This is the second novel that I’ve read by famed Moroccan author Tahar Ben Jelloun. I must confess that I wasn’t quite a fan of his more recent novel, “Le Bonheur conjugal” However, “La Nuit sacrée”, his 1987 Prix Goncourt-winning novel is a completely different story. For me, “Le Bonheur conjugal” and “La Nuit sacrée” are two worlds apart. I critiqued “Le Bonheur conjugal” for being conventional, slow moving and repetitive. “La Nuit sacrée”, however”, I found incredibly bold, gripping and out-of-the ordinary. But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself…
This novel is about a young woman who strives to begin life anew after her young life is ruined due to a horrible and secret family tragedy.
Now the way that she endeavours to break with her past is in itself very interesting. We follow her through a series of hallucinatory scenes which could either be fantasy or reality. In fact, throughout the novel, the woman is constantly dipping between reality and fantasy, life and death, and she tries to break away from the chains of her past and present circumstances.
Along the way, she meets with more tragedy, and one incredibly beautiful and poignant love story. There is also a horrific scene towards the end of the novel that was difficult for me to read through (so reader discretion is advised: there is a lot of disturbing violence against women in the novel).
This novel is complex and merits a second reading. One of the novel’s themes seems to be how women are so undervalued in the society where this women comes from. They are even referred to at one point as nothing more than “a hole between legs”.
I loved the dreamy, hallucinatory feel of this novel and the love story. The closest novel that I could compare to this one is Marcus Malte’s “Le Garçon”, which is also about the main character’s dream-like journey through life. As was the case for “Le Garçon”, I think this novel merits a full five stars.
My rating: ***** (coup de Coeur)
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