Return to Childhood : The Memoir of a Modern Moroccan Woman (CMES Modern Middle East Literature in Translation)

Rating:
Summary: Dense text loses reader
Review: There are delightful passages in this memoir and there are interesting details of the Maroccan fight for independence. But there is little of how it felt to grow up in Marocco 50 years ago; and even less description of what the country or the country side was like or looked like.
What this book has in abundance, and it is quite impressive in this respect, is an attempt to transcribe conversations; it shows quite a lot of story-telling in its most intimate manner -- among family members. This repeated story-telling from three different generations reveals how villagers evolve and perpetuate biases or points of view that are then repeated from generation to generation.
But what this book lacks is clarity. I wonder if this was not a problem of translation from the Arabic. The oral stories are told often without a prior reference for the pronouns "her, she, him , or he," making it difficult to understand. Not once, not twice, but many, many times I had to read over and reread again the same story looking for a reference and more often than not ending up, just going on without having a grip on who said what about exactly whom. And it is my belief that, every time a careful reader has to stop and go back to read again and still be left in a state of uncertainty, something is wrong with that text. Because I believe that Ms. Abouzeid is a good writer, I have to blame the translator -- which in this case is unfortunately, Ms. Abouzeid herself. Three stars -- Two taken out for reading difficulty.