The books of Mois Benarroch

English https://www.amazon.com/dp/1519012616

Bilingual edition Hebrew/English http://www.lulu.com/shop/mois-benarroch/paperback/product-21661852.html

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Monday, December 18, 2017

Review -- Gates to Tangier by Mois Benarroch

Review by jimthorne2 -- Gates to Tangier by Mois Benarroch

Gates to Tangier is an adventure in point of view for readers who are used to a single perspective. To read Gates correctly, one has to recognize the constant change of perspective from one character to another and back again. The writer leads the reader on a thought journey with just enough clues to provide interest and the anticipation that the problem introduced at the beginning will be solved.

Benarroch is a challenging writer who takes the reader on a journey in search for a child that no one expected in the deceased father’s legacy. The motivation for the search is money. When the father of the Benzimra family dies, he leaves a will informing his family of an illegitimate son he fathered with a Muslim woman in Morocco. The condition for receiving the inheritance is that the family do everything possible to find that child. The members of the Benzimra family speak throughout the book sharing thoughts and frustrations which exhibit their humanity and view of life.

Benarroch introduces his traditional themes of Sephardic identity, Morocco, and life as a journey. As a part of his opinion, God is someone who likes to see sacrifices and whom we must approach as beggars in prayer. He sees identity as an ever-emerging mirage through place and circumstance. Each member of the family speaks and reveals the nature of their identity from the compulsive Alberto to the confused Zohar.

Benarroch’s perspective is a Jewish view of family interests and conflicts. His tone is personal and penetrating with insights into people living in the struggle of our time. He keeps our interest by showing that modern travel includes but is not limited to travel by plane to various important places in the story. His writing is highly emotional with captivating dialogue but little narrative structure. I have never read another book like this. There is no author or title to compare.

The book is rated 3 out of 4. It is not rated better because the author expects the reader to figure out, without help, that the point of view is the point of the book. This expectation is a stretch that most readers will not appreciate. I don’t like the view of God that fails to recognize the God who Himself makes sacrifices. Also, his understanding of prayer as a complaint is too simplistic. I like the book because it challenges me to think outside my usual reading pattern. I also am Jewish friendly and appreciate the personal exposure from one who understands that point of view and can express it.

******
Gates to Tangier

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Thursday, September 28, 2017

Review - The Immigrant's Lament

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Hebrew עברית http://www.lulu.com/shop/paperback/product-21664144.html

Francais https://www.amazon.fr/dp/1507144415

Español https://www.amazon.es/dp/1507122713/

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

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1409218163

Review by Bookworm39 -- The Immigrant's Lament

Post Number:#1 by Bookworm39 » 05 Jun 2017, 00:22

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Immigrant's Lament" by Mois benarroch.]

4 out of 4 stars

Review by Bookworm39

The Immigrant’s Lament by Mois Benarroch is a nonfiction book of poems. It was published by Moben Publishing in 2016. Mois Benarroch was born in Morocco in 1959 but came to Israel in 1972 with his parents. This book of poems is translated in Hebrew and English.

This book was first published in Hebrew in 1994. In Israel, he is an award-winning poet. This author is interesting. He was awarded the Prime Minister Literary Prize in 2008. He was also awarded the Yehuda Amichai Poetry Prize in 2012. I had to look him up since I like his book of poems.

This book contains fifty-three poems in which the author writes about his life. His poems focus on love, family, friends, life and freedom. For the most part, his poems are only a page long but for two it is longer. The two longest poems is The Immigrant’s Lament, which is 18 pages long and the Self Portrait of the Poet in a Family Mirror, which is 12 pages long. The poem The Immigrant’s Lament is the source for the title of the book. In this poem, the poet talks about his life in third person. It focuses on when he and his family left home to go to Israel and different things that happened. This is the first poem that you read. The last poem in this book is the Self Portrait of the Poet in a Family Mirror. This poem is 12 pages long. This poem is about who is he and what he wants. It touches on many subjects.

I love reading and writing poetry and I love this book. Most people love poetry even if they don’t understand it. In this book of poems, the author writes about various aspects of his life. What I like about this book is that there is one poem on each page. This makes it easier for the reader to know when the poem ended.

The only thing that I didn’t like about this book is that the Table of Contents was at the end of the book instead of the beginning of the book. I haven’t seen a book that the Table of Contents was at the end before.

I rate this book of poems by Mois Benarroch, 4 out of 4 stars. This book had a few errors but nothing that takes away what the author is trying to convey. I would recommend this book to all poetry lovers. This would be good for beginning poets.

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The Immigrant's Lament
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Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Review -- The Immigrant's Lament

Review by uzeziq -- The Immigrant's Lament

Post Number:#1 by uzeziq » 10 Jul 2017, 11:58

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Immigrant's Lament" by Mois benarroch.]

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The Immigrant’s Lament is an English translation of a collection of poems written by Mois Benarroch and published by Moben Publishing in 2016. The poems were originally written in Hebrew and published in 1994. There are a total of 53 poems in the book which contains 91 pages.

The book received its’ title from the first poem that appeared in the collection ‘The Immigrant’s lament’. It is not only the first poem but also the longest in the book. The poem introduces us to the plight of the poet, how he became an unhappy immigrant when his family relocated from Morocco, his birth place to Israel. It also highlights the dilemma and challenges he faced in settling down and accepting his new environment – if he ever did. This introduction is necessary as it creates the bedrock the reader needs to understand and decipher the geographical setting of the poems in the book as Israel, where the poet writes, as an immigrant. The poet is also able to make the reader understand better why he judges almost everything from the perspective he does, as an immigrant, from the culture to politics and religion. Although this poem takes a narrative form, it subtly moves the reader to feel pity for the poet and thus, take sides with him which becomes an important factor in making the reader accept his views and emotions in the poems that come after.

The poems in the book convey the themes of love, politics, religion, war, fear and uncertainty. The poet made use of a combination of rich poetic elements that made the content both engaging and interesting. He also introduced humor which helped ease the tense mood that some of the poems created and everything seemed to balance out fine. Throughout the book, the poet does not aim to force or convince the reader to accept his views, rather, he presents the poems as a dialogue he is having with himself. Nonetheless, he succeeds in keeping the reader’s attention with the use of imagery and rhetorical questions and thereby, sustaining the reader’s interest in his dialogue.

In the PDF version, there are some noticeable editing errors ranging from wrong spelling and omitted letters to improper spacing; some of which include ‘the outsiderwhen’ on page 3, ‘I sing you a love son.’ on page 45, ‘for Peace Now peoplethey’ on page 85, ‘I’m here to prouve you wrong’ on page 68, among others. Also, the “Table of Contents” is found at the last two pages of the book which made it really tiring and difficult for me to navigate to certain poems or areas of interest as I have to scroll through the entire book to look for the page number of a particular poem. It would have been better if the “Table of Contents” was placed before the poems for easy navigation.

In my opinion, The Immigrant's Lament will be well suited to all lovers of poetry. However, it contains a few non-English words and phrases such as “awadel yahoud”, “ze kaparateja”, and others. Some of them are Hebrew while others are Arabic. There are two poems in the book with French titles, ‘Les Entrailles Du Poete’ and ‘Les Poetes Maudits’. All of these words were foreign to me and I had to do a research to understand the meaning of the words before I could fully grab the context of what was said by the poet. Some readers might consider this a tedious process. Nonetheless, if effort is made to get the meaning of the words, it would become hard not to find the book interesting.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars because what it lacked in editing, was properly made up for in its’ interesting content.

******
The Immigrant's Lament

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Hebrew עברית http://www.lulu.com/shop/paperback/product-21664144.html

English https://www.amazon.com/dp/1519012616

Bilingual edition Hebrew/English http://www.lulu.com/shop/mois-benarroch/paperback/product-21661852.html

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Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Review The Immigrant's Lament by Mois Benarroch

Review by thewoostercode -- The Immigrant's Lament

4 out of 4 stars

The Immigrant’s Lament by Mois Benarroch is a contemplative collection of poetry, originally published in Hebrew in 1994 and translated into English by Moben Publishing in 2016. Benarroch is a renowned Sephardic Jewish poet and author who writes in Hebrew and Spanish. Born in Tetouan, Morroco in 1959, his family moved to Israel, both a strange land and homeland to him, when he was 12; and it is these experiences of living between cultures that influences the body of his work, and lies at the heart of The Immigrant’s Lament, in particular.

The book features fifty-three poems that grapple with themes as diverse as war, injustice, religion, politics, romantic love, belonging, family and identity. Benarroch has an easy conversational style to his poetry that it is incredibly vivid, painfully self-aware and delightfully humorous. Yet he quickly moves from image to image, and leaves behind a prevailing sense of restlessness which is echoed in his poems that never focus on any one idea or path, but explore multiples ones. And though, at first, that may seem odd or off-putting, it makes senses when considered in the context of the two poems that bookend the collection.

The first poem, ‘The Immigrant’s Lament’, and the last poem, ‘Self-portrait of the Poet in the Family Mirror', are the longest in the book, and draw upon his life experiences and the literatures of the countries he has lived in. They give us an opening and a closing shot that layers over all of the collection’s themes with two central ones that form the burden of the immigrant’s lament: that of being a stranger who looks for something better but consistently finds loss. Benarroch’s immigrant has an additional lament which is that of the artistic creator who is conflicted, seeking to write poetry that is either flawed and authentic or that is masterful and critically acclaimed. It is these poems that I enjoyed the most because I am a person who is simultaneously a part of several cultures and yet foreign to them all.

Benarroch crosses borders whether they be religious, geographical, literary or emotional and takes us into the space in between things in a ceaseless exploration for a certainty that can only be rejected. This is aptly encapsulated in the line, ‘looks for freedom, scared of limitations’; freedom here can refer to achieving creative genius, love, fame, fortune and so on. However, regardless of where these explorations may take us, the feeling out of place and yearning to leave always remain whatever else changes.

There is an undercurrent of quiet optimism that is evident throughout the collection, one that asserts a belief that better days will come. This optimism is driven by the poetry itself. It is by writing poems that the immigrant can anchor himself in a world without solid borders, and it is writing poetry that remains the only constant throughout the physical and temporal transitions. And so, it is in poetry that the stranger in The Immigrant’s Lament can wait for and hope to find a sense of belonging as a recognised poet, and a loved human.

The Immigrant’s Lament is an honest and intense expression of the loss of those who have failed to connect with people and places, and have struggled to find lasting purpose, because their nature forces them to live life in transition.

I give this book a rating of 4 out of 4 stars. It was an easy decision to arrive at. This particular translation is clear and free of errors. I would recommend this book to poetry readers and anyone from a multicultural background who has had trouble reconciling the worlds to which they belong.

******
The Immigrant's Lament
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Read The immigrant's Lament in

Hebrew עברית http://www.lulu.com/shop/paperback/product-21664144.html

English https://www.amazon.com/dp/1519012616

Bilingual edition Hebrew/English http://www.lulu.com/shop/mois-benarroch/paperback/product-21661852.html

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Review -- Keys to Tetouan by Mois Benarroch

Review by TJ de Ocampo -- Keys to Tetouan by Mois Benarroch

Post Number:#1 by TJ de Ocampo » 19 Jul 2017, 21:24

[Following is a volunteer review of "Keys to Tetouan" by Mois Benarroch.]

4 out of 4 stars

Review by TJ de Ocampo

“...how is it possible you're an exile, exile everywhere, exile is my home, the years didn't subdue the pain, son, you'll see, you will always be an exile, exiled from exile,...” is perhaps the line which best solidifies the soul of Keys to Tetouan, a historical fiction novel by Moroccan-Israeli writer Mois Benarroch. Penned by a poet, it is no surprise that the narrative follows a nonlinear, experimental, and what the novel itself describes, "post-post modern" format. It is a farrago of letters, interviews, anecdotes, unimagined (and imagined) dialogues concerning the Benzimra family, a Moroccan-Jewish clan that's supposedly been everywhere in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Unconventional in style and construction, it is very easy for the reader to get lost in its paragraphs and to understand very little of what's happening in and among its hodgepodge of characters. It is ambiguous, vague, often indecipherable, and yet the author does not seem to prioritize clarity or reader comprehension. When dealing with the concept of home—which at one point is argued as the source of one's identity, and at another, as something completely unrelated—the author is unapologetically confusing, inconcise and almost rude. And yet, as I write about it now, I feel it's precisely this rudeness which makes the book so offensively beautiful. Let me attempt to clarify:

Primarily Benarroch reexamines the concept of a promised land, an ideal of which he asks: "Is it truly attainable?" And he further agonizes, "If so, where is it?" Narrating the experiences and memories of the Benzimra family of Tetouan, Morocco, he juxtaposes their past with the identities they now needed to refashion in order to live in Europe and Jerusalem. He raises the questions "Who am I?" which in itself is a question of "Who are we?" and ultimately, "Who am I in relation to others?" The answers are perplexing, flooded with contradiction, and yet the author seems to be concluding: perhaps this is all that we really are—a people full of irony. "Perhaps," the author might be saying, "we Jewish people are really just wanderers in the wilderness, merely passing through."

The passages, the interviews, the anecdotes, all of these are written like fragments of a lost identity. And the book is a stream of consciousness, the thoughts of a man preoccupied with picking up these shards and arranging them into a mosaic—an attempt to depict that which is elusive. As one of the characters in the story soliloquizes, "I'll write down the lie, and maybe that lie I write about you and me will enable some truth to flourish, some kind of understanding, maybe I'll find a few more pieces of the mosaic.”

Intentionally written like a surge of memories, it is hazy, ambiguous, imperfect, and yet sentimental. It is at once poetic and meditative, reminiscent of Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground and Gao Xingjian's Soul Mountain. It is a recommended read for anyone looking for work that is unafraid to be raw, with edges that cut to the heart. I give Mois Benarroch's Keys to Tetouan a 4 out of 4.

******
Keys to Tetouan
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Review: Gates to Tangier by Mois Benarroch

Official Review: Gates to Tangier by Mois Benarroch

Post Number:#1 by bluegreenmarina » 04 Jan 2017, 23:05

[Following is a volunteer review of "Gates to Tangier" by Mois Benarroch.]

Gates to Tangier by Mois Benarroch is a solid family tale of travel and discovery, but it is also so much more. At its core, it follows a group of Jewish siblings struggling simultaneously with grief over their father’s recent death, and shock and disbelief over his revealed will which discloses the existence of their previously-unknown half-brother living in Morocco. As the family converges to travel together in search of their lost brother, each sibling has a part in telling the progress of events as well as sharing his or her perspective on the action described. The father’s death brings up a concurrent stirring of the family grief at the passing of their youngest brother Israel, and the reader is able to follow along with each member of the family as he or she processes the memories and emotions triggered by both deaths.

Through the telling of each character’s version of the story, we come to learn not only of the history of this particular Jewish family, but also to see glimpses of modern Jewish culture as it crosses national borders and generations. The dialogue and individual voice of each character stands out in its uniqueness, and through their philosophical musings the reader is exposed to bits of the history of the Lebanese war, as well as the relationship between Israel and Morocco and between Jews and Muslims. Topics that are explored by the characters include modern society and religion, war, and antisemitism.

Considering that this was a relatively short work, the author was able to pack a ton of personality into each character, to move the story along fluidly, and to include several layers of meaning which would lend well to repeat readings. Despite the very realistic quality of the dialogue and the general events described, there is also a strong element of surrealism throughout the book. Several dreamlike passages of poetic exchanges are sprinkled between the rest of the chapters, and some chapters are written from the perspective of the deceased youngest brother, which reinforces the feeling of transition and ephemerality brought on by the fact that the initial scenes take place in transit, literally in airports and planes. The surreal feeling is deepened when one of the brothers, a writer, engages in a very self-referential discussion of the process of writing a story about the events taking place in the story, as they actually unfold. In addition, there appears to be a theme of interconnectedness which is hinted at by the existence of several characters who share first and/or last names, and explored directly through the lens of a permeating Jewish culture and its meaning within each character’s life.

This is a deep though not difficult read. Readers with only a limited exposure to the cultures and historical events described here are still able to follow the story easily, and with it to learn bits and pieces of a world they may not know well. One of the biggest strengths of this work is that it has something to offer for readers with a whole spectrum of backgrounds.

Unfortunately the translation was not perfect, as I noticed a handful of small typos and grammar mistakes. In addition, I would have preferred a more direct resolution at the conclusion of the story, however I knew not to truly expect one since one of the meta observations made by the writer within the story was regarding stories without a true plot structure (or, presumably, a true ending). As a result I have rated this a 3 out of 4 stars, but it was definitely very close to getting a perfect score.

******
Gates to Tangier
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Official Review: The Immigrants' Lament by Mois Benarroch online Book Club

Official Review: The Immigrants' Lament by Mois Benarroch

Post Number:#1 by Chrys Brobbey » 12 May 2017, 23:33

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of “The Immigrant's Lament" by Mois Benarroch.]

4 out of 4 stars

Review by Chrys Brobbey

The Immigrant's Lament is a book containing fifty-three poems written by Mois Benarroch, a Moroccan-born Israeli. Originally published in Hebrew in 1994, the English edition of the book was issued in 2016 by Moben Publishing.

The book takes its name from the first poem in the anthology. In that particular poem, and some of the others, the author chronicles his childhood in Morocco and the subsequent migration of his family to Israel. He recounts episodes of their stay in Jerusalem, and how their Israeli dream quickly became a mirage. Some of the poems cover themes such as politics, love, freedom, injustice, war, trust, and culture. The author’s tone varies from being emotional, lighthearted, angry, sad, nostalgic, and ironic to loving, depending on the subject matter of the particular poem.

Poems are generally couched in terse words; they have hidden intent and meaning that have to be deciphered. And as a norm, they are flavored with rhymes, rhythms, metaphors, similes, and other literary devices. Poems are also either written in the narrative or descriptive style. The author here uses the narrative style which best suits his purpose of telling his story to convey a message. Apart from the appropriate use of metaphors and similes, he writes in the free-verse style that avoids the use of the other poetic features that could constrain the proper transmission of his messages and feelings. The end result is that the poems are easy to read and understand.

Through some of the poems the author succeeds in arousing my sympathy to his plight as a reluctant immigrant in Israel. His frustrations come through forcefully when he writes: “I shout my right to be different/in the Israeli society.” As he tries to rediscover himself, the conflict and the ambivalence within him are portrayed when he debates: “I am religious I am not religious.” He goes on to lament: “The more I explain/the less I understand.” It takes a heart of stone not to feel his pain in reading the poems.

What I also like about the poems is the way Mois Benarrach uses them to inform, to educate and to advocate. For instance, in one of the poems he asks: “or are the statutes more still more important/than people?” He poses this question after noting that when the Taliban destroyed a statute of Buddha in Afghanistan all the civilized world protested loudly, but they failed to react in the same way for every single person killed. I got to thinking that since the Hebrew version of the book was published in 1996, the Arab Spring that started in 2010 might have taken its inspiration from the poem in the book on freedom that reads: “Nobody is going to give you freedom/you have to take it/ and take the risks.” The piece I like most is this one which is philosophical and inspirational, as well as rich in imagery: “Come come on you can cope with it/you are stronger than mountains and seas/stronger than waves and winds/We have seen bones walk again.”

As a poetry enthusiast and writer, I recommend The Immigrant's Lament to other fans of poetry. Even those who are not used to reading poems will find this book a good basis for beginners on account of its simplicity. I rate the book 4 out of 4 stars for its clarity and lack of grammatical and editing flaws.

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The Immigrant's Lament
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Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Review by Anohar John -- The Immigrant's Lament

Post Number:#1 by Anohar John » 16 Aug 2017, 20:53

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Immigrant's Lament" by Mois benarroch.]

3 out of 4 stars

Review by Anohar John

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The Immigrants Lament, by Mois Benarroch, is a series of poems which touches every human heart and contains several intense subjects, he talks lot about the foreign land which he had come across, his childhood memories,his thoughts about his grand father and lot more. He had truly sighted the immigrants life through this poem.
The main theme of the poem is the life of an immigrant and how hard is it to become an immigrant. His thoughts travel through his memories from Morocco and he dreams lot about it. He likes Morocco so much that he feels very suffocating in Israel which he express is thoughts through the medium of this poem. He identify that it is very normal in this world that everyone takes breaks from his own family as well as life. One cannot stay back from realities and on which we humans have no control over it.

His approach towards love and family is quiet misunderstood. He was not happy with the way things had gone in his family one thing we can understand is that he never got matured as father or head of the family taking up responsibilities he just have a thought and feeling of a teenager. His mindset was of that sort.

His poem takes us through many countries and how life is like and what will and has happened to an immigrant just like him. He focus indirectly on the realities of diamond trade in Africa which is basically telling us about geographical information and also about human relationships. The set of poems does not irritate the reader help him to understand the situations in a very easy language. It consists of poems which cover a wide range of topics which is unusual in case of poems. Usually poem may have only one theme from start to the end but this is really interesting as it brings the readers attention to a great number of sites.

The poem is the self description about the poet himself and his family who reaches Israel as an immigrant. He explains mostly about his likes and dislikes . He writes about the world politics. He also tells us about transsexual women in the poem. The poem is full of emotions and events.

As i read through it i came across some small errors which is relating to formatting and usage errors. Some of them can be corrected but others cannot be edited as far as i don't know the real meaning of the word as many times these are usages for which we don't have any citations. Even there are some issues it never affects the reader to understand the goals and language as well as meaning of the poem

After reading this i am not able to say that i will read this for the second time or not but i will recommend this one for reading as it is written in very simple language which could be understood by anyone.I give this book 3 out of 4 stars. The book contains 91 pages in all.

******
The Immigrant's Lament

Read The immigrant's Lament in

Hebrew עברית http://www.lulu.com/shop/paperback/product-21664144.html

English https://www.amazon.com/dp/1519012616

Bilingual edition Hebrew/English http://www.lulu.com/shop/mois-benarroch/paperback/product-21661852.html