Ben Jelloun, Tahar 1944- (Tahar ben Jelloun)

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Ben Jelloun, Tahar 1944- (Tahar ben Jelloun)

PERSONAL:

Born December 1, 1944 (some sources say December 21), in Fes, Morocco; immigrated to France, 1971; son of Hassan (a shopkeeper) and Fatma Ben Jelloun; married August 8, 1986; wife's name Aicha; children: four. Education: Université de Rabat, 1963-68; Université de Paris VII, Ph.D., 1975.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Paris, France. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Novelist, critic, essayist, poet. Regular contributor to Le Monde and La Repubblica. Worked as a teacher of philosophy in Tetouan and Casablanca, Morocco, 1967-71, and as a psychotherapist, 1972-75. Member of literary prize panels, including Jury Litteraire Prix Hassan II, 1988.

MEMBER:

Mallarme, Haut Conseil de la Francophonie.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Prix de l'Amitié Franco-Arabe, 1976, for Les Amandiers sont morts de leurs blessures; Prix de l'association des Bibliothécaires de France et de Radio Monte-Carlo, 1978, for Moha le Fou, Moha le Sage; Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, 1983; Prix Goncourt, 1987, for La Nuit Sacrée; Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, 1988; Prix des Hemisphere (Guadeloupe), 1991, for Les yeux baissés; Prix Maghreb, 1994; Goodwill Ambassador, United Nations; Global Tolerance Award, United Nations, 1998, for Racism Explained to My Daughter; Dublin Literary Award, IMPAC, 2004, for This Blinding Absence of Light.

WRITINGS:

Hommes sous linceul de silence (poetry), Atlantes (Casablanca, Morocco), 1970.

Cicatrices du soleil (poetry; also see below), F. Maspero (Paris, France), 1972.

Harrouda (novel), Denoeel (Paris, France), 1973, republished and illustrated by Baudoin, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1991.

Le Discours du chameau (poetry; also see below), Maspero (Paris, France), 1974.

Les Amandiers sont morts de leurs blessures suivi de Cicatrices du soleil et Le Discours du chameau (poetry; also see below), Maspero (Paris, France), 1976.

La Reclusion solitaire (novel), Maspero (Paris, France), 1976.

La Memoire future: Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie du Maroc (poetry), Maspero (Paris, France), 1976.

Chronique d'une solitude (play), produced in Avignon, France, 1976.

La Plus Haute des solitudes: Misère sexuelle d'emigrées nord-africains (nonfiction), Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1977.

Moha le fou, Moha le sage (novel), Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1978.

A l'insu du souvenir (poetry; also see below), Maspero (Paris, France), 1980.

(Translator) Mohamed Choukri, Le Pain nu: Recit autobiographique (autobiography; title means "For Bread Alone"), Maspero (Paris, France), 1980.

La Prière de l'absent (novel), Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1981.

Haut Atlas: L'Exil de pierres (nonfiction: description and travel), with photographs by Philippe Lafond, Hachette (Paris, France), 1982.

Entretien avec Monsieur Said Hammadi, ouvrier algérien (play; also see below), produced at Théâtre National de Chaillot, 1982.

L'Écrivain public: Recit (novel), Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1983.

Les Amandiers sont morts de leurs blessures suivi de A l'insu du souvenir, Decouverte, 1983.

Hospitalité francaise: Racisme et immigration maghrebine (nonfiction), Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1984, translated by Barbara Bray, published as French Hospitality: Racism and North African Immigrants, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1999.

La Fiancée de l'eau; suivi de Entretien avec Monsieur Said Hammadi, ouvrier alerien (plays; produced at Theatre Populaire de Lorraine, 1984), Actes Sud, 1984.

L'Enfant de sable (novel), Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1985, translated by Alan Sheridan, published as The Sand Child, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1987.

Marseille, comme un matin d'insomnie (nonfiction) photographs by Thierry Ibert, Le Temps Parallele, 1986.

Sahara (poems), photographs by Bernard Descamps, Éditions AMC (Mulhouse, France), 1987.

La Nuit sacrée (novel), Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1987, translated by Alan Sheridan, published as The Sacred Night, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1989.

Jour de silence a Tanger: Recit (novel), Éditions de Seuil (Paris, France), 1990, translated by David Lobdell, published as Silent Day in Tangier, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1991.

Giacometti (essays), Éditions Flohic, 1991.

Les yeux baissés (novel), Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1991, translated by Joachim Neugroschel, published as With Downcast Eyes, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1993.

La Remontée des cendres; suivi de Non identifiées (poetry), Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1991.

L'Ange aveugle (short stories), Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1992, translated by James Kirkup, published as State of Absence, Quartet Books (London, England), 1994.

La Soudure fraternelle, Diffusion Le Seuil (Paris, France), 1994, paperback edition published as La soudure fraternelle, Arléa (Paris, France), 1995.

L'Homme rompu, Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1994, translated by Carol Volk, published as Corruption, New Press (New York, NY), 1997.

Le Premier amour est toujours le Dernier (short stories), Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1995.

Poésie complète: 1966-1995 (poems), Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1995.

Les Racines de la galère (novel), Fayard (Paris, France), 1996.

La Nuit de l'erreur (novel), Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1997.

Le Racisme explique à ma fille, Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1998, translated by Carol Volk, published as Racism Explained to My Daughter, New Press (New York, NY), 1999.

L'Auberge des pauvres, Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1999.

Cette aveuglante absence de lumière, Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 2001, translated by Linda Coverdale, published as This Blinding Absence of Light, New Press (New York, NY), 2002.

Les Italiens, La Marinière (Paris, France), 2002, translated by Toula Ballas, published as The Italians, Abrams (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Bernard Collet and Didier Folleas) Casa Central: Atelier du Peintre Saâd Hassani, photographs by Alexandre Bergamini, Fosse aux ours (Lyon, France), 2002.

Islam Explained, New Press (New York, NY), 2002.

Amours sorcières: nouvelles, Seuil (Paris, France), 2003.

(With others) Nouvelles pour la liberté, Cherche midi/Amnesty International (Paris, France), 2003.

Igor Mitoraj: sculptures monumentals: Jardin des Tuileries, Octobre-Decembre 2004, Edition JGM Galerie (Paris, France), 2004.

Le dernier ami (novel), Seuil (Paris, France), 2004, translated by Kevin Michel Cape and Hazel Rowley, published as The Last Friend, New Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Partir (novel), Gallimard (Paris, France), 2006.

Also contributor to periodicals, including New Perspectives Quarterly, Nation, UNESCO Courier, and World Press Review. Also author of television plays, including La Mal Vie, and a libretto; contributor to the journal Le Monde, 1973—.

SIDELIGHTS:

Tahar Ben Jelloun is the author of novels, poems, and short stories that reflect his Moroccan upbringing as well as the French culture in which he now lives. He was the first writer from one of France's former North African colonies to receive the prestigious Prix Goncourt. "Mr. Jelloun combined the gifts of the traditional Arab storyteller—that ability to play fantastic variations upon the simplest of themes—with remarkable philosophical insight, often reminiscent of the monologues of Samuel Beckett," declared a reviewer for the Economist. "Like Beckett, too, Mr. Jelloun's favored ground is not the broad historical sweep but the intense probing of an individual mind."

Noting in the New York Times that "most of the Moroccan intellectual class speaks French," Ben Jelloun found it natural to write in French himself. Critics in that country have received Ben Jelloun's work warmly, making the author something of a celebrity. Le Monde contributor Francois Bott was quoted by James M. Markham in the New York Times writing about Ben Jelloun: "With him, under the sign of Borges, the language of Racine and Balzac is put at the service of the Oriental story. It describes other customs. It expresses other thoughts. It is a cure that reinvigorates."

Jelloun's novel The Sand Child outlines some of the problems faced by men and women living in a traditional Arab society. The novel relates the story of a man who, when presented with an eighth daughter in a society that values sons, names the girl Ahmed and declares her to be a boy. "The tale that follows is a cynical, dreamlike exploration," observed Sybil Steinberg in Publishers Weekly, "of the roles into which Arab men and women are shaped." At first Ahmed revels in the power that her position as a son gives her; later, however, her confusion over her identity and her role in society begins to prey on her mind. Although asserting that the author's narrative is "not entirely successful" in terms of its construction, the reviewer labeled Jelloun's prose "rich" and "incantatory." New York Times Book Review correspondent Barbara Harlow wrote of The Sand Child: "The legacy of Hajji Ahmed's son/daughter, who is threatened by religious traditions with deprivation, is here made a rich one, bequeathing a storytelling lineage and a radical critique of contemporary Arab social customs…. The Sand Child, which draws for its narrative on an Arab oral tradition and literary legacy, continues that critical heritage."

The Sacred Night, winner of the Prix Goncourt, continues Ahmed's story. By the age of twenty, the girl-in-disguise has resumed a feminine identity under the name Zahra. However, she is still entrapped by her upbringing. "This confusion of sexual roles—a special paradox in an Arab Muslim culture"—determines Zahra's life choices, explained L.M. Lewis in Library Journal. Zahra's shame and confusion leads her into a number of dangerous situations. At one point she is raped, while at another an accusation by a relative leads her to murder and prison. Michael Rogers, in his Library Journal review of the book, called it "definitely not your average coming-of-age story."

Jelloun's third novel to be translated into English, Silent Day in Tangier, continues some of the general themes established in his earlier work, but takes a very different direction than did either The Sand Child or The Sacred Night. Silent Day in Tangier is the story of an old, retired, and nameless Moroccan living in the port city of Tangier. "Embittered by loneliness," declared Paul E. Hutchison in Library Journal, the main character "resents the earlier deaths of his friends." The man is left with his petty jealousies and his memories. "Moving in and out of hallucinatory encounters with friends and foes," explained New York Times Book Review contributor Katharine Weber, "the old man restlessly acknowledges that his ‘life is a failure because it is undermined by hatred.’" "If the dying man does not fully captivate the reader," stated Steinberg in a Publishers Weekly review of the novel, "perhaps it is because he is too clear-sighted and honest in his self-analysis, or too traditional for our tastes."

With Downcast Eyes revisits the theme of the outsider. It "is the story of a Moroccan girl and her struggle to belong," asserted Peggie Partello in Library Journal. The girl is divided by her love for her country of residence, France, and her country of birth, Morocco, and is caught between her duty to her native village and her own life in the colonial homeland. "Jelloun's … writing here is occasionally verbose, but his excesses are largely subsumed in this incantatory tale of culture and self," asserted a Publishers Weekly contributor.

Jelloun's novel Corruption, according to a critic writing in Publishers Weekly, "weaves an intricate tale about a Moroccan man's slow capitulation to the lure of infidelity and bribery." The man, a Moroccan engineer named Mourad, has to face "licensed" corruption and the hostility of his wife in order to maintain his moral standards. He "wrestles with poverty and his sense of honor while everyone around him gets rich from bribery," explained Virginia Nolan in Boston Review. According to Donna Seaman in Booklist, "as Mourad takes action, the great irony of it all becomes clear to him, and he finds balance even in the midst of absurdity."

Ben Jelloun is a frequent contributor to Le Monde and other Parisian periodicals, and is well known in France for his championship of racial tolerance. Two of his nonfiction books, translated as French Hospitality: Racism and North African Immigrants and Racism Explained to My Daughter, offer pleas for an end to exclusionary politics in France. According to Michael Brett in the Times Literary Supplement, Ben Jelloun "speaks out in the great tradition of the French intellectual, as keeper of the conscience of the nation." Indeed, the author's Racism Explained to My Daughter, a work aimed at young readers, has become a bestseller in France and has been translated into more than fifteen languages; it is used as a textbook in French schools. In Library Journal, John Moryl called the title "easy to read and provocative," adding: "Rare should be the library that does not have it."

Ben Jelloun continued with this format in Islam Explained, published in 2002. The history of Islam is presented, its basic tenants explained, and the militant sects of Muslim, as well as the challenges of being a peaceful Muslim in the world today, are examined. Reviewing Islam Explained in Booklist, John Green praised its "openness and emotional honesty."

Ben Jelloun drew on his own experiences as a prisoner and on the horrific real-life case of another prisoner of Morocco's King Hassan, II, for his book This Blinding Absence of Light. When Ben Jelloun was a student in 1966, he was arrested for taking part in student demonstrations. King Hassan sent the dissenters to an army camp for eighteen months. It was there that Ben Jelloun wrote his first poems, and first understood writing as a potentially deadly undertaking. His punishment was harsh, but Ben Jelloun was lucky compared to some of the king's other victims. Some were imprisoned for twenty years in underground cells in the desert, which were not even big enough to enable them to stand up straight. Finally released in 1991, the few survivors had become deformed and shortened after spending years in the tiny cells. Jelloun interviewed one of the detainees, a man called Aziz Binebine, and the end result was This Blinding Absence of Light, a novel that "transforms unspeakable inhumanity into an existential tale of willed survival," stated Maya Jaggi in the Guardian Online. Jaggi quoted Ben Jelloun as saying about his own work: "It's a book without concessions…. I wrote it feverishly, bewitched by it, surprising myself with an inner strength."

The story's protagonist is Salim, a studious young man who is caught up in the coup attempt against King Hassan and then virtually entombed for the next twenty years. Reviewing the English translation by Linda Coverdale for Booklist, Donna Seaman called it a "wrenching yet exquisite" tribute to the human spirit. This Blinding Absence of Light won the prestigious IMPAC Dublin Literary Award—an award that also carries a prize of 100,000 Euros. Binebine later accused Ben Jelloun of stealing his story. According to the author, who dedicated the book to Binebine, he had already agreed to share any profits from the book with him, and Binebine had approved a draft.

Ben Jelloun then departed from his previous style and subject matter, telling a very different tale in The Last Friend, a story of the friendship between Mamed and Ali that goes unexpectedly sour. The author attempts to show the different ways that people perceive their world, telling the story from three different perspectives: Mamed's, Ali's, and that of a mutual friend of both of them. It works as "a gentle, intelligent exercise in nihilism," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America's Intelligence Wire, June 17, 2004, "Moroccan Novelist Ben Jelloun Wins 100,000 Euro Prize."

Booklist, May 1, 1993, Angus Trimnell, p. 1568; October 15, 1995, Donna Seaman, review of Corruption, p. 383; May 15, 2002, Donna Seaman, review of This Blinding Absence of Light, p. 1573; October 1, 2002, John Green, review of IslamExplained, p. 284; January 1, 2003, review of Islam Explained, p. 794; February 1, 2006, Ray Olson, review of The Last Friend, p. 26.

Boston Review, February-March, 1997, Virginia Nolan, review of Corruption, p. 47.

Economist, July 13, 1991, review of Silent Day in Tangier, p. 92; March 3, 2001, review of This Blinding Absence of Light, p. 4.

EFE World News Service, September 22, 2001, interview with Tahar Ben Jelloun.

Financial Times, August 7, 2004, Tobias Grey, profile of Tahar Ben Jelloun, p. 25; March 11, 2006, Zoe Stimpel, review of The Last Friend, p. 33.

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2002, review of This Blinding Absence of Light, p. 704; August 15, 2002, review of Islam Explained, p. 1187; January 1, 2006, review of The Last Friend, p. 3.

Library Journal, July, 1989, L.M. Lewis, review of The Sacred Night, p. 109; April 15, 1991, Paul E. Hutchison, review of Silent Day in Tangier, p. 126; March 8, 1993, Peggie Partello, review of With Downcast Eyes, p. 107; March 15, 1993, Debbie Bogenschutz, review of The Last Friend, p. 107; June 1, 1999, John Moryl, review of Racism Explained to My Daughter, p. 160; October 1, 2000, Michael Rogers, review of The Sand Child and The Sacred Night, p. 153; August 15, 2002, review of Islam Explained, p. 1187; May 15, 2006, Debbie Bogenschutz, review of The Last Friend, p. 89.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, November 19, 1989, review of The Sacred Night, p. 11.

Middle East, April, 2003, Fred Rhodes, review of Islam Explained, p. 65.

New York Times, November 25, 1987, James M. Markham, "Arab Novelist Falls in Love with French," p. A7; July 27, 1998, Marlise Simons, review of Racism Explained to My Daughter; June 18, 2004, "IMPAC Literary Award Goes to a Moroccan," p. E35.

New York Times Book Review, October 25, 1987, Barbara Harlow, review of The Sand Child, p. 49; August 11, 1991, Katharine Weber, review of Silent Day in Tangier, p. 20; June 30, 2002, William Ferguson, review of Darkness at Noon, p. 21; June 4, 2006, Alison McCulloch, review of The Last Friend, p. 32.

Publishers Weekly, August 7, 1987, Sybil Steinberg, review of The Sand Child, pp. 433-434; February 1, 1991, Sybil Steinberg, review of Silent Day in Tangier, p. 67; March 8, 1993, review of With Downcast Eyes, p. 65; September 11, 1995, review of Corruption, p. 75; March 4, 2002, review of This Blinding Absence of Light, p. 53; September 30, 2002, review of Islam Explained, p. 65; December 19, 2005, review of The Last Friend, p. 38.

Research in African Literatures, fall, 2002, Farida Abu-Haidar, "Tahar Ben Jelloun," p. 200.

School Library Journal, December, 2002, Tim Wadham, review of Spanish-language version of Racism Explained to My Daughter, p. S50.

Spectator, July 24, 2004, Stephen Abell, review of This Blinding Absence of Light, p. 36.

Times Literary Supplement, January 27, 1989, review of The Sand Child, p. 88; June 15, 1990, review of The Sacred Night, p. 654; June 21, 1991, review of Silent Day in Tangiers, p. 21; August 4, 2000, Michael Brett, review of French Hospitality: Racism and North African Immigrants, p. 30.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), July 9, 1989, review of The Sacred Night, p. 6.

Washington Post Book World, November 8, 1987, review of The Sand Child, p. 5.

World Literature Today, autumn, 1994, Danielle Chavy Cooper, review of L'homme Rompu, pp. 865-866.