The Honor of the Tribe: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Eddy, do illumine more
Review: I share the other reviewers' admiration for this writer. In answer to your question and in case you have not heard by now, Rachid Mimouni died in a hospital in Paris, of acute viral hepatitis, on 12 February 1995. He was aged only 49. I was composing letters of support to him in my head when I happened to hear this tragic news on French radio. Only a short while before there had been an interview with him on FranceInter, and you may find out more about this from their website. I remember I wrote to the 'Times' to complain that it had not published an obituary. Of course, I got no reply. (This country is indifferent to writers like Mimouni the same way it tries to be indifferent to the truth about Palestine.)

Rating:
Summary: Reply to the reader from Jerusalem, Palestine
Review: I share the other reviewers' admiration for this writer. In answer to your question and in case you have not heard by now, Rachid Mimouni died in a hospital in Paris, of acute viral hepatitis, on 12 February 1995. He was aged only 49. I was composing letters of support to him in my head when I happened to hear this tragic news on French radio. Only a short while before there had been an interview with him on FranceInter, and you may find out more about this from their website. I remember I wrote to the 'Times' to complain that it had not published an obituary. Of course, I got no reply. (This country is indifferent to writers like Mimouni the same way it tries to be indifferent to the truth about Palestine.)

Rating:
Summary: You're right, Massoud
Review: The fellow who wrote the other review on this page, Massoud Javadi "Jackson", is absolutely correct. This novel is a rare find but well worth your search efforts.

The prose is fluid and spare, yet conversational in a cosy, storyteller way. The problems of decolonialisation are illustrated comically, lucidly, thoughtfully. You might find yourself laughing at the natives before realising that Mimouni has made you sympathise with them. Their plight is real, their voices need to be heard. Mimouni, who died during the 1990s (if any person, living or dead, ever reads this review, please reply me as to when exactly he died and of what), brings these fresh voices to life.

carry on, farsad

Rating:
Summary: Eddy, do illumine more
Review: This is a great book and I recommend it to everyone interested in humanity, literature, culture, art, or history, even to ignorant wretches like myself.

Eddy, it is three years on since I read your reply to me. I wrote you back a very long letter in 2001 and then deleted it.

Your reply inspired me. Is it possible that there are like souls out there? (Is Amazon unwittingly giving spawn to a new third-world literary movement?) Other than Massoud Javadi, who wrote the original reader review in 1999, I have never met a single person who has heard of this book. (I had never heard of this novel, either, until Javadi himself introduced it to me in 1995, shortly after Mimouni's death.)

Who are you Eddy, where are you, what do you do with yourself? We people need to get together, organise - at least stay in touch. I wish I had written you earlier, when you replied to me. Perhaps you are gone now.