Customer Reviews

The Sand Child

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you are interested in the a dynamic world of storytelling read The Sand Child. It takes you through many tales which weave in and out of social constructs. What constructs create a female? What constructs create a male?

When I read this novel it took me through a range of emotions. It took me into arid land and it made me feel as if I was experiencing The Sand Child's world.

This book question gender construction. It has all the makings of a wonderful novel. I loved it and it made me change my perspective on how I view my world.

This translation--unfortunately the only one of the Sand Child-- misses the mark in conveying an accurate representation of Ben Jelloun's novel. There are a number of glaring errors and omissions of original text. If it is at all possible to read the work in the original, one must. My rating is of the translation, not the original.

Tahar Ben Jelloun's The Sand Child is written around the concept of social construction of gender. The novelist succeeds in sustaining this theme throughout the novel. I believe that Jelloun uses the theme of gender manipulation and social perceptions of sex as a social construct throughout the novel, although it is not the only theme he discusses in his masterpiece. Jelloun shines the flashlight on the circumstances that surround Ahmed's dilemma. The child's Father is a complex personality. He knows that Ahmed is really a female, but at the same time insists that he is a man. In other words, he assigns the social construct of masculinity to a child who is evidently female. The reason for doing so is not simply to denigrate women but to ensure that his property is not inherited by outsiders given that inheritance is the prerogative of the male child in the culture under scrutiny. Ahmed's father thinks of ways in which he will keep his ruse concealed from the prying eyes of the public.

Ahmed is thus presented in this novel as the victim of social concircumstances fueled by biases and misconceptions. Ironically, having fallen into the trap set for her by her father, Ahmed begins to talk to her sisters on condescending terms. She feels superior to them believing that she is a "man". Jelloun's novel creates the dilemma in which social construction of gender imprisons most people in contemporary society. It is a novel worth reading meticulously.
Dr. Peter Vakunta is a professor of Post-colonial literatures. He teaches at the Defense Language Institute, Monterey, CA-USA.

I purchased this book for a class, and Ill admit, once I picked it up, I couldnt put it down. The relationship between the characters and gender identity issues and very interesting. The only part I didnt like (and debated in class), was the multiple narrators that created a story within a story. It seemed out of sync and a little unnecessary, but thats just my opinion! A+ I'd still recommend it to anyone.

This book aimed to be revolutionary, but is too confusing and becomes less and less interesting throughout the pages. If you want to read something enjoyable... choose another book.

Tahar Ben Jelloun is a master of the written word, able to weave into his novels issues of social and political concern while at the same time composing sometimes humorous, often lyrical, and always thoughtful story-lines.

First, you must ask yourself if you are reading this for enjoyment or academic purposes, because you are unlikely to get any enjoyment out of this novel. While offering an interesting critique of society in Morocco, the novel is littered with attempts at complexity that ultimately drag it down. The author's intent to make this story have a multitude of stories isn't entirely wrong from the beginning, however as the story evolves the reader may find a lack of interest. This is because the characters are almost entirely shallow constructs, attempts at characters. While the story has many plot twists, I repeatedly found myself thinking, "Why should I care about what happens to these characers?" And the answer is, You Shouldn't! The author gives no life to the bland and pathetic list of characers, which not only grows, but also has character playing multiple roles.

As to an academic reading of the novel, it simply serves to challenge the reader by following this complex story. If that is incentive, I might add that there are many novels with complex stories just as challenging and much more intriguing. In accordance with the statement on Moroccan society, there are many books which discuss this in an engaging way.

An earlier reviewer criticized the translation, perhaps that was the problem. However, I found the real flaw here to be a poorly constructed story.