The Sand Child

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In this lyrical, hallucinatory novel set in Morocco, Tahar Ben Jelloun offers an imaginative and radical critique of contemporary Arab social customs and Islamic law The Sand Child tells the story of a Moroccan father s effort to thwart the consequences of Islam s inheritance laws regarding female offspring Already the father of seven daughters, Hajji Ahmed determines that his eighth child will be a male Accordingly, the infant, a girl, is named Mohammed Ahmed and raised as a young man with all the privileges granted exclusively to men in traditional Arab Islamic societies As she matures, however, Ahmed s desire to have children marks the beginning of her sexual evolution, and as a woman named Zahra, Ahmed begins to explore her true sexual identity Drawing on the rich Arabic oral tradition, Ben Jelloun relates the extraordinary events of Ahmed s life through a professional storyteller and the listeners who have gathered in a Marrakesh market square in the 1950s to hear his tale A poetic vision of power, colonialism, and gender in North Africa, The Sand Child has been justifiably celebrated around the world as a daring and significant work of international fiction. Download The Sand Child – kino-fada.fr This bewildering, hallucinatory book begins with the fairytale like story of an eighth daughter who is raised by her father as the male heir he never had No one else in the family knows the secret named Ahmed, s he is dressed as a boy, treated as a boy, and speedily inducted into the ways of the patriarchy His sisters served him his lunches and dinners, we are told He did not allow himself any tenderness towards his mother, whom he saw rarely We are being promised, it seems, a parable a This bewildering, hallucinatory book begins with the fairytale like story of an eighth daughter who is raised by her father as the male heir he nev...O que eu deveria fazer era ir ler, ou dormir, e n o perder mais tempo com esta crian a mal parida Mas como n o sei o que hei de ler, nem tenho sono, vou destilar veneno.No princ pio tudo muito bonito H um contador de hist rias que se prop e contar a vida de um homem Convida os ouvintes a entrar pelas sete portas de uma muralha, em que a primeira a da entrada a porta da quinta feira, a segunda da sexta feira e assim sucessivam...What struck me most strongly about this work is the intense male supremacy it highlights The laws of inheritance that Ahmed Zahra s father s deception is designed to subvert are significant, and the voice shifting, fragmented, erased and reiterated narration of Ahmed Zahra s experience provides an interesting perspective to embody gender conflict, but I am most haunted by the seven nameless sisters, the meagre Macabeas who, being female, are excluded from public and narrative space.Ahmed Zahra What struck me most strongly about this work is the intense male supremacy it highlights The laws of inheritance that Ahmed Zahra s father s deception is designed to subver...This book sucked I ve read other work by Ben Jelloun and really enjoyed A Palace in the Old Village , but The Sand Child was miserable The book starts out with a gripping premise, that a Moroccan man has seven daughters and really, really wants a boy So when the eighth child is born a girl, the man decides to hell with it and declares her to be a boy, a fiction which he works hard to maintain until the end of his days So far so good Then the girl whose name is Mohammed Ahmed mopes around This book sucked I ve read other work by Ben Jelloun and really enjoyed A Palace in the Old Village , but The Sand Child was miserable The book starts out with a gripping premise, that a Moroccan man has seven daughters and really, really wants a boy So when the eighth child is born a girl, the man decides to hell with it and declares her to be a boy, a fiction which he works hard to maintain until the end of his days So far so good Then the girl whose name is Mohammed Ahmed mopes around for fifty pages, complaining of loneliness, which gets wearisome Then she decides to join the circus, and the story starts to get really interesting Then the author chucks the whole story by saying it was just a story being told by a stor...This is a deeply strange book well beyond its unusual initial premise, that of an Islamic Moroccan girl raised as a boy to thwart sexist inheritance law The early, fairly direct, study of social conventions and restrictions shifts as the protagonist takes on self awareness and finds voice in the narrative Soon, the story is overrun by sex, sexism, and sexuality, by desire and divided identity As identity fragments, so does the narrative, as it changes hands between many tellers, some of whom This is a deeply strange book well beyond its unusual in...Recensione remember.Agosto 1994 Assisto alla rappresentazione dell omonimo spettacolo di danza della Compagnia del Balletto di Sicilia Zappal danza nell Anfiteatro di Zafferana Etnea notte perfetta, estiva, calda, cielo stellato, blu , ombra buona dell Etna, profumo dolce di gelsomino, musica, quando la Sicilia era Sicilia bella.Il dubbio sino alla fine ho pensato che Ahmed fosse veramente un uomo, poi il dubbio si scioglie.Tornata a casa subito a comprare il libro lirico, poetico tutto si Recensione remember.Agosto 1994 Assisto alla rappresentazione dell omonimo spettacolo di danza della Compagnia del Balletto di Sicilia Zappal danza nell Anfiteatro di Zafferana Etnea notte perfetta, estiva, calda, cielo stellato, blu , ombra buona dell Etna, profumo dolc...Essere, semplicemente essere, una sfidaMarocco Anni 40.Nasce donna ma l ottava femmina e da subito il padre, che si sente oltraggiato dal destino, decide che comunque sar maschio si chiamer Ahmed.Da subito si catapultati in una struttura narrativa tutt altro che lineare un cantastorie si presenta al suo pubblico come detentore delle memorie scritte di pugno da Ahmed Il racconto, tuttavia, sar motivo di litigio tra altri che sostengono di sapere come veramente sono andate le cEssere, semplicemente essere, una sfidaMarocco Anni 40.Nasce donna ma l ottava femmina e da subito il padre, che si sente oltraggiato dal destino, decide che comunque sar maschio si chiamer Ahmed.Da subito si catapultati in una struttura narrativa tutt altro che lineare un cantastorie si presenta al suo pubblico come detentore delle memorie scritte di pugno da Ahmed Il racconto, tuttavia, sar motivo di litigio tra altri che sostengo...I hated this book It was on the reading list of a course I was taking so I had to finish it but it was the closest I have ever come to being tortured Seriously, only buy this book if it is to give to a terrible, terrible enemy.She joined the circus and it all went downhill from there.I can t help but feel, after having finished the Sand Child, that at least part of the story has eluded me I kept having the nagging sense that there was stuff referred to about which I was totally ignorant and so I couldn t pick up the allusions, be they cultural or historical or religious This is definitely a book that requires multiple readings, if not close study It requires excavation, a slow uncovering of all its treasures.There are two elements to the book that fascinate me most, and a I can t help but feel, after having finished the Sand Child, that at least part of the story has eluded me I kept having the nagging sense that there was stuff referred to about which I was totally ignorant and so I couldn t pick up the allusions, be they cultural or historical or religious This is definitely a book that requires multiple readings, if not close study It requires excavation, a slow uncovering of all its treasures.There are two elements to the book that fascinate me most, and a third which I will mention in passing and hope someone else can perhaps pick up or fill in for me I see shadows of this third element but cannot flesh them out sigh.The first is the absolutely engrossing and befuddling labyrinthine structure of the narrative Ben Jelloun is masterfully interrupting the reader s expectations on authorial voice, utilizing, in a really brilliant way, the benefits of oral tradition His approach to this story is always done ...

The Sand Child
  • English
  • 02 September 2018
  • Paperback
  • 176 pages
  • 0801864402
  • Tahar Ben Jelloun
  • The Sand Child