4 out of 4 stars
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The experience one gets sitting in a room and trying to understand several ongoing conversations resembles the experience of reading the novel, Gates of Tangier, by Mois Benarroch, translated by Sara Maria Hasbun. The novel, a work of literary fiction, begins with family members learning about an illegitimate brother who stands in the way of their immediately being able to inherit. The patriarch's will requires the Benzimra family members to find their father’s illegitimate son, their half-brother, in order to receive their inheritances. If they cannot, the money will be disbursed in five years. Thus commences a search that travels around Israel, France, Spain, the U.S., and Morocco. The family members all have their say about this, so to speak, in this novel.
Most chapters develop around interior monologues intertwined with conversations and events. The reader is thrust into the minds of the characters in the midstream of thoughts that expand and digress as the characters consider their situations and their unknown half-brother. As readers, we experience the vagaries of thoughts which seldom move in a linear fashion. The characters berate themselves for their failures, are misled by their desires to gain their inheritances, or betrayed by their obsessions.
One theme running through the book is identity. The identity of Jewishness and its many variations take thoughts along different paths that recount historical expulsions and stereotypes held about Jews. The second element of identity occurs when characters encounter someone they think resembles a family member or perhaps is the half-brother they have never seen. Finally, they speculate about the identity of the half-brother they didn’t know they had.
Some books are reader-friendly; this book is not. What plot exists moves the storyline forward very little. The novel is not about actions; it is about ideas. Exposition occurs randomly through interior monologues. Although the narrators seem reliable, the reader sees how their perceptions may be distorted by their desires. The novel demands investment by the reader who must make connections with few clues and must deduce from internal conversations whether the internal monologue occurs at the time of the search or at another time. Put differently, time, identities, and memories are fluid in this novel.
The writing propels the reader forward with an energetic use of language and structure. To achieve this dynamism, the writer sometimes uses multiple run-on constructions like “The house is not a safe place, it isn’t safe like it seemed before, it was the very symbol of freedom, the place I could always go when the skies filled with thunderclaps.” But generally, the writer controls grammar and vocabulary skillfully even poetically. A few homophone errors occur like using through when it should be threw or see when it should be sea.
On the whole, someone lacking familiarity with Jewish culture will find this book challenging after the opening delightful pages. Add this to the way the author uses interior monologues to advance the novel, readers may find the novel daunting. However, those readers who persevere will enjoy a novel of energetic style with the characters’ speculations on different philosophical issues couched in real-world dilemmas. For this reason, I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. If you choose to read Gates of Tangier expect to devote your attention fully to the task at hand. You will be rewarded.
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Gates to Tangier
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