Endless Fall: A Little Chronicle

As a high school student in 1960s Morocco, Leftah (1946–2008) witnessed a classmate’s death by suicide. Upset by his Muslim community’s judgmental, hypocritical commentary on the student, Leftah—who would later become a novelist and literary critic (Demoiselles of Numidia)—eventually wrote this memoir as a tribute that evokes strong, vibrant memories and offers insight into his classmate’s experiences. The memoir is short but packed with nuanced observations in Leftah’s distinctive, descriptive, flowery style. It sometimes reads as poetic prose; other times, it’s a blunt narrative that opens a window for readers to see the author’s emotions and mental state during the years (1992–2006) he worked on the book. The result is emotionally wrought and captivating, but the narrative flow is sometimes interrupted by memories that are tangentially related to the overall story; the threads of connection are often not clearly defined. There’s also some obscure vocabulary that might have readers checking definitions on a regular basis.