Official Interview: Mois Benarroch

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Official Interview: Mois Benarroch

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Welcome to today's Chat with Sarah. Today we feature Mois Benarroch author of such books as The Immigrant's Lament, Raquel Says Something Entirely Unexpected, and more.

To view the author's page on the bookshelves, click here.

To view the author on Amazon, click here.

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1. What's life like as an Israeli?

It's manic-depressive. You go from periods of highs to periods of lows. It's sunny most of the year; you have sun all summer and in winter you have sun at least every second day. It's rare to have long cloudy periods.

2. How did you get started writing?

The trigger was my emigration at the age of 13. I started to write when I was 15. I was trying to make sense of living in two different planets and moving from one to another suddenly and abruptly. It doesn't make more sense now but I wrote about it a lot; you can read about it in The Immigrant's Lament, my first published book.

3. You have several novels and write in three languages. Which one is the easiest and do you ever get confused as to which language you're writing in?

This is something I wouldn't recommend to anyone. It just happened. I only write, or rather wrote, poetry in English. I did it in the beginning, between the ages of 15 and 19. Then for a long period between 1997 and 2005. Then it stopped. It's like an escape language for me. Escaping from my mother tongue, Spanish, and my country's language, Hebrew. It's incredibly confusing and sometimes paralyzing. I gave up on trying to lead, and just give up to whatever language the words lead me. There were too many decisions to write only in Hebrew or only in Spanish that failed. So, now, I follow the words. The last two years it was writing only in Hebrew.

4. According to the Amazon author page, your poetry "is one of compassion, social-political fight, and human." What's the biggest issue you write about?

The biggest issue is immigration; it's Bob Dylan's song "I Pity the Poor Immigrant." The immigrant is me but also the other immigrants. An immigrant's life is difficult, but it's also enriching. It's great for writing; it also creates a lot of solitude from the misunderstandings of society about you, and, again, solitude is great for writing.

But, it's not only immigration, I also write fantasy, even some sci-fi, and mystical poetry. There are many other issues. Readers mostly take with them the immigration topic - guess that's what I do best.

5. In The Immigrant's Lament, one of the themes is the plight of immigrants. What's the most difficult thing about moving to a foreign country?

Being misunderstood. The most difficult for some is language, but I already learned Hebrew before I made Aliyah. I think the most embarrassing is humor; your sense of humor is different, you say something funny and people don't laugh, you laugh alone, you look nuts. Then people laugh at something and you just don't get it at all.

Well, I say this because I didn't have economic immigrant's problem; we were middle class immigrant's with money. I guess for many immigrant's this is the biggest problem.

6. Raquel Says Something Entirely Unexpected is somewhat of a love story. Are you and your wife the inspiration behind the story?

No, not really. Exactly the opposite. I am married almost 36 years. The novel is about an encounter with your soul mate when both a man and a woman are happily married. It's based on an encounter I had twenty years ago. We behaved very Jewishly and respected the families. It was not easy; it was enriching. It raised many questions about loyalty and cheating. There was no sex, so even today I am not sure I cheated or not. No more spoilers, you can read the novel now.

Raquel Says Something Entirely Unexpected was originally written in Spanish, language is here crucial to relationship.

7. What's next for you?

I am just writing poetry right now. Novels seem like an insurmountable obstacle at this time, but it has happened before and then I jump into a novel. I feel it coming.

A few fun questions to end on.

8. What's your favorite word?


It's a Spanish word: esimismado. Google translates it as lost; it's completely wrong. In the dictionary you get "lose oneself in thought", it's better. But it is not about getting lost. It's being inside oneself. The word is built from other words. It's En Si Misma-do, literally in oneself same-ness - maybe being confronted by one self. There is whole culture in just this one word. It is impoosible to translate. What I am doing here is reading a Spanish word as if it was a Hebrew word. I could go on for ten pages. I love this word.

9. What's your best piece of advice for anyone wanting to write?

Don't.

10. What language would you like to learn if you could learn any in the world?

There is this language in my dreams. It's unique; it changes. It's many languages at once. I dream in this unknown language. I am sure people speak it on some other planet.

11. When you read, do you read print books or e-books? Which do you prefer?

I prefer ebooks. Definitely. I am more focused.
A book is a dream you hold in your hands.
—Neil Gaiman
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