Official Interview: Mois Benarroch

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kandscreeley
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Official Interview: Mois Benarroch

Post by kandscreeley »

Hello to everyone out there in book land. Today I had the privilege of interviewing Mois Benarroch author of The Immigrant's Lament among other notable books. This great book will be book of the month in July of this year.

To view it on the bookshelves, click here.

To view one of the several four star reviews, click here.

To view the book on Amazon, click here.

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1. Can you tell us a little about who you are?

I write therefore I am. I was born in 1959 in Morocco, emigrated to Israel with my parents in 1972. Was drafted in 1977. Married in 1984. Still married with the same woman. I have three children. Turning 60 is great.

2. Readers on OBC come from around the world. I'm sure we're all interested to know what life is like as a Moroccan-born Israeli?

Being a Moroccan is a very interesting fact in Israel, it’s being treated as a minority while being a majority. In a way, life in Israel is full of
Moroccan life, culture and behavior, but in the same time saying you are from Morocco is a threat to a country that was built on the idea that European Eastern Jews will bring the Europen way of life to the middle east. So, in fact, even being French educated and having Spanish as mother tongue, the Moroccan is considered someone not worthy enough or not developed enough to be an Israeli. Moroccans, and now the third and fourth generation descendants of Moroccans are considered to be primitive and culture deprived Israelis.

This is not an easy life, no, but then, from an artistic point of view it’s very creative. Big parts of my literary output comes from a need to
understand where I came from and where did I land just as I was becoming a teenager.

3. Let's talk about your book The Immigrant's Lament. Why poetry?

I have been writing prose and poetry since I was 15. But normally every topic in my writing starts as poems and then years later they enter my novels. The Immigrant’s Lament is a primal scream of my experience as an immigrant. A very strange immigrant who is supposed to be back in his Jewish country and discovers he is still an immigrant. It’s tragic and it’s metaphysical. This is my first published book, published in Hebrew in 1994. Just 25 years ago the word immigrant itself was subversive in Israeli literature. In modern Hebrew the word used is OLE, a person who climbs, who goes up. A Jew in israel is not an immigrant, only if he immigrates to another country he is an immigrant, not if he comes to Israel. Nowadays many poets have written about being immigrants, and I have just been asked to participate in a poetry anthology of immigration poems. This would have been unthinkable even ten years ago.

4. Was this collection of poems written all at once, or is it from various times?

It was a long process of years, two or three years. My first reaction to my immigration was to forget everything for years and try to be an Israeli. Only when I reached the age of 30 and after many imagery sessions my memory came back and I was able to draw a line between past and present.

5. Can you talk some about the translation from Hebrew (the original language of the book) to English?

Yes, definitely. No matter how much I explain it seems to fall on deaf ears. This is not a translation. IT IS NOT A TRANSLATION! This is an
English version of the book. It’s different. Some poems appear in the English version that don’t appear in the Hebrew version. Although the first and last long poems appear in both. Some parts of these poems seemed too Israeli to me to be in the English version. So, actually, the process of finishing the English version took from 1990 until 2002.

I started writing poetry in English in 1975, and continued doing so until 1980. Then I had long periods of writing only in English, mostly between 1997 and 2005. During this time I rewrote the book in English. In Spanish we have the verb VERSIONAR, which is to create a version, which is different than translated.

6. Did you feel any of the poems lost anything in the English version?

It became better and more focused and more mature. Less conflictive. All the translations of the book have been made from the English version.

7. Is there one of the poems that you would say is your favorite?

The Immigrant’s Lament is my favorite poem in the book. It can be read as a long poem or as a collection of short poems. Both reading are fine. This long poem opened a door for me to the world of languages and life and living through languages.

8. According to several of the reviewers, a lot of important themes are discussed - from politics to war to immigration. What do you think
it's most important for readers to learn from this?


I hope not. I hope my work stands as it is, and it is a world in itself. And that each reader can read it according to his own experiences. Someone knowing a lot of Israeli politics may profit from it differently than someone who has no idea where Israel is. But I believe this is a universal theme and it could concern every person.

9. Who is your biggest influence?

If I have to name just one person it would be Bob Dylan. I am happy he is now fully recognized a poet, now that he has received the Literature Nobel Prize. Now I can say without having to explain why he is the greatest living poet. I read all the lyrics of his songs since the age of 15. I always read Dylan, even when I had troubles listening to his voice. Now I am convinced he is a great musician and singer too. He is the Shakepeare of our time. Or the Dylan of all times.

How about a few fun questions.

10. What's your favorite food?


The food of the Gods, I can eat it all day long: It’s rice. Rice rice rice rice. My favorite rice is the round organic rice. But I love it all.

11. What superpower country would you most want to be part of and why?

I am very fond of the Ottoman Empire. Amazing way of being a superpower. We have a lot to learn from them.

12. What's the best present you've ever received?

Send some cigars, I like most the Cohiba club.

13. What's one thing on your bucket list (something you want to do before you die)?

To win the Nobel Prize, and say I can’t write anymore because I am too famous!
A book is a dream you hold in your hands.
—Neil Gaiman
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Post by Manang Muyang »

I clearly remember Benarroch's "The Expelled," my first review assignment. I picked it because it was the shortest book on the list. Little did I know that it would be a complicated read. I nearly "expelled" myself from OBC after that review.

Because of my challenges while reading the book and writing the review (I got a devastating editor score for it!), now I share a mysterious bond with Benarroch and have an affinity for all those who have experienced his work. I am the founder and sole member of the Benarroch Survivors' Club. The others are too shy.

Thank you, Kandscreeley, for letting us know more about this enigmatic man, my favorite Sephardi.
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Post by Ak1412 »

Immigrant's Lament is my favorite book that I have found through onlinebookclub. It was so helpful to learn more about the author. Great interview!
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