Review by cpulchra -- The Immigrant's Lament

[cpulchra]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Immigrant's Lament" by Mois benarroch.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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The Immigrants' Lament

I have to admit I usually am not much or a reader of poetry, and I had never heard of Mois Benarroch before downloading this book. I picked it on a whim, because it sounded interesting to me, as the topic of immigration is a very current one these days. Mois Benarroc has written a few novels as well that interest me. I appreciated the free form, chatty format of the poems, because they showed me a lot about the poet and his life. I know know that he eats organic food in spite of usually being not very rich.

This book is a small-ish anthology of poems that have appeared before in other magazines or collections. They cover a wide range of topics, many influenced by the personal life of the author, who emigrated to Israel with his family as a young boy and found himself in a vastly different environment than he was used to.

Many of the poems are about the poet himself, sometimes written as a letter to the boy he used to be (I can see you) or as a sometimes ironic description about his likes and dislikes, and how family life and being a poet don't always work (Self portrait of the poet in a family mirror). Others deal with being from Morocco and what people usually expect from Moroccan poets (something he does not want to write).

There's a lot about love, and romance, his wife, and daily life in Israel and what it means being Jewish. Other poems deal with politics and world issues (for example The Buddha from Afghanistan) and a lot of reflection of what being a poet means.

A recurring topic is loneliness and being an outside in society. There is a brilliant and very succinct poem about a transsexual woman with the beautiful lines:

I am God's mistake
and I cannot fix it.
But my imagination is stronger
than the power of God.

I am not transsexual, but this is one of my favorite poems in the book, because it resonates a lot with what I have heard from trans friends and acquaintances.


I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. The poems are brilliant, and work even when translated (of course I don't speak Hebrew and can't really), however there were a few typos and such that a good editor would have caught. I will look to reading more by this author. I'll just look to finding official editions.

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The Immigrant's Lament
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