SILENT DAY IN TANGIER

by Tahar Ben Jelloun ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1991

A sustained meditation on growing old, this short (90-page) novel from Moroccan-born Ben Jelloun (The Sacred Night, 1989) is more a poignant remembrance of things lost than any celebration of a life lived. Set in Tangier, a city where the cold east wind blows through the damp walls and where past traditions no longer prevail, an old merchant ill with bronchitis lies on his bed and rages against his irrevocable decline and that of the world he once knew. Most of his friends are dead; his children are successful but live elsewhere; he has quarreled with a good many of his relatives: and he finds his wife a reassuring but irritating companion. Meanwhile, the house itself is aging; mold grows on its old walls; the ceiling is cracking: the faucets drip, and the toilets are kept running by pieces of wire and string because the old man distrusts handymen, especially plumbers (""They are all parasites in collusion with time to destroy our cells!""). Only the memories of the beautiful Spanish women he loved in his youth are some consolation, though inevitably they too remind him of his wretched present. He draws up lists of misers and spendthrifts, both contemptible for ""their lack of moderation,"" reflects on politics, mourns his inability to take care of his now weed-infested garden, and nothing can assuage his bitterness. Only by no longer thinking, by dying, will he gain some peace. Elegiac writing--as well as a keen but never sentimental sympathy for the old man's plight--makes this a fine account of growing old. Brief but bracing in its honesty.

Pub Date: April 1, 1991

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1991

Categories: FICTION