Year of the Elephant: A Moroccan Woman's Journey Toward Independence (Modern Middle East Literature in Translation) [Paperback]

Leila Abouzeid (Author), Barbara Parmenter (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 029279603X | ISBN-13: 978-0292796034 | Publication Date: 1989 | Edition: 1St Edition

In this moving fictional treatment of a Muslim woman's life, a personal and family crisis impells the heroine to reexamine traditional cultural attitudes toward women. Cast out and divorced by her husband, she finds herself in a strange new world. Both obstacles and support systems change as she actively participates in the struggle for Moroccan independence from France. This feminist novel is a literary statement in a modern realist style. Many novels by women of the Middle East that have been translated reflect Western views, values, and education. By contrast, "Year of the Elephant" is uniquely Moroccan and emerges from North African Islamic culture itself. Its subtle juxtaposition of past and present, of immediate thought and triggered memory, reflects the heroine's interior conflict between tradition and modern demands. The title refers to a famous battle described in the Koran. First published in Arabic in Morocco in 1983, this novel almost immediately sold out. It is one of the first Moroccan novels written in Arabic to be translated into English. Leila Abouzeid is an author, script writer, and journalist.

Editorial Reviews

Review

At a time when there is growing interest in the intersections between gender and war, Year of the Elephant provides an unselfconscious enterprise of self-affirmation. (World Literature Today )

Review

Leila Abouzeid has created a new style, a mosaic of expression with which she describes her old and yet new world of Morocco. (Ahmed Abd al-Salam al-Bakkah, Moroccan author and poet )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 129 pages
• Publisher: Center for Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at Austin; 1St Edition edition (1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 029279603X
• ISBN-13: 978-0292796034
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #434,223 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Middle Eastern > Arabic

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary journey, June 4, 2001

By 

heather tyler (sydney, nsw Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Year of the Elephant: A Moroccan Woman's Journey Toward Independence (Modern Middle East Literature in Translation) (Paperback)

Leila Abouzeid's novel and accompanying short stories are all the more remarkable because, at the time this collection was published (1989), it was the first time a novel by a Moroccan woman had been translated from Arabic into English.

The contents of the book were also radical: that of a female activist facing divorce in mid-life and her struggle to survive when her rights were perilously few in a society that did not accommodate her situation. Rather, it punished her for the failed marriage. I read this book back to back with Malika Oufkir's harrowing account of her family's 20 year imprisonment in Morocco. Abouzeid's story touches on some similar issues: that of revolt, torn allegiances, political and personal persecution in a country fraut with power struggles. Oufkir was a member of the elite who went from palace to prison, from being somebody to nobody. On the face of it, Abouzeid's heroine Zahra led a more ordinary life although her other life as an activist was extraordinary. She had to muster even more courage after her divorce and the near impossible task of rebuilding her life. Like Oufkir, she went from being somebody to nobody with the loyalties of family and friends in tatters. Zahra is divorced, illiterate and without economic resources, but finds strength within her Muslim faith. This is an illuminating account of Morocco's struggle for independence through the eyes of a working class woman on her own path to personal independence.

A must read for Western feminists and Western women in general. It is a window to another world where women fought and still fight different battles, and some that are the same.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Year of the Elephant by Leila Abouzeid, December 7, 2003

By 

Kim Glover (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Year of the Elephant: A Moroccan Woman's Journey Toward Independence (Modern Middle East Literature in Translation) (Paperback)

Year of the Elephant has special meaning for it tells about a woman named Zahra and the struggle for independence of her country, as well as herself. She struggled to retrieve important elements of her culture that were stolen. When the French invaded Morocco they stripped the country of their right to choose language, culture, and freedom to educate in the ways of their land. In addition, the French spent many years putting the Arabic culture down and spreading the idea that it was inferior to the French. Resisters to the French government were thrown in prison where they were tortured and hung.
Zahra had to face many personal struggles. Recently divorce she faced the problem of supporting herself, being shunned by neighbors because she was a divorced woman, and having low self-esteem because her husband abandoned her after 40 years of marriage. All that she has left is a small room left by her father, and she is totally alone without family. What I liked most about this book is the author's poetic way of describing things. After finding her self alone, Zahra visits the burial ground of her dead relatives and makes the statement, "Death seems alluring in it's tranquility." At another time when she is upset over her recent divorce, she reflects on how rotten the world is. She noticed some children playing and makes the statement, "The world is rotting about us, yet people still procreate. ....Children provide proof that God has not yet despaired of the human race." What I did not like about this book is the way the author would switch times; this made the reading hard to interpret. The book shows women's struggled against stereotyping and the fight is harder when you are alone. At the same time , Zahra proved to us that it is during hard times we, as women find strength in ourselves and our divinity. The book has a surprise ending and shows us that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Will Survive!, December 8, 2003

By 

Linda J. PhillipsBoyd (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Year of the Elephant: A Moroccan Woman's Journey Toward Independence (Modern Middle East Literature in Translation) (Paperback)

Set against the background of the Moroccan War of Independence, "Year of the Elephant" tells of one woman's rebirth and her sustaining faith. The title is symbolic of a battle in Islamic history where foreign tribes were defeated in their attempts to ovethrow the Muslims.
The protagonist, Zahra, must find her way back to feeling that she is a worthy human being and not the worthless person she feels like after being discarded by her husband. We learn her story through past and present events that intertwine to give us a complete picture of her struggles with life, her faith and herself.
With the aid of the fiqah, her spiritual guide, Zahra is able to realize that her life has meaning and she has made a great contribution to the fight for freedom. She comes to realize that her faith has been a guiding force throughout her life, and that faith is what willcontinue to guide her as she embarks on a new phase of her life - as an independent woman capable of surviving on her own.
The novella takes us through the highs and lows of Zahra's life as a key player in the fight for freedom and her struggle to re-claim herself. I enjoyed this novella because of the strength of Zahara's character and the theme that women can and should take charge of their lives. This theme is a universal one that appears in novels written by women, and it transcends race, culture, and economic backgrounds. I was able to share in her triumph against obstacles she faced as she looked within and found her true self. I feel this will be appealing to all women who read this novella.
The short stories that follw the novella are a mixture of plots and themes that depict the lives of different individuals. After the uplifting feeling of "Year of the Elephant", the short stories were a let down. The overall theme appears to be one of poverty, despair, and discontent as the characters go about their lives. They are men, women, adn children who seem to find little in life to be happy about adn to some degree seem to find their happiness in their discontent.
I feel it would have been better to expand on the novella and to leave the short stories out, or they could have been published separately. However, the important factor in this translation is that the reader gets to experience the voice of a woman whose life and culture are completely different from that of Western society.