however, that even she questions herself, when after deciding to no longer hire a worker who did not measure up to her expectations, she says, “Was I, despite my best intentions, succumbing to a colonial way of life after all?”(92). While her concerns and complaints came across a bit bothersome to me, I recognize how it would resonate with other Westerners visiting the country who did not previously have much exposure to a lesser developed, majority Muslim country.

        Despite this negativity, Clarke presents a generally positive narrative of the Moroccan population and their religion and expresses her own appreciation for the country and its people. By the end of the book, she even describes the workers in her home as family. She introduces the reader to different Moroccan customs, going as far as to say that she begins to miss hearing the call to prayer when she leaves the country. She explains the month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset for thirty days. She expresses an admiration for the practice and even participates in part of it. Further, she discusses how similar Islam is to Christianity and Judaism and explains the seemingly minor differences in belief systems. She expresses her incredulity with how there could be so much violence for centuries about religion when different religions generally believe the same things. She quotes a young Muslim girl who tells her, “The reason people hate and kill one another is because of cultural and political differences. They use religion as an excuse” (218). In the end, beyond her frequent discomfort or irritation with locals, she humanizes this North African, Arabic-speaking Muslim population which is incredibly positive for the region.

       After finishing the book, I visited the Riad Zany blog, which appears to verify Clarke’s story and provides photos and posts that promote Riad Zany and Fez. Additionally, Clarke’s  blog offers a list of local organizations that readers may consider supporting,  like the Fez Medina Children’s Library. Riad Zany’s story is interesting for anyone, but it definitely imparted knowledge important for me as I prepare to travel to Fez. Clarke’s work is engaging and relatively well-rounded in its portrayal of the people and the city, full of detailed imagery. However, I think an interesting change could be to write the story from two points of view: one from Suzanna’s perspective as an outsider moving into Fez, and another perspective from a local as he or she adjusts to this outsider settling into his or her neighborhood. This suggestion would provide a truly comprehensive tale and would serve to elevate the story to make it more trustworthy and intriguing.