Review by ErinLynn917 -- The Immigrant's Lament
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Immigrant's Lament" by Mois benarroch.]
The Immigrants Lament, by Mois Benarroch, is a collection of poetry that touches on several subjects, including love, family, war, and injustice. But the over-arching success of this collection comes from Benarroch’s ability to capture the essence of life as an immigrant in Israel.
The majority of these poems connect to the fact that being an immigrant is hard, especially when you’re a minority because of your faith or country of origin. In the case of this collection, which mirrors Benarroch’s own story, the reader follows what it was like to leave Morocco for Israel. Everything about Morocco is romanticized, Morocco was perfect, Morocco had everything “except what I needed air to breathe time to think time to create to be myself to be a child and dream.” Meanwhile, Israel is suffocating; the words “suffocating” and “asphyxiating” showing up multiple times throughout single poems and the whole collection. As Benarroch’s works are widely regarded as auto-biographical I have to question how Benarroch sees himself: in “The Immigrants Lament” he writes the “Moroccan Prince” in the land “where everyone has to work.” There’s a sense of bitterness and entitlement that’s rife throughout these poems, as if Benarroch thinks it’s normal to need to take month breaks from his family and life.
Benarroch’s approach to love, as in true romantic love, not the familial kind is startling. In “Your Thousand Lovers” the narrator expresses his disgust (?) and hatred (?) for the men in his wife’s past. Now this in itself isn’t upsetting, but it’s not just the men he’s mad at, but his wife too; going so far as to say he wants to kill her. And in “Speech of the man after the birth of his first son,” and “Speech of the man after the birth of his second daughter” the titular “man” goes on to say that his wife is too focused on their newborn child, that she needs to pay attention to him, and that he’s looking to seek “warmth” elsewhere because she’s not paying attention to him. I’m not saying that these aren’t valid feelings, but as a young woman I find this mindset terrifying, dangerous, and a bit unhealthy.
For the most part, though, these poems capture what life is like, and what life has been like as seen by an immigrant and visitor to multiple countries. “Lisbon” captures love in a more romantic way. “Highs and Lows” is a glimpse at injustice and culture, a poem of hope and despair wrapped up in six short lines. Out of this collection, it is my personal favorite.
There are a few poems that don’t seem to tie into the collection; “The Price of a Diamond,” for example, focuses on atrocities in Africa associated with the diamond trade. Personally, this poem came as a bit of a shock to me, because the tones of the previous poems, while not blatantly happy, were much lighter. They had humor and beauty interwoven within the tough topics. They focused more on biographical information and relationships that Benarroch had or could have been exposed to. And they largely focused on immigrant life in (what is assumed to be) Israel. This sudden jump to “the future of amputated Africa” is startling and off-putting; it doesn’t challenge the reader to think about difficult topics, it challenges the reader to keep the book open. To be clear, I don’t think it’s a bad poem, I just don’t think it belongs in this collection.
Additionally, there are a few formatting errors, nothing major, nothing that makes the work unreadable, but then there are some questionable usage errors. For example, the poem “Strip poetry” uses the words “poor” and “pour” interchangeably and even after revisiting the poem multiple times I cannot fathom that this was actually meant to be. “Pour” makes sense, as a word meaning “to empty;” “poor” as a word meaning “lacking wealth” does not. If this was an intentional choice by Benarroch I am in desperate need of an explanation as to of why. If not, this edition really needs to be reviewed for senseless errors like this one that take away from the poems.
Personally, I can’t say that I’d pick this up to read it a second time, but I am grateful that I read it. There are single lines from various poems that will stick with me for a long time to come. That being said, I don’t like the underlying sense of bitterness and resentment throughout these poems. I give this book 3 out of 4 stars. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy poetry and to people who want to understand immigrants and the Middle East (specifically Israel) better.
******
The Immigrant's Lament
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
The majority of these poems connect to the fact that being an immigrant is hard, especially when you’re a minority because of your faith or country of origin. In the case of this collection, which mirrors Benarroch’s own story, the reader follows what it was like to leave Morocco for Israel. Everything about Morocco is romanticized, Morocco was perfect, Morocco had everything “except what I needed air to breathe time to think time to create to be myself to be a child and dream.” Meanwhile, Israel is suffocating; the words “suffocating” and “asphyxiating” showing up multiple times throughout single poems and the whole collection. As Benarroch’s works are widely regarded as auto-biographical I have to question how Benarroch sees himself: in “The Immigrants Lament” he writes the “Moroccan Prince” in the land “where everyone has to work.” There’s a sense of bitterness and entitlement that’s rife throughout these poems, as if Benarroch thinks it’s normal to need to take month breaks from his family and life.
Benarroch’s approach to love, as in true romantic love, not the familial kind is startling. In “Your Thousand Lovers” the narrator expresses his disgust (?) and hatred (?) for the men in his wife’s past. Now this in itself isn’t upsetting, but it’s not just the men he’s mad at, but his wife too; going so far as to say he wants to kill her. And in “Speech of the man after the birth of his first son,” and “Speech of the man after the birth of his second daughter” the titular “man” goes on to say that his wife is too focused on their newborn child, that she needs to pay attention to him, and that he’s looking to seek “warmth” elsewhere because she’s not paying attention to him. I’m not saying that these aren’t valid feelings, but as a young woman I find this mindset terrifying, dangerous, and a bit unhealthy.
For the most part, though, these poems capture what life is like, and what life has been like as seen by an immigrant and visitor to multiple countries. “Lisbon” captures love in a more romantic way. “Highs and Lows” is a glimpse at injustice and culture, a poem of hope and despair wrapped up in six short lines. Out of this collection, it is my personal favorite.
There are a few poems that don’t seem to tie into the collection; “The Price of a Diamond,” for example, focuses on atrocities in Africa associated with the diamond trade. Personally, this poem came as a bit of a shock to me, because the tones of the previous poems, while not blatantly happy, were much lighter. They had humor and beauty interwoven within the tough topics. They focused more on biographical information and relationships that Benarroch had or could have been exposed to. And they largely focused on immigrant life in (what is assumed to be) Israel. This sudden jump to “the future of amputated Africa” is startling and off-putting; it doesn’t challenge the reader to think about difficult topics, it challenges the reader to keep the book open. To be clear, I don’t think it’s a bad poem, I just don’t think it belongs in this collection.
Additionally, there are a few formatting errors, nothing major, nothing that makes the work unreadable, but then there are some questionable usage errors. For example, the poem “Strip poetry” uses the words “poor” and “pour” interchangeably and even after revisiting the poem multiple times I cannot fathom that this was actually meant to be. “Pour” makes sense, as a word meaning “to empty;” “poor” as a word meaning “lacking wealth” does not. If this was an intentional choice by Benarroch I am in desperate need of an explanation as to of why. If not, this edition really needs to be reviewed for senseless errors like this one that take away from the poems.
Personally, I can’t say that I’d pick this up to read it a second time, but I am grateful that I read it. There are single lines from various poems that will stick with me for a long time to come. That being said, I don’t like the underlying sense of bitterness and resentment throughout these poems. I give this book 3 out of 4 stars. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy poetry and to people who want to understand immigrants and the Middle East (specifically Israel) better.
******
The Immigrant's Lament
Read The immigrant's Lament in
Francais https://www.amazon.fr/dp/1507144415
Portugues https://www.amazon.com/dp/1507118074
Italiano https://www.amazon.it/dp/1507130104
English https://www.amazon.com/dp/1519012616
Bilingual edition Hebrew/English http://www.lulu.com/shop/mois-benarroch/paperback/product-21661852.html
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
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