February 28, 2007

Good Things Happen To Good People

I have been following my good friend Mark Sarvas's progress as he wrote his novel, revised it, polished it, found an agent, and went into the submission process. And I am thrilled to share with you the happy news that he has just sold his novel, Harry, Revised to Bloomsbury. Having read the book a couple of months ago, I can tell you you're in for a treat. Congratulations are in order!

New Alexie

With all the commotion of the last few weeks, I completely failed to notice that Sherman Alexie had a new novel coming out. It's his first in ten years, it's called Flight, and it sounds trippy. Here's the publisher's description:

[A] powerful, fast and timely story of a troubled foster teenager — a boy who is not a “legal” Indian because he was never claimed by his father — who learns the true meaning of terror. About to commit a devastating act, the young man finds himself shot back through time on a shocking sojourn through moments of violence in American history. He resurfaces in the form of an FBI agent during the civil rights era, inhabits the body of an Indian child during the battle at Little Big Horn, and then rides with an Indian tracker in the 19th Century before materializing as an airline pilot jetting through the skies today. When finally, blessedly, our young warrior comes to rest again in his own contemporary body, he is mightily transformed by all he’s seen.

The book comes out March 28, and you can already see the PW review here.

HODP in Tangier

At the time I was writing Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, that is, between the spring of 2002 and the winter of 2004, I had not visited Tangier in more than fifteen years. I had spent several summers in the city as a child and teenager, and, perhaps presumptuously, I felt I still knew the place well enough to be able to describe it in a decent way. I wrote about streets and buildings and cafés, but I was working essentially from memory.

While in Tangier this past weekend, I decided to visit some of the places I wrote about in the book. I walked through the Gran Socco and the Socco Chico, and it was interesting to see how much they had changed (many of the historic buildings have been renovated), and also how little (there are still plenty of tourist guides, kif smokers, and vendors in sombreros.) The talk of the town was the city's candidacy to host the 2012 World's Fair. The train station has been moved to a new location, and the port now includes a free trade zone. Tangier felt like a city in motion, just as I remembered it.

In "Better Luck Tomorrow," my character Murad spends time in a Café la Liberté, which was a fictional place, but as I was walking down one of the streets that led to the socco, I discovered there really was a Café La Liberté. I sat down for a cup of coffee there, and there really was a football match playing on the screen, and deals being made at the tables. In the story, Murad meets some tourists who are curious to find the famous Café Central, so of course I went there as well. It has been nicely renovated, and the outside tables were packed. I took a photo of the Pension Fuentes that sits across the lane. I walked into one of the antique shops where the action in "The Storyteller" takes place. I felt like I had stepped, once again since writing it, into my own book.

February 27, 2007

Cinémathèque de Tanger Opens

Regular readers of this blog may be familiar with photographer Yto Barrada's work, which I have mentioned on several occasions. I finally had the chance to meet her in person this past weekend, when I traveled to Tangier to attend the opening of the Cinémathèque de Tanger, a project that Barrada has been working on for several years. Barrada bought the old Cinéma Rif, which is located on the historic Gran Socco plaza, in 2001 and, after years of planning and fund-raising, closed it down in 2004 for renovations. The Cinéma Rif has now reopened, and has been completely modernized, with new seats, new screen, new projection equipment, but all the charm of the original metalwork on the box office window, the original lamps in the café area, the movie posters--and the same staff. In addition to the main theatre, Barrada also conceived of the place as a cinematheque, and has added a small theatre, which will be used for retrospectives as well as workshops, a library, a videotheque, and an editing room. (You can view many candid photos of the opening, and of other CDT activities, here.)

Barrada chose to inaugurate the new Cinéma Rif with the work of a Moroccan filmmaker, the lovely and amazing Farida Benlyazid, whose latest film, Juanita de Tanger, has been making the festival rounds. (The picture is based on the novel by Angel Vasquez, La Vida Perra de Juanita Narboni.) Benlyazid was quite emotional when she took the stage: She remembered coming to the then-dilapidated theater to watch Abdel Halim films back in the sixties, and she spoke of what this new theater will mean for her hometown. In the audience was another original patron of the place--Tahar Ben Jelloun. It was a Tangerine evening.

February 22, 2007

Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem

I've been reading Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem, picking up different essays at different moments, depending on my mood. This morning, I finally read the opening piece, "Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream," which originally appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. Didion writes about the death of a dentist named Gordon Miller, a Seventh-Day Adventist from San Bernardino County, California, and the subsequent trial of his wife, Lucille Maxwell, for his murder. Didion begins the piece not with an examination of the tabloid trial, but with a reflection about dreams--of love, of wealth, of happily ever after--in a part of California where "it was easy to Dial-A-Devotion, but hard to buy a book." And then she writes, "The future always looks good in the golden land, because no one remembers the past."

Why do I have the feeling that her words could just as easily apply to Morocco? It's interesting to me that foreign journalists, those who visit the place on assignment, love to play up the fact that this is an "ancient" country, with its millennial history, its customs, and its religions. And yet it's hard to escape the future here. This is, after all, a place where historical sites are discarded in favor of shiny new developments, where everyone keeps talking about that new government plan or that five- or ten-year initiative, the strategies that will finally end poverty, eradicate illiteracy, and bring democracy and financial prosperity. It's all in the future. How many remember that those things were said thirty years ago?

February 21, 2007

Ramadan Profile

Swiss scholar Tariq Ramadan's new book, In the Footsteps of the Prophet, came out in the United States a couple of weeks ago. I haven't seen any reviews yet, but Ian Buruma profiled him for the New York Times Sunday magazine, and now Steve Paulson of WPR has an interview with him in Salon. I find Tariq Ramadan somewhat interesting, but not very convincing--his discourse is far too focused on religion (understandable, given his background) and he hardly ever mentions economic or social factors when he discusses the geographical region that falls loosely under the tag of 'Islam.' In some way, I think he contributes to an essentialist view of the region, to the same extent that Ayaan Hirsi Ali does, even though her views are diametrically opposed to his. Still, I will be very curious to check out his new book.

February 20, 2007

Tahmima Anam's A Golden Age

I just finished reading Tahmima Anam's first book, A Golden Age, a historical novel set during the Bangladeshi war of independence. It follows a young widow named Rehana, as she tries to keep her small family--her son Sohail, and her daughter Maya--together through the horror of the 1971 war with Pakistan. A Golden Age has one of the best opening chapters I've read in a while, and so it was good to see it included in the latest issue of Granta magazine (Granta 96: War Zones).

February 19, 2007

Dreams of Darwish

I was very upset to have missed Mahmoud Darwish's appearance in Morocco last week. (In my defense, I should say that the organizers had originally listed him as reading in Casablanca, and then moved him to Rabat at the last minute and I couldn't make arrangements to go.) I feel horrible to have missed him. Who knows when an opportunity to hear him might come again?

By the way, Copper Canyon Press is publishing a translation by Fady Joudah of three recent works by Darwish, under the title The Butterfly's Burden. And here's the best part: The volume is bilingual, so you can feast on the Arabic as well as the English. Get your copy. Now.

War Drums, Redux

I have avoided linking to any articles about the recent allegations about Iran since these claims seem so clearly to be a repetition of what we saw in late 2002 and early 2003, and I find the whole thing too depressing. But I want to point to an analysis at fair.org of just how some newspapers are making the same mistakes as with pre-Iraq war intelligence:

In the report, "Deadliest Bomb in Iraq Is Made by Iran, U.S. Says," [New York Times] reporter Michael R. Gordon cited a one-sided array of anonymous sources charging the Iranian government with providing a particularly deadly variety of roadside bomb to Shia militias in Iraq: "The most lethal weapon directed against American troops in Iraq is an explosive-packed cylinder that United States intelligence asserts is being supplied by Iran." (...) Repeatedly citing the likes of "administration officials," "American intelligence" and "Western officials," the article used unnamed sources four times as often as named ones. Only one source in Gordon’s report challenged the official claims: Iranian United Nations ambassador Javad Zarif, who was allowed a one-sentence denial of Iranian government involvement.

And in a thoughtful, clear-sighted op-ed in Sunday's Los Angeles Times, Adam Shatz makes several points that deserve to be highlighted.

If Iran wants to see a friendly government established in Iraq, it hardly lacks for reasons. Unlike the United States, Iran was attacked by Iraq, back when Hussein's regime enjoyed American support as a bulwark against Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's revolution. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians died during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88). When Iraq used poison gas against Iranian troops, the United States uttered not a single protest.

Not surprisingly, Iran wants to ensure that no government in Iraq will threaten it again. That's why Iran made no secret of its joy over Hussein's downfall, but it also refuses to accept a potentially hostile American base in the Persian Gulf or to cede absolute control over Iraq's future to the United States.

And there is also this:

If Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has indulged Ahmadinejad's rhetorical extremism, it may be because he expected to be rewarded, rather than punished, for Iran's assistance to the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As Gareth Porter recently reported in the American Prospect, Iran floated a proposal in May 2003, shortly after the fall of Baghdad, for a "grand bargain" with the United States. It offered to back the 2002 Arab Summit's proposal for a two-state solution in Israel-Palestine and to end its military support for armed Palestinian groups as well as Hezbollah in return for the restoration of diplomatic relations with the United States.

Prematurely intoxicated by its "mission accomplished," the Bush administration reportedly ignored Iran's proposal and has since given every indication that it prefers regime change in Tehran to the kind of dialogue recommended by the Iraq Study Group. To this end, the administration has flirted with the Iranian Mujahedin Khalq, also known as MEK, a bizarre Maoist guerrilla group/cult that opposes the Islamic government and frequently launched attacks on Iran from Iraq with Hussein's backing.

Given the Bush administration's belligerent position, the Iranian government might have concluded that, with Hussein dead and the Shiite parties in power, Tehran's interests are best served by the withdrawal of American troops on its border. Even if the Iraqis fail to drive out U.S. forces, a deepening quagmire usefully distracts attention from Tehran's nuclear program and reminds the United States that it needs Iran in order to exit with its honor intact.

Like any state, the Islamic republic seeks above all to preserve itself. But, again, is this "malign intent" or a sober calculation? Iran has, in other words, a strong realist case for being involved in Iraq. If Iranian "designs" on Iraq are seen as malign, it is only by those who believe that U.S. "intentions" in Iraq (unlike other imperial powers, we have no designs) are benign.

You can read the whole piece here.

February 18, 2007

Reading Recap: Dar America

We had a great turnout at Dar America on Thursday. I find the experience of meeting my readers very pleasurable, but I have to say it feels even more special to be able to read from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits here in Casablanca. The questions revolved around the theme of immigration: "Why did you choose this? Is it because it's in fashion?" I had to smile at this, and explain that devoting three years of my life to something that may be 'à la mode' would not be the best use of my time. I didn't set out to write about immigration; I set out to write about one young man's desire to prove to his family that he could be a success if only the right opportunity came along. And the story of Murad turned into something bigger and more complex, until I ended up with this book. The other questions were about individual stories, the process of writing Hope, the title of the book, what I am working on now, and so on. I had a wonderful, wonderful time.

Signing: Casablanca Book Fair

I signed copies of the French edition of my book at the Casablanca Book Fair on Friday. The Moroccan staff at the Librairie Nationale booth was so welcoming, offering me mint tea and assorted pastries, and keeping me company while readers drifted in and out. In the photo above, I am meeting two bloggers, who had come by for a quick interview.

February 16, 2007

Reading: Casablanca, Morocco

This afternoon I'll be reading from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits at the Casablanca Book Fair. Here are the details:

4:00 PM
Reading & Discussion (in French)
Librairie Nationale Booth
Casablanca Book Fair
Foire des Expositions
Casablanca, Morocco

This event will be in French.

February 15, 2007

Reading: Casablanca, Morocco

Later today, I'll be giving a reading from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, to be followed by a discussion. Here are the details:

Reading and Discussion
Thursday, February 15, 2007 @ 5:00 PM
Dar America
10, Place Bel Air
Casablanca

This event will be in English (Friday's will be in French). See you there.

The Lamalif Years

Years ago, when I was a junior in high school, one of my younger uncles came to visit us, a copy of Lamalif tucked under his arm. "What's this?" I asked, and pulled out the magazine. I started reading it then and there and was instantly hooked. I was seventeen, and didn't completely understand the significance of all the articles, but I loved it, and would always buy it or borrow it. Back then, our newsstands in Rabat were dominated by the shrill, partisan press, which didn't really speak to me, or by French publications, which didn't speak to me either.

Lamalif was different. The magazine was a form of challenge (the title comes from the Arabic letters lam and 'alif, which together spell out the word "No"). It was the expression of a homegrown movement. It had amazing art covers. It was ours. Under editor Zakya Daoud (and her husband, Mohammed Loghlam) it published high-quality articles on politics, art, and culture. Its contributors were seasoned journalists, intellectuals, and, more often than not, university professors. It was informed and informative, and I have often wondered what it would be like today if it had survived as a publication. (Constant pressures by the government forced the magazine to shut down in 1988.)

So imagine my delight when I found out that the Casablanca Book Fair was hosting a discussion on "30 years of journalism in Morocco 1958-1988: The Lamalif years." The panelists were Zakya Daoud herself, Mohammed Jibril, Mohammed Tozy, and Ahmed Reda Benchemsi. Aboubakr Jamai was unable to attend, but Driss Ksikes stepped in for him. The best way to describe the mood is to say it was made of emotion, pride, and quite a bit of regret. Emotion because those present--contributors to the magazine as well as those who were their readers--have fond memories Lamalif. Pride because it did amazing work (it was to the 70s and 80s what Souffles/Anfas was to the 60s). And regret because there really is nothing like it around anymore.

Zakya Daoud apologized that the book she had written about the magazine, Les Années Lamalif (Tarik Editions, 2007) was not ready in time to present at the fair, but she gave an outline of it, describing the early years of enthusiasm (1966-1968); the years of hard work and disappointment (1968-1972); the Sahara years (1973-1977); the years of calling everything into question (1978-1985) and the end (1985-1988). The difficulties of publishing--including meetings with the redoubtable Minister of Information of the time, Moulay Ahmed Alaoui--were hard on her, but there was also plenty of joy and laughter. "I have turned the page, and that is how I was able to write the book. Lamalif's story is my story, it's our story, and, beautiful or not, it's our history." Mohammed Jibril briefly talked about what set the magazine apart from other publications of its time: Lamalif, he said, was attached to its ethical values and it had professional rigor, something which few publications can boast. Several past contributors (Salim Jay, Najib Boudraa, and others) said they were proud to have been a part of the adventure; some said they regretted now that Lamalif had been so serious--perhaps it needed some humor from time to time.

Then it was the turn of the "new guard" to speak. Ahmed Reda Benchemsi revealed that when he wanted to start his magazine, he had originally wanted it to be called Lamalif, and he had talked to Zakya Daoud about possibly buying the title from her, but it didn't work out, and he ended up starting Tel Quel. Generally speaking, he said, the press situation now is very different from what Daoud and her contemporaries went through. But he also pointed out that while the "red lines" in the 1980s were very clear, they are more blurred now, so that it becomes nearly impossible to know whether something will run afoul of the system.

Ksikes, meanwhile, felt that the current press in Morocco does not exist in a continuum, but in cycles. Regarding the more liberal press environment, he said, "We may have opened the windows, but now we've started to put shutters on them." For him, the difference betwen the Lamalif years and the present is that there used to be a greater dialogue and collaboration between university professors and journalists; now there is little, and sometimes he sees the reverse, in the sense that some in academia lead the charge against independent magazines.

My one complaint (as usual with these sorts of events) is that the moderator did not leave enough time for questions, and we had to vacate the room so the next panel could be set up.

For those who are curious: The entire archive of Souffles magazine is now available online, through Swarthmore and Lehman colleges. Someone should try to do the same for Lamalif.

February 14, 2007

Pamuk in Exile

As if one needed further examples of how extremists, of all stripes, dominate public discourse and political action all over the world: According to the Daily Telegraph, Turkish novelist and Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk has moved to New York, in the wake of Hrant Dink's murder by secular nationalists.

Related:
Interview with Elif Shafak
Hrant Dink's Murder

L.A. 8 Update

The New York Times has an editorial urging Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff not to file an appeal against the last two remaining defendants in the infamous L.A. 8 case. "The only decent thing to do is to drop the case," the editorial says.

(More here.)

February 13, 2007

Something To Brighten My day

Best news I've heard in a while: Arundhati Roy is said to be working on a new novel.

February 12, 2007

Pramoedya's It's Not An All Night Fair

Pramoedya Ananta Toer's It's Not And All Night Fair is one of those books where very little happens--a man travels from Jakarta to his home village in Java to see his father, who is fatally ill--and yet I couldn't put it down. It paints the portrait of a complex father-son relationship in modern-day Indonesia. The father fought for independence from the Dutch, chose to stay in his village, and has clung to his ideals, while the narrator has only known the corrupt rule of Sukarno, has moved to the big city, and is mostly preoccupied with making it. Once, the father had been offered a chance to join a local assembly, which would have meant he could have become part of the ruling elite, but he refused the appointment: "The local assembly is only a stage. And I don't fancy becoming a clown--even a big clown." By contrast, the son worries about the cost of everything, and describes his salary as being " only enough to allow you to go on breathing." We get a picture of a country in which hopes of a better life after independence have been dashed, and where the older man has more aspirations than the younger one. The prose is very plain, but the images are striking. On a long evening, for example, we are told that "the night outside went on swallowing the span of men's lives." The book stayed with me.

It's Not And All Night Fair was originally published in 1951, translated from Bahasa Indonesia by C.W. Watson in 1973, and finally released in the United States last fall.

Fair Photos

I went to check out the Casablanca book fair yesterday--the fee for getting in is an extremely reasonable 5 dirhams and there's tons to see and do. Among the exhibitors were publishers from many Arab and European countries, but also Moroccan university presses, literary magazines, small and large publishers, and--oh, joy!--booksellers and bouquinistes. So one could browse through the rare or used books from, say, Rabat's Bouquiniste du Chellah here in Casablanca. The most popular booths seemed to be those that catered to children's literature and YA, which I suppose is a good thing. Maybe in a few years' time the fair will be able to attract as many interested adults. I noticed a couple of English-language publishers, but they carried mostly classics that are used at colleges and universities. The French publishers and the Saudi government, on the other hand, had a massive presence. Unfortunately, the official program that is available online is not comprehensive. There's a lot more to see at individual booths, and you pretty much have to go in situ to know what each exhibitor has planned.

February 09, 2007

Casablanca Book Fair Opens

The Casablanca Book Fair opens today at the Foire Internationale, with 615 exhibitors from 58 countries. The guest of honor this year is Belgium, and there are many round tables and panels on Belgian literature or by Belgian authors. In addition, of course, there will be readings and/or discussions by many Moroccan poets, writers, historians, and journalists, including Abdelkrim Ghallab, Abdellah Laroui, Fatema Mernissi, Abdellah Taia, Mohammed Barrada, Ghita El Khayat, Aboubakr Jamai, and many others. Among the highlights of the ten-day fair is a reading by Adonis at the Mohammed VI Theatre in Roches Noires on Saturday night, and another reading by Mahmoud Darwich at the same venue. Be there.

You can see the full cultural program of the fair here.

On Torture

Today's Washington Post includes an op-ed by Eric Fair, a former civilian interrogator in Iraq in early 2004. Fair's duties were to deprive the detainee of sleep, force him to stand in a corner, and strip him of his clothes. "Three years later," Fair writes, "the tables have turned. It is rare that I sleep through the night without a visit from this man. His memory harasses me as I once harassed him." Please read it all here.

February 07, 2007

Interview With Elif Shafak

My friend Cliff has been raving about Elif Shafak's The Bastard of Istanbul. "It's one of the best books I've read in years," he told me. And then in a separate note to a reading group we belong to he called it "an excellent book." The novel, already a major bestseller in Turkey, just came out in the United States this month. Shafak was due to travel to several cities in the U.S. in support of the novel, but in the wake of Hrant Dink's murder, she cut her tour down to just one appearance in New York, during which she was also interviewed by Terri Gross for NPR. Of the secular nationalists who attacked her and others, Shafak says:

This group is one of many voices in Turkey. They do not represent the majority of the voices in society, and frankly my opinion is they are targeting intellectuals and writers precisely because they want to stop the E.U. process. They have made it very clear that they are against Turkey's E.U. membership, and they would like to see the country as a more insular place, a more xenophobic nation-state, a closed society. That's what they would like to see happening.

You can listen to the interview here.

Case Against L.A. 8 Dismissed

The Los Angeles Times has an opinion piece by Michel Shehadeh, who has been in legal limbo, along with other Palestinian immigrants, as part of the group known as the "L.A. 8." A federal judge last week dismissed the justice department's attempt to deport Shehadeh and the rest of the L.A. 8, saying, "the attenuation of these proceedings is a festering wound on the body of these respondents and an embarrassment to the rule of law." Read the piece here.

February 06, 2007

Wizard of the Crow @ LBC

A discussion is taking place this week over at the Lit Blog Co-Op about Ngugi's latest novel, his first in many years: Wizard of the Crow. I've mentioned this book before, and I am thrilled to see it make the LBC's Winter Read This! selection. Check it out.

February 05, 2007

'Free' Speech in Morocco

A brief opinion piece I wrote about freedom of speech in Morocco appeared in Saturday's New York Times. Its starting point is the lawsuit that was brought against the magazine Nichane (which I've mentioned previously on this blog) and the denouement of the case involving Aboubakr Jamai and his magazine Le Journal Hebdo (also mentioned briefly here). Here is an excerpt:

In the United States, Morocco is often seen as a liberal country and a bulwark against Islamic extremism. Certainly, the reforms that have taken place over the last few years, particularly in terms of women’s rights, are steps in the right direction.

But while the court cases against independent news magazines like Nichane, Le Journal Hebdomadaire and several others are within the bounds of Moroccan law, they appear to single out the independent press, to the exclusion of more partisan publications. These cases highlight a particularly troubling pattern, in which the regime represses the progressive voices it claims to champion

You can read the full text of the op-ed at the NYT site.

Matar's Debut, Stateside

I had bought a copy of Hisham Matar's In The Country of Men when I was in London last summer, and finally got around to reading it...last week. I enjoyed it quite a bit--it builds slowly in intensity, and deals with a terrible subject with a lot of grace and restraint. It looks like it just came out in the States: Ron Charles reviews it for The Washington Post.

Out of Commission

Apologies for the lack of posts this past week. I've been struggling with a sore throat and an injured back. The latter is not such a bad thing; I tend to work with my laptop on my knees, and if I hurt my back it means I'm probably getting at least some work done. See? The glass is half full.

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04.30: Claremont, California
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