Review by ellieonline03 -- review of "The Expelled" by Mois Benarroch
3 out of 4 stars
Review by ellieonline03
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There were three storytellers in this book. The first narrator was the author himself. On his way home, he met a young woman who looked like the younger version of his wife, Gabrielle. He was not sure if he was hallucinating or not, but they continued to see each other. These secret meetings budded to an adulterous relationship. One day, the younger Gabrielle asked the author to read to her a story he had been writing, which he complied. From there, a new narrator took over. Some people interrogated the narrator about a bus hijacking. He was one of the passengers of the bus that headed to “the sea”. There were two groups in the bus: the front people (the superior) and the back people (the inferior). Peculiar situations happened during their journey. During those times, the front people always got the best deal in every argument. No one thought it was odd that the front people treated the back people with cruelty. At one point, one of the front people gave the narrator a notebook. During the interrogation, the narrator read this book aloud. It was a story about that passenger’s life as an immigrant. He was from Morocco, and as such, he was discriminated. He wanted to settle down in his new country, but he was always pulled down by others.
The Expelled is like a Russian nesting doll of narratives. You open one story only to find another story inside it and another story inside the second story. The accumulation of three stories in one book might be too confusing for some readers. However, Benarroch skilfully weaved the three stories to expose a central theme: discrimination. The struggling author, the back people on the bus, and the Moroccan immigrant were all marginalized for being different.
There were situations presented in the stories that were very ironic. Those moments were almost laughable if not for the fact that these situations were similar to what we observe around us. For instance, when the people in the bus argued on who could use the comfort room, the front people were allowed to use it more often than the back people. In today’s world, only the privileged enjoyed the things that were supposed to be equally shared by everyone. Another instance was when the front people harassed the back people, no one complained about the harassment. However, when the back people stepped into the front people’s territory, the front people got angry. The same can be observed today. The oppressors can do what they want, but the oppressed cannot do what they need to do.
Overall, I give The Expelled by Mois Benarroch 3 out of 4 stars. The novel was entertaining and thought-provoking, but it needs to be thoroughly edited first. I was distracted by the grammatical errors and the wrong use of punctuation marks that I found in the book.
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Read THE EXPELLED/ EL EXPULSADO IN
English getbook.at/theExpelled
FRANCAIS getbook.at/lExpulse
Italiano getbook.at/lEspulso
español getbook.at/elExpulsado
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