The story “Al-Hamam” (“The Baths”), is one of the most beautiful stories in the Moroccan writer Al-Tahar Ben Jelloun’s new collection, “Amours Sorcieres.” “What most great writers do is to draw from the reality a background on which they draw everything incredible, from ecstasy of the world to the craziness of people. What writers see is difficult for others to see. Or they refuse to see it”.
This describes precisely what Ben Jelloun is doing in his own collection. He describes the reality of Morocco both in the 1980s and 90s and early this century. In exploring the other side of Morocco, the beauty and magic of the country are not lost on him. Here there is still Morocco of love, friendship, and a sense of the nobility of its men and women.
Despite having lived in exile in Paris since the 70s, Ben Jelloun remained in heart and mind in the country of his birth. This collection again shows how attuned he remains to the reality of the country and the way of life of its people, both rich and poor, good and bad.
In many of his novels, Al-Tahar Ben Jelloun takes us into the secret life of the middle class. His characters are university teachers, doctors, engineers; these are people who believe in technology, love Western culture, read Western novels, listen to Beethoven as well as modern music and people who are interested in political and scientific developments in Europe and America. While they are outwardly articulate and balanced and show in their engagement with others how comfortable they are with modernity, in their marriages they often experience failure and breakdown. They find themselves unable to shake off the traditions and ways of thinking that have shaped Arab culture for thousands of years and continue to exert a powerful influence.
The novel “Treseneti” (“Electricity”) is Ben Jelloun masterful novel of the Moroccan countryside. Nur Aldeen an electrician, is sent from Marrakech to a village to study the feasibility of introducing electricity there. Many years pass, but electricity never comes to the village. Being in charge of the project, he is obliged to deliver a speech to the villagers about the importance of electricity, but the villagers will not take it any longer. They slip him a sleeping potion, and when he wakes up, he finds himself with the ugliest girl in the village. The villagers give him a choice: marry her or go to prison.
In the end, the village remains without electricity and no one else from the electricity company will set foot in it.
In “Al-Hamam”, Ben Jelloun portrays an internationally famous Moroccan musician whose success has made him many enemies who try to destroy him. In a quest to cleanse himself of the figurative dirt that is being thrown at him, he goes back to Fez, the city of his birth, in search of an old hammam.
But when he reaches Fez he fails to find the city of his childhood. The city’s original inhabitants have all moved to the new parts of town, and his old family home is dilapidated and occupied by squatters. Old Fez has been left to death and decay.
This image of the old city finds its reflection in the state of Moroccan society. The protagonist says: “People in our society have nothing to do but interfere in other people’s business and spy on each other. People are living their lives in boredom and frustration. There is nothing for them to do but spread rumors and pass judgment on others.” The protagonist recognizes that he prefers Europeans. The Moroccans, thinking he is one of their own, believe they have a right to interfere in his affairs. But Europeans respect his privacy and do not meddle in do not interfere in his affairs.
The present collection shows Ben Jelloun at the height of his powers, revealing his love of writing — he is steeped in the traditions of international literature — and his unfailing eye for the realities of contemporary Morocco.
- Arab News Features 3 July 2003