Ibrahim al-Koni: The Fetishists

[SpaceCadet]

This novel was originally published as al-Majous in 1990-91. Considering al-Koni’s large body of work, it can be said to have been written during the first half of his writing career.

It was translated to German as Die Mager and thus published in 2001. That same year the book was awarded the Swiss State Prize.

The first attempt at translating it to English was done by Elliott Colla. The Animists was due to be published in 2010 but Colla had to interrupt his work and up until now, his translation has not been published.

William Hutchins’ translation to English The Fetishists was published in 2018.

I read this novel in its French translation by Philippe Vigreux, which was published in 2005 as Les Mages.

Often considered to be Ibrahim al-Koni’s masterpiece, The Fetishists is a big chunk of a novel. Built around a rather simple core story, it is wrapped in a bunch of layers or sub-stories, which are revealed, one by one, as well as being slowly revealing.

First you meet this group of Berber nomads whom, somewhere in the south west region of what is today’s Libya, are encamped near a well. A caravan comes around and they ask permission to stay there for a while, at least until the ghibli, the heavy southern wind that they are trying to flee, dies down. Of course, things are not going to happen as expected.

Next to that, and connected with that story, are the sub-stories which are telling us more about those people, about nomadic life, and beliefs and legends, and about the desert, etc.

But overall it’s the way it is done and told, in a quite original/dismaying and at times poetical fashion, and it’s what it says to us about freedom and about human nature and about life, that makes this novel both singular and fascinating.

*
EDIT: for more discussions you might want to visit the following thread

Ibrahim al-Koni

A handful of facts, stolen from Wikipedia: Ibrahim Al-Koni (sometimes translated as Ibrāhīm Kūnī) is a Libyan writer and one of the most prolific Arabic novelists. Born in 1948 in Fezzan Region, Ibrahim al-Koni was brought up on the tradition of the Tuareg, popularly known as "the veiled men"...

www.worldliteratureforum.com

 

[SpaceCadet]

Thanks to what we can find on the web, having had access to an extract from E.Colla’ as well as an extract of the same part of the book translated by W.Hutchins, I was able to see how this same part came out in each of those three translations. Between differences and similarities, it was quite interesting to find out how those different versions would speak to me.

One of the reasons I sought to have a look at what’s been done and how it was done in English, was a sense of confusion that was generated, right from the firsts chapters, by the use of certain terms such as ‘sheikh’, ‘sultan’ and ‘he’ or ‘she’, which sometimes are the only mean by which one as well as several different characters are identified.

For instance, you’d read a sentence starting with ‘The sheikh...’, which would be continued with using ‘he’ or some other general term, whereas the said character remains unnamed or not until much later. Then you encounter some other characters, which are introduced as well as ‘The sheikh’ or ‘he’, and in the end, well, it does get confusing.

Simultaneously, both the novel time line AND the historical time/period, which are not given in a precise manner, appears to be so vague that eventually, this seems to add to the confusion.

Feeling lost and confused about time and about events chronology, and historical time, and about who’s who, and so on, I first thought that this was due to my failing to read/understand properly, so I went back and reread some parts.

In the mean time, wondering if there could be some translation issues involved (perhaps due to some cultural/language gap), or if the author actually wanted it that way, I searched and tried but failed to find anything that could lead to a solid conclusion.

However, according to other reader’s comments, it seems that what I was experiencing with the French version, English readers as well are faced with similar issues.

So be warned if you read this book (and I do hope you will) it might require some adjusting at first but bear in mind that once you get along and keep reading, things will fall into place.

 

[tiganeasca]

Thanks to what we can find on the web, having had access to an extract from E.Colla’ as well as an extract of the same part of the book translated by W.Hutchins, I was able to see how this same part came out in each of those three translations. Between differences and similarities, it was quite interesting to find out how those different versions would speak to me.

One of the reasons I sought to have a look at what’s been done and how it was done in English, was a sense of confusion that was generated, right from the firsts chapters, by the use of certain terms such as ‘sheikh’, ‘sultan’ and ‘he’ or ‘she’, which sometimes are the only mean by which one as well as several different characters are identified.

For instance, you’d read a sentence starting with ‘The sheikh...’, which would be continued with using ‘he’ or some other general term, whereas the said character remains unnamed or not until much later. Then you encounter some other characters, which are introduced as well as ‘The sheikh’ or ‘he’, and in the end, well, it does get confusing.

Simultaneously, both the novel time line AND the historical time/period, which are not given in a precise manner, appears to be so vague that eventually, this seems to add to the confusion.

Feeling lost and confused about time and about events chronology, and historical time, and about who’s who, and so on, I first thought that this was due to my failing to read/understand properly, so I went back and reread some parts.

In the mean time, wondering if there could be some translation issues involved (perhaps due to some cultural/language gap), or if the author actually wanted it that way, I searched and tried but failed to find anything that could lead to a solid conclusion.

However, according to other reader’s comments, it seems that what I was experiencing with the French version, English readers as well are faced with similar issues.

So be warned if you read this book (and I do hope you will) it might require some adjusting at first but bear in mind that once you get along and keep reading, things will fall into place.

Thank you for this. Having just acquired it myself, I'm very much looking forward to it. And, in fact, a lot of what you write reminds me of my first experience reading him. I think Bleeding of the Stone is a good way to start with al-Koni but of course I started with New Waw which poses many of the same issues you raise. Since I'm not sure how this will go (not to mention the sheer size of the work), I'm circling it slowly before I dive in.

 

[Ben Jackson]

This novel was originally published as al-Majous in 1990-91. Considering al-Koni’s large body of work, it can be said to have been written during the first half of his writing career.

It was translated to German as Die Mager and thus published in 2001. That same year the book was awarded the Swiss State Prize.

The first attempt at translating it to English was done by Elliott Colla. The Animists was due to be published in 2010 but Colla had to interrupt his work and up until now, his translation has not been published.

William Hutchins’ translation to English The Fetishists was published in 2018.

I read this novel in its French translation by Philippe Vigreux, which was published in 2005 as Les Mages.

Often considered to be Ibrahim al-Koni’s masterpiece, The Fetishists is a big chunk of a novel. Built around a rather simple core story, it is wrapped in a bunch of layers or sub-stories, which are revealed, one by one, as well as being slowly revealing.

First you meet this group of Berber nomads whom, somewhere in the south west region of what is today’s Libya, are encamped near a well. A caravan comes around and they ask permission to stay there for a while, at least until the ghibli, the heavy southern wind that they are trying to flee, dies down. Of course, things are not going to happen as expected.

Next to that, and connected with that story, are the sub-stories which are telling us more about those people, about nomadic life, and beliefs and legends, and about the desert, etc.

But overall it’s the way it is done and told, in a quite original/dismaying and at times poetical fashion, and it’s what it says to us about freedom and about human nature and about life, that makes this novel both singular and fascinating.

*
EDIT: for more discussions you might want to visit the following thread

Ibrahim al-Koni

A handful of facts, stolen from Wikipedia: Ibrahim Al-Koni (sometimes translated as Ibrāhīm Kūnī) is a Libyan writer and one of the most prolific Arabic novelists. Born in 1948 in Fezzan Region, Ibrahim al-Koni was brought up on the tradition of the Tuareg, popularly known as "the veiled men"...

www.worldliteratureforum.com

Thanks for this review, will purchase this book soon.

 

[SpaceCadet]

Thank you for this. Having just acquired it myself, I'm very much looking forward to it. And, in fact, a lot of what you write reminds me of my first experience reading him. I think Bleeding of the Stone is a good way to start with al-Koni but of course I started with New Waw which poses many of the same issues you raise. Since I'm not sure how this will go (not to mention the sheer size of the work), I'm circling it slowly before I dive in.

More often than not, it just does not cross my mind to have a look at what is a better way to start when reading a given author... Sometimes it does not really matter, sometimes it does. But I guess every reader is different. Back to The Fetishists, rightly or wrongly, I just went straight for it (as a first read) because it was the book that most appealed to me. But looking at Bleeding of the Stone and New Waw and Gold Dust summaries it all seems like al-Koni is crisscrossing over his 'literary land'. New Waw do seems to have many similarities with The Fetishists, so whenever you get to read the latter, you might feel like you are in familiar soil. Or maybe not. I sure will keep an eye open for your thoughts on it.

 

[SpaceCadet]

Thanks for this review! I'd like to read this too. I recently read my first book by him (Gold Dust). I loved the book but found the writing a bit uneven...it felt very rich and profound in places but in other places relied on cliches, and I wondered how much of that was because of translation. Anyhow, I look forward to reading more by him.

About the writing being a bit uneven... I think that based on translated material it's hard to tell. Nevertheless, based on what I read... it seems to me that al-Koni uses a different 'tone' depending on what he is writing about. He seems to get more poetical (using images and metaphors and so on and so forth) when talking about nature, or when entering a mythological world, and then back to a more 'neutral tone' when writing about humans and/or getting into a more straight storytelling mode. But that's just my first impression. It will be interesting to read your views on that topic (and on others as well) after having read another book, perhaps The Fetishists.

 

[tiganeasca]

Re-reading this thread again today (still trying to prepare myself to dive into this) and I suddenly remembered a number of posts in this thread. For those who are interested in this book, check out the other thread (if you haven't already done so) because there are several posts of particular interest, including several on the translation in particular...such as Liam's communications with Mr. Colla.)

 

[SpaceCadet]

Re-reading this thread again today (still trying to prepare myself to dive into this) and I suddenly remembered a number of posts in this thread. For those who are interested in this book, check out the other thread (if you haven't already done so) because there are several posts of particular interest, including several on the translation in particular...such as Liam's communications with Mr. Colla.)

Ahem Ahem...? that link has already been given in the first post of this thread.

 

[tiganeasca]

?

 

[SpaceCadet]

Re-reading this thread again today (still trying to prepare myself to dive into this)...

Indeed, there is a best fitting time and mind for approaching any given book but it is more true for some than others...