Stephanie Jane reviewed The punishment by Tahar Ben Jelloun (A Margellos World Republic of Letters book)
An intensely personal account
4 stars
I didn't know anything about Tahar Ben Jelloun's life prior to starting reading The Punishment because I had previously only read one of his fiction works, Leaving Tangier. By contrast, The Punishment is an intensely personal account of the mistreatment he suffered aged twenty as a result of his peaceful political protests having been deemed illegal by the Moroccan leadership of the time. As it turned out, surviving this harrowing experience - not all the detainees did - was to prove a significant impetus in launching Ben Jelloun's literary career, but he obviously could not have known that at the time. I was amazed to discover how long had elapsed between Ben Jelloun's military imprisonment and the writing of this memoir about those horrific months. It took him some fifty years before he was able to write this testimony.
As a reader myself, I could empathise with Ben Jelloun's emotional …
I didn't know anything about Tahar Ben Jelloun's life prior to starting reading The Punishment because I had previously only read one of his fiction works, Leaving Tangier. By contrast, The Punishment is an intensely personal account of the mistreatment he suffered aged twenty as a result of his peaceful political protests having been deemed illegal by the Moroccan leadership of the time. As it turned out, surviving this harrowing experience - not all the detainees did - was to prove a significant impetus in launching Ben Jelloun's literary career, but he obviously could not have known that at the time. I was amazed to discover how long had elapsed between Ben Jelloun's military imprisonment and the writing of this memoir about those horrific months. It took him some fifty years before he was able to write this testimony.
As a reader myself, I could empathise with Ben Jelloun's emotional dependence on literature in order to cope with prison life and its daily humiliations and abuse. His philosophy studies at university had been abruptly curtailed, but remembering quotes from great thinkers and writers was vital to his mental health as was a copy of James Joyce's brick, Ulysses, sent into the prison by his brother.
Fear of educated people, teachers and thinkers resulting in violent repressing any form of dissent is a depressingly common practice of dictatorial rulers across the globe and throughout history. In that sense, The Punishment is one of many testimonies to the inhumanity of men, especially those given any glimpse of power over others. What stood out to me here though is Tahar Ben Jelloun's quiet self control and determination. He can see the absurd nature of his life at that time and has no knowledge of when, or even if, he will escape, yet he doesn't rage or outwardly express his despair. The Punishment is a dark, disturbing read, but Ben Jelloun's dignity makes it bearable in a way that his original incarceration scarcely could have been.