زنقة بن بركة

by Mahmoud Saeed, محمود سعيد

تهيئ لنا الرواية مرصداً شرقياً للنظر إلى زقاق مجهول لنا في المغرب العربي، محتشد بشخصيات لم تستطع الأقنعة المحلية أن تخفي قسماتها الحادّة، والجلاليب أن تحتوي عنف أجسادها. وكانت عين الشرقي حادّة وهي تزيح النقب عن الوجوه المغربية وتخترق الأجساد والعقول المعذبة بقضايا مجتمع لم يتخلّص تماماً من تسلّط الفقر والجوع والجنس والرهبة الأيديولوجية.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Middle East, Africa

273 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Mahmoud Saeed was an Iraqi-born American novelist.
Born in Mosul, Saeed has written more than twenty novels and short story collections, and hundreds of articles. He started writing short stories at an early age. He wrote an award-winning short story in the Newspaper "Fata Al-Iraq, Newspaper" in 1956. He published a collection of short stories, Port Saeed and other stories, in 1957. In 1963, the government after 1963 coup destroyed his two novel manuscripts one under review, "The Old Case" and "The Strike".
Government censorship prevented his novel Rhythm and Obsession from being published in 1968, and banned his novel Rue Ben Barka, in 1970. Rue Ben Barka was published fifteen years later in Egypt 1985, Jordan 1992/1993, and Beirut in 1997. Authorities banned the publication of any book written by the author from 1963 to 2008. His most important novels after Ben Barka Lane are The Girls of Jacob, The World Through the Angel's Eyes, I am the One Who Saw, and Trilogy of Chicago.

Reviews

[シ محمد العلي · Rating 1 out of 5]

بالحقيقة لا اعلم كيف حصلت هذه الرواية على افضل رواية عراقية لعام 1994 !
ألهذي الدرجة كان الوضع الأدبي أنذاك ضعيف وهابط !؟

اذا اردت ان تكتب عن اوضاع وقضايا مجتمع من الناحية السياسية والأجتماعية وان تذكر الجوع والقهر والفقر .. الخ
فـ بإمكانك ان تكتب رواية بأسلوب أدبي محترم بما انك تملك هذا الكم الممتاز بالمفردات وصياغة الكلمات والجمل بإتقان، ولكن للأسف المؤلف محمود سعيد لم يستغل ما يملكة من مميزات شخصية في روايته هذه ..

لا يعقل ان انتصف بعدد صفحات الرواية وكلها عن الخمر والهيام بالحب والتغزل والجنس وحوارات غير نافعة يتخللها كلمات بذيئة !! بإمكانك ان تذكر هذا الجانب من المجتمع ولكن بحدود معقولة! لم استطع اكمالها، لا يوجد فيها شي يستحق ان انتظر منها شي جميل .. مؤسف ان يتم تكريم مثل هذه الكتب .

[Sana Abdulla · Rating 1 out of 5]

كاتب،مفكر او صحفي، هارب، منفي او لاجيء في المغرب يعمل في ثانوية للبنات. يروي بتفاصيل مفرطة كل حركة و اكلة و رحلة و مكان يكون فيه مع أصدقائه و معارفه، حوارات مبتورة و أحداث بلا تسلسل مفهوم و أسئلة تجاب باسئلة بنفس مستوى العبثية و التفاهة. لا يفعلون شيئا الا التسكع من حانة الي أخرى او يواعدون النساء اللاتي هن في المجمل عاهرات، حتى طالبات المدرسة و ربات البيوت. أما الحدث الاعظم فهو افتتان الكاتب بامرأة ذات جمال خيالي ، كاملة الا في أخلاقها المتهتكة. نقرأ عشرات الصفحات من الوصف و اللت و الهدرة المستمرة لتنتهي الرواية بحبكة مستعجلة مهمتها ان ينال الكاتب معشوقته المتنمعة عنه طوال الرواية دون الآخرين. هناك بعض التلميحات السياسية التي تحاول أن تعطي الرواية عمق فكري أثناء ماراثون الخمر و الجنس و الحط من النساء جملة و تفصيلا. اذا كان التغيير على يتم يد المثقفين فيا ويل المظلومين.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book from the author on LibraryThing...and it was a signed copy too! This book is about an Iraqi on vacation in Morocco and all the people he meets and places he goes and the woman he falls in love with. Overall I enjoyed the book. It held my interest, was a fast-paced story and really picked up at the end with some added intrigue. Some of the reading was difficult to decipher due to the fact that this book was translated into English.

[World Literature Today]

"[Ben Barka Lane] is a young man’s book, full of the joy of life, the allurements and satisfactions of the physical world, women’s bodies, grilled lamb and alcoholic exaltation, even the delight of walking down a street in the evening 'by way of the casino lined by tall palms, by huge trees and by fragrant blossoms... in and of itself an incomparable pleasure.' It depicts loneliness, too, and the agonies and jealousies of unrequited love." - M. D. Allen, University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley

This book was reviewed in the January 2014 issue of World Literature Today. Read the full review by visiting our website: http://bit.ly/1e8BMvd

[Kiessa]

Around the World in 52 Books: Iraq

[Jasim Kasim · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best Arab or foreign novel depicting Morocco in the sixties at all, I never read the best of them ever

[Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

did not read a novel more powerful than it exposed the policy of morocco through unique love story

[Sam Reaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mahmoud Saeed is a leading Iraqi novelist, widely published in Arabic but with only a few titles available in English. Translation costs are a major barrier for writers like Saeed, who are important voices but don't sell books in the numbers that attract western publishers' attention. This novel, first published in 1970, was banned in Iraq for many years, due not to its relative sexual frankness, but to its critical approach to Moroccan political and social issues. (Authoritarian regimes stick together.) With some autobiographical elements (Saeed fled Iraq after multiple stretches as a political prisoner), the book takes place in 1960's Morocco, where a young Iraqi political exile teaches school and yearns for love and a life unconstricted by fear of the state. As his summer vacation begins he is drawn into Moroccan political intrigues through his friendship with a dissident in internal exile; he is bewitched by a beautiful young woman of mysterious background, unclear motives and exhilaratingly unfettered manners; a killing will bring the turbulent summer to a close. The possibilities of love and personal fulfillment in a repressed society in rapid transition are illuminated. An interesting slice of life for anyone interested in Arab society; the translation is serviceable if not luminous.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

In many ways this reads as a protest novel, yet all protests at base might simply be a search for authenticity and the rejection of anything that doesn’t truly give life or meaning. The protagonist Sharqi, also the narrator, lives his life mostly counter to the mainstream political and religious climate of his time. His way of thinking, which has forced him to leave his home country of Iraq, has also found him out of place in Morocco, where he finds himself in a time of historic political change at the end of the 1960s. This situation forces him to confront his own political consciousness, when it seems that life would rather have him focus on more basic human interests surrounding love and sex. Yet as life itself is messy, these competing interests become enmeshed throughout the book, and end up influencing one another in a way that is very relatable, particularly as it surrounds his infatuation for Ruqayya.

Despite the author Saeed’s obvious discontent with the outward restrictions of his society, there is a tension that comes through in his recognition of traditional wisdom that can be seen in Habib’s sober living and ultimately Sharqi’s abrupt decision which finishes the novel. It’s a book that gives a taste of the political climate of its time, but also likely reflects the cultural struggle that many in this part of the world might find themselves in today.

[Don O'goodreader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Foreign translations often present a view of an alien culture, but published-in-1970-Iraq (and banned) Ben Barka Lane by Mahmoud Saeed is more a mirror on the human condition than a vision of a particular time or place.

Certainly Si l-Sharqi is a Iraqi expatriate living in Morcco, the women wear jalaba and veils outside, couscous is a favorite food, and tea is flavored with mint. But after that protagonist Sharqi is a young teacher on summer vacation. His relationship with men is about drinking and gambling, and with women -- sex and Casablanca night life.

I imagine this was banned in Iraq more for reasons of sex than politics. Not the book I was expecting.

For more see ... http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2013/0...

I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads First Read giveaway on June 11, 2013. I received my copy on June 21, 2013.

[Krista · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe it was the cultural difference but I couldn't even make myself finish this after 50 pages. I normally make myself finish books even when I'm not enjoying them but I couldn't do it. It's too hard to relate to and they names make it very difficult to follow.

[Arnis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Īsti nav saprotami iemesli kādēļ šī grāmata savā laikā bija nokļuvusi aizliegto grāmatu sarakstā.

Par beigām vrb vēl varētu ielikt 4 zvaigznes.

[Midge Bork]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12202603

[J Michael Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A touching & mystical ramble through a young man's encounter with the mystery that is love.