Disculpad que esta sección este en inglés, si algún día tengo tiempo la traduciré...

Moroccan fiction :

Translations by Paul Bowles

"LOVE WITH A FEW HAIRS" Mohammed Mrabet, (City Lights, US);

"THE BOY WHO SET THE FIRE & OTHER STORIES" (City Lights, US);

"THE LEMON" (Peter Owen/City Lights); "M'HASHISH" (City Lights, US);

"THE CHEST" (Tombouctou, US);

"MARRIEGE WITH PAPERS" (Tombouctou, US);

"THE BIG MIRROR" (Black Sparrow Press, US);

"HARMLESS POISONS, BLAMELES SINS" (Black Sparrow Press, US);

"THE BEACH CAFÉ AND THE VOICE" (Black Sparrow Press, US);

"LOOK AND MOVE ON: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY" (Peter Owen/Black Sparrow Press).

"FOR BREAD ALONE: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY"

Mohammed Choukri, (City Lights, US).

Choukri is also author of two brief anecdotal biographies -Jean Genet in Tangier (Ecco Press, US) and Tennessee Williams in Tangier (Cadmus Editions, US, o/p), also translated by Bowles.

"A LIFE FULL OF HOLES"

Larbi Layachi, (published under the name Driss ben Hamed Charhadi; Grove Press, US).

See also "Other Moroccan Fiction", below.

"FIVE EYES"

stories by Mohammed Mrabet, Larbi Layachi, Mohammed Choukri, Ahmed Yacoubi and Abdesiam Boulaich (Black Sparrow Press, US, o/p).

All of the above are taped and translated from the Maghrebi by Paul Bowles. It's hard to generalise about them, except to say that they are mostly "tales" (even the autobiographies, which seem little different from the fiction), share a common fixation with intrigue and unexpected narrative twists, and are often punctuated by episodes of violence. None have particular characterisation, though this hardly seems relevant as they have such a strong, vigorous narrative style - brilliantly matched by Bowles's sharp, economic language.

The Mrabet stories - The Beach Cafe is perhaps his best - are often kif-inspired, and this gives them a slightly paranoid quality, as Mrabet himself explained: "Give me twenty or thirty pipes... and an empty room can fill up with wonderful things, or terrible things. And the stories come from these things."

Other Moroccan fiction :

"THE SAND CHILD"

Tahar Ben Jelloun, (Quartet/Harcourt Brace).

Ben Jelloun, resident in Paris, is Morocco's most acclaimed writer - and in the case of this novel, which won the French Prix Goncourt, the reputation is just. An unusually "fictional" tale, its subject, the Sand Child, is a girl whose father brought her up as a boy. Two other novels by Ben Jelloun are available: Sacred Night ((Quartet/Harcourt Brace) and With Downcast Eyes (Little, Brown, US).

"SI YUSSEF"

Anouar Majid, (Quarter, UK).

An interesting if somewhat tortuous narrative: the authorr writes as Lamin, a student in Fes, who presents the life story of an old man, born in Tangier in 1908, and his tales of the city.

"YESTERDAY AND TODAY" y "THE JEALOUS LOVER"

Larbi Layachi, (Black Sparrow Press, US), (Tombouctou, US).

The former is a kind of sequel to Life Full of Holes (see above), describing in semi-fictionalised form Layachi's time with Paul and Jane Bowles; the latter is more of a novel and rather less successful.

"MESSAUDA"

Abdelhak Serhane, (Carcanet, UK).

Adventurous, semi-autobiographical novel about growing up in Azrou during the 1950s. The narrator's development parallels that of his country; his attempts to free himself from the patriarchy and authoritarianism of his father are used as an allegory for the struggle against French colonialism and its aftermath.

"HEIRS TO THE PAST"

Driss Chraibi, (Heinemann UK/US).

Again concerned with the crisis of Moroccans' post-colonial identity, and again semi-autobiographical as the author-narrator (who has lived in France since the war) returns to Morocco for the funeral of his father. Also available - though in rather over-literal and unspirited translation - are two further novels, The Butts and Mother Comes of Age (Forest Books/Three Continents Press).

"MOUNTAINS FORGOTTEN BY GOD"

Brick Ousaïd, (Forest Books/Three Continents Press).

Autobiographical narrative of an Atlas Berber family, which gives an impressive sense of the harshness of mountain life. As the author describes it, it is "not an exercise in literary style [but] a cry from the bottom of my heart, of despair and revolt".

"OPENING THE GATES: A CENTURY OF ARAB FEMINIST WRITING"

Margot Badran and Miriam Cooke (eds), (Virago, UK).

Includes three Moroccan pieces, including a traditional women's tale, recounted by the Moroccan feminist, Fatima Mernissi.

Western fiction :

"THE SHELTERING SKY" Paul Bowles (Granada/Ecco Press);

"LET IT COME DOWN" (Arrow/Black Sparrow Press);

"THE SPIDER'S HOUSE" (Arena/Black Sparrow Press)

"COLLECTED STORIES OF PAUL BOWLES"

1939-76 (Black Sparrow Press, US) gathers together work from numerous earlier editions. Post-1976 collections include "MIDNIGHT MASS" (Peter Owen/Black Sparrow Press), "CALL AT CORAZ" (Peter Owen) and "UNWELCOME WORDS" (Tombouctou, US). Bowles stands out as the most interesting and the most prolific writer using North African themes - and with Bertolucci's film of The Sheltering Sky he has, at last, regained some of the recognition he was due (the novel was a best seller on publication in 1955). Many of his stories are similar in vein to those of Mohammed Mrabet (see above), employing the same sparse forms, bizarre twists and interjections of violence. The novels are something different, exploring both Morocco (or, in The Sheltering Sky, Algeria) and the ways in which Europeans and Americans react to and are affected by it. If you read nothing else on the country, at least get hold of The Spider's House - one of the best political novels ever written, its backdrop the traditional daily life of Fes, its theme the conflicts and transformation at the last stages of the French occupation of the country. The last few years have seen a flurry of biographies and memoirs of Bowles and his literary friends and acquaintances in Tangier

"TANGIER: CITY OF THE DRAMS"

Ian Finlayson, (Collins, UK).

Good on the Moroccans, whom Bowles has translated.

"THE DREAM AT THE END OF THE WORLD: PAUL BOWLES AND THE LITERARY RENEGADES OF TANGIER"

Michelle Green, (Bloomsbury, UK).

Strong narrative and compulsively peopled: the best read if you're looking for one book on Tangier literary life.

"PAUL BOWLES: AN INVISIBLE SPECTATOR"

Christopher Sawyer-Lauanno, (Paladin/Weidenfeld & Nicholson).

A somewhat laborious effort, comparing the episodes of Bowles' life and fiction. The subject clearly loathed the project.

"PAUL BOWLES BY HIS FRIENDS"

Gary Pulsifer (ed), (Peter Owen UK).

A fascinating and affectionate selection of reminiscenses by a cast of Beats and others who made their way to Bowles's flat in Tangier. Bowles's autobiography, Without Stopping (Macmillan/Ecco Press), is also of interest for its Moroccan episodes (though William Burroughs dubbed it "Without Telling"), as is his more recent Two Years Beside the Strait/Days: A Tangier Journal, 1987-89 (Peter Owen/Ecco Press).

Other fiction set in Morocco

"THE FORGING OF A REBEL

"Arturo Barea, (Flamingo, UK reprint, 3 vols, 1988, o/p).

Autobiographical trilogy dealing with events of the 1930s. Volume two, The Track, concerns the war and colonisation of the Rif, the Spanish entry into Chaouen and life in Tetouan.

"TANGIER"

William Bayer, (Dutton, US, 1971, o/p).

Thinly disguised potboiler set amid the Tangier expat life of the 1960s.

"EVERYTHING IS NICE - COLLECTED STORIES"

Jane Bowles, (Virago, 1989).

The title story is a perfect evocation of Moroccan life, rendered in the author's unique and idiosyncratic style. Jane Bowles was resident in Morocco on and off, with Paul Bowles, from the 1940s until her tragic death in 1973. Millicent Dillon's biography, A Little Original Sin: the Life of Jane Bowles (Virago), includes some fascinating material.

"EARTHLY POWERS" y "ENDERBY ANTHOLOGY"

Anthony Burgess, (Penguin, UK/US).

Sporadic scenes in 1950s-decadent Tangier.

"SODOMIES IN THE ELEVEN POINT"

Aldo Busi, (Faber, UK/US).

A (highly) picaresque tour of Morocco.

"TALES AND LEGENDS OF MOROCCO"

Elisa Chimenti, (Astor-Honor, US).

Travelling in the 1930s and 1940s with her father, personal physician to Sultan Moulay Hassan, Chimenti learned many of these simple, fable-like tales from Berber tribesmen whose guest she was.

"MIMOUN"

Rafael Chirbes, (Serpent's Tail, UK/US).

Compelling tale of a Spanish teacher, based south of Fes, adrift amid sexual adventures and bizarre local life and antagonisms.

"HIDEOUS KINKY"

Esther Freud, (Penguin/Harcourt Brace).

An English hippy takes her two daughters to Marrakesh, where they live simply, as locals. A wonderful narrative - funny, sad, and full of informed insights - told through the persona of the five-year-old.

"THE PROCESS"

Brion Gysin, (Paladin/Overlook Press).

Beat novel by ex-Tangier resident and friend of William Burroughs. Fun, if a little caught in its (zany 1960s) age.

"IN THE LAP OF ATLAS"

Richard Hughes, (Chatto, UK, o/p).

Traditional Moroccan stories - cunning, humorous and ironical - reworked by the author of A High Wind In Jamaica. Also includes a narrative of Hughes' visit to Telouet and the Atlas in 1928.

"HONOR TO THE BRIDE LIKE THE PIGEON THAT GUARDS ITS GRAIN UNDER THE CLOVE TREE"

Jane Kramer, (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, US, 1970, o/p).

Fictional narrative based on the true story of a Berber woman's kidnap in Meknes.

"LEO THE AFRICAN"

Amin Malouf, (Quartet, UK).

Superb historical novel, recreating the life of Leo Africanus, the fifteenth-century Moorish geographer, in Granada and Fes and on later travels.

"THE WRONG PEOPLE"

Robin Maugham, (Gay Men's Press, UK).

Gay tragedy, set in Tangier.

"WOMEN OF MARRAKESH"

Leonora Peets, (C.Hurst, UK).

Stories of domestic life in the city from the 1930s to 1970 by a long-term Estonian resident.

RCB©

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