Driss Chra?bi: Mother Of Spring

[saliotthomas]

Mother of spring is the name of a river,and the book is about the berbere tribe living at is mouth.More specificaly about the way the deal with the invasion of the Arabe and Islam in the 8th century.

The only book i read before from Moroccain writer was Tahar Ben Jeloun and i hated it,so this came has a good surprise.The writing ,a bit strange in the begining ,gets better when one get use to it and the fact that it reflect a lot of the oral tradition of tales in Morocco.The story in itself is full of metaphores and images but never stray too far from the main line and it is at times very funny.
I shall read more of Chraibi for i enjoyed a lot is style and it's oral turn and be very curious of his crime novels.

 

[titania7]

Thomas,
Mother of Spring sounds like a compelling book indeed. I am making an assiduous effort to "branch out" and expose myself to writers from many different countries. Chraibi certainly seems like a writer to try. The metaphors and imagery you make mention of sound wonderful. Moreover, the fact that many of Chraibi's novels focus on those who have endured centuries of oppression make them even more noteworthy.


You might find a couple of links I discovered to be of some interest:

Driss Chra?bi: Information from Answers.com

And....

Driss Chra?bi; Driss Chraibi


It is tragic that Chraibi passed away last April. Although, at 80,
some would say he had enjoyed a long life, he is not as old as my grandmum. And she is still very much alive, I assure you!

Thanks for piquing my interest in this writer, Thomas!

Best,
Titania

 

[saliotthomas]

I do not know if you would like it Titania,some part of the books are a bit hard,with incestious references(due to the real story i would guess).I prefere to warn you.

Stewart thanks for the double dots i,could not find it.You certainly have a very wide keyboard!

 

[titania7]

Thomas,
Thanks so much for telling me this. It was thoughtful of you to warn me. You know I can be somewhat sensitive when it comes to certain subject matters. Thus, you've most likely spared me from reading something I would rather not have read! Perhaps I will try another of Chraibi's books. Maybe one of his crime novels would be a good choice? I shall see.....


Best,
Titania

 

[Eric]

If one is not na?ve, or an athe?st, one can, depending on one's keyboard, try Alt + 139 (when the Num Lock is on).

The di?resis or trema is necessary in French, otherwise you would pronounce his name with an "e" sound.

But what I can't fathom, knowing no Arabic, is whether the "ch" stands for the French for a "sh" sound, or a "kh" sound. (I suspect it's a "kh" sound.)

Accurate transliteration is essential for the correct pronunciation of a name written in another alphabet, and for when you Google that name.

Another interesting aspect of his identity as an author is the fact that he was born in Morocco, but wrote in French, and spent 60 of his 80 years living in France. So those who wish to pigeonhole him must decide: Moroccan, French or Moroccan-French. Maybe his subject matter, which often involved the Maghreb, will tip the balance in favour of his being Moroccan writer.

See:

Driss Chra?bi; Driss Chraibi

...for more on him, as Titania has already mentioned. Those Finns are on the ball.

 

[saliotthomas]

"Sh" like in Shrewd or shrill-

He also lived in London for a while.Mos def Moroccain in subject and writing,close to the oral tradition of the country.
Morocco is 2 to 3h from Paris on a plane,my parents come once a month but a still French citizen.

 

[kratsy]

Another interesting aspect of his identity as an author is the fact that he was born in Morocco, but wrote in French, and spent 60 of his 80 years living in France. So those who wish to pigeonhole him must decide: Moroccan, French or Moroccan-French. Maybe his subject matter, which often involved the Maghreb, will tip the balance in favour of his being Moroccan writer.

This is a really significant issue, and it comes up a lot with African writers living in France. Should classifications be made based on language? on nationality? on citizenship? on subject matter? I really don't think there are any easy answers here. Because these authors' intellectual and cultural histories are closely tied to both (or more) countries.

 

[kpjayan]

Because these authors' intellectual and cultural histories are closely tied to both (or more) countries.

This is what Josef ?kvoreck? has to say :

To be an exile is, in some ways, to be a split personality. The longer one lives in a foreign country, the farther away one feels from the old homeland, and fonder one gets of the new one. However, the old country never disappears beyond the horizon, and the new one, to the exile, will never become the open book that it is to those who are born there, and can read it with no difficulty.

-prologue to his book "two murders in my double life"

 

[Eric]

Kratsy, indeed, there are no easy answers to the identity problem.

Kpjayan, the Croatian author Dubravka Ugresic, living in Amsterdam, has also examined this mental state. ?kvoreck? is right, except that some people grow fonder of their original country, and start to romanticise exaggeratedly about the good old days. Gombrowicz, living in Argentinian exile, took exception to the way that fellow Polish exiles would ooze a fake kind of Polonitude, over-praising the values and sheer snobbery of the Poland of yore.

I hope that Chra?bi is an interesting writer. I'll see whether any of his 20 books exist in Dutch. Only "Civilisation - My Mother", as far as I can see. There are several more, though, in German.

 

[saliotthomas]

The same was asked about Andrei Makine.If the question is difficult,books usualy provide the answer.
Anyone who read Makine knows he is Russian in heart and soul if not in Language.The same could be said about Chraibi and Morocco,more even than Ben Jeloun.

 

[OutragedOptimist]

It's a complicated question, definitely. From what I remember of Vu, Lu, Entendu, Chraibi defines himself as Moroccan and sees French culture as something imposed on him in school. As you say, he's Moroccan in culture and heart, even if his education has made him French in language.
I'd love to read one of his other books -- is Mother of Spring something you especially recommend? Strange to imagine him writing a difficult book about incense. I remember Vu, Lu, Entendu as particularly gentle and warm.

 

[saliotthomas]

Outrageoptimist,You should try La m?re du printemps.It is an hard book but it discribe the country very well and is full of surprises.It does not linger to much on the insestious part,been just a evocation.
I bought Le monde a cote which deal with this dual appartenance of Chraibi who lived not only in France but also England and Canada.

 

[jackdawdle]

a monkey wrench

adultery: bourgeois as incest: aristocracy