Review by Max Bauer -- The Immigrant's Lament

[Max Bauer]

[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 Immigrant’s Lament by Mois Benarroch is a book of poetry, which primarily sets out to share the author’s thoughts and feelings in an intriguing style. It is like a biography, without data. He doesn’t attempt to give all the information of place and time, but does attempt to do justice to truth and art with honesty, and the capturing of momentary inspiration.

Every part is but a moment, but these moments are in different times and places, with a philosophical or personal insight involved, in most cases. This will potentially benefit the reader in many ways. If you share the background of Benarroch, his personal experiences will jibe with yours. If you are of a different background, it will give insight into the life of another, and some understanding of Benarroch’s community.

Banarroch talks about his childhood in Morocco, his family members, his children and wife. He talks about what’s memorable, occasionally gives them praise. Often, he gives vent to irritation. Banarroch is a bit egoistical, but not fully. His complaints give vent to selfish urges, but perhaps that speaks more to his honesty than egoism. In the pursuit of honesty, he admits to thoughts and feelings which most would not. When philosophical, he takes on the big subjects- war, greed, religion - and personal ones, such as loneliness and discontentment. This shows that, however selfish he may be on the one hand, on the other he is very empathetic. However stuck he may be in his own world, he also thinks of the world around him.

The book’s style is not uniform. Banarroch may use rhyme, or words with double meanings, phrases with secret ones, or make use of contrasting opposites. At times he is vague, but by intention - the goal being to set up a statement that can mean more than one thing. If exactness were his goal this would be a fault, but if intentionally enigmatic, then multiple meanings means multiplied value. If he is inexact in description, he is exact in sentiment. Occasionally he does simply use shock value, which is too easy to do. And this is so overused in society at present that the only thing one will be jolted by is a yawn. Thankfully, this is not often, and it is easily ignored.

All this makes the book enjoyable, but still of limited value. You will gain some insight into a person, and pleasure for a short time, but the work is not substantive or informative enough to deserve many re-readings. That said I still recommend it as a good work for casual reading.

For the reasons above, I give the book 3 out of 4 stars.

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The Immigrant's Lament
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Like Max Bauer's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Jaime Lync]

Great review. There are some poems in this that i think deserve a rereading, mostly the funny ones.

[Max Bauer]

I see you reviewed the book as well. Thanks for the positive review of my positive review.