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Review
'Najat El Hachmi's narrative poise, humour and fresh, unrepressed language turn her painful subject matter into a pleasure to read' --Michael Eaude, Independent
`A lively depiction of family life in Morocco and Catalonia' -- Stylist
`El Hachmi's searing Bildungsroman boldly mixes family and cultural history with satirical humour, and won Catalonia's prestigious Ramon Llull prize...' -- Guardian
'Offers a probing look at a patriarchal culture, and utilises and delicately wry touch which is a wonder to behold' --Sunday Business Post
`A lively depiction of family life in Morocco and Catalonia' -- Stylist
`El Hachmi's searing Bildungsroman boldly mixes family and cultural history with satirical humour, and won Catalonia's prestigious Ramon Llull prize...' -- Guardian
'Offers a probing look at a patriarchal culture, and utilises and delicately wry touch which is a wonder to behold' --Sunday Business Post
Book Description
A riveting debut novel of fathers and daughters, and the conflict between duty and desire, set in rural Morocco and urban Cataluña
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Najat El-Hachmi's debut novel, The Last Patriarch is a story of physical and sexual abuse in a patriarchal Moroccan family, an immigrant story, when first the father and then the family move to Catalonia, and ultimately a story of the narrator, the patriarch's daughter, breaking free of her past as she takes on different cultural values. Narrated entirely from the perspective of the patriarch, Mimoun Driouch's unnamed daughter, the story is also concerned with cultural and imagined histories, and the importance of origin stories.
El-Hachmi, who was born in Morocco and whose own family moved to Catalonia, tells the story in two parts. The first part concerns Mimoun's birth and childhood up to his marriage and emigration to Catalonia. It's a catalogue of violence, sexual abuse and rape, although El-Hachmi makes clear that her narrator may be unreliable and the stories are told with plenty of phrases such as `we expect' or `it isn't beyond the realm of probability that'.
The second half of the book concerns more the clash of cultures, the experience of immigrants and ultimately the challenge to the traditional patriarchal system. The scenes relating to the immigrant experience are particularly effective.
While one strength of El-Hachmi's novel is this all encompassing horrific story, and doubtless where this does occur the patriarchal system protects the perpetrator, it is also potentially a weakness. There were several times that I wished the story focussed either on the cultural clash, or on a daughter brought up in an abusive household, or the impact of a child wanting to break away from tradition.
The Last Patriarch was originally published in Catalan, where it won the most prestigious Catalan language prize. But I couldn't help wondering if perhaps something has been lost in the translation. I found several of the style and grammar choices a significant hindrance to my enjoyment of this book. Firstly, there are no inverted commas (or any other device) for speech. Most of the time it's fairly clear but then you get a couple of people speaking together, split only by a full stop and confusion ensues - at least for me. Secondly, there is a tendency to overuse the third person pronoun - and it's often far from clear which `he' is being referred to. While this may be the intention of the author, several times I had clearly imagined the wrong one and had to re-read the paragraph for sense. Thirdly, I suspect there has just been some editorial oversights. Take for example from fairly early on in the book this: "Go to the barbers, Mimoun, his father nagged, but he turned a deaf ear, and, as it was after that big punch. He would have would have let it slide".
The result was that I ended up loving the idea of the book more than the reality, but there's no doubt it's a compelling story.
El-Hachmi, who was born in Morocco and whose own family moved to Catalonia, tells the story in two parts. The first part concerns Mimoun's birth and childhood up to his marriage and emigration to Catalonia. It's a catalogue of violence, sexual abuse and rape, although El-Hachmi makes clear that her narrator may be unreliable and the stories are told with plenty of phrases such as `we expect' or `it isn't beyond the realm of probability that'.
The second half of the book concerns more the clash of cultures, the experience of immigrants and ultimately the challenge to the traditional patriarchal system. The scenes relating to the immigrant experience are particularly effective.
While one strength of El-Hachmi's novel is this all encompassing horrific story, and doubtless where this does occur the patriarchal system protects the perpetrator, it is also potentially a weakness. There were several times that I wished the story focussed either on the cultural clash, or on a daughter brought up in an abusive household, or the impact of a child wanting to break away from tradition.
The Last Patriarch was originally published in Catalan, where it won the most prestigious Catalan language prize. But I couldn't help wondering if perhaps something has been lost in the translation. I found several of the style and grammar choices a significant hindrance to my enjoyment of this book. Firstly, there are no inverted commas (or any other device) for speech. Most of the time it's fairly clear but then you get a couple of people speaking together, split only by a full stop and confusion ensues - at least for me. Secondly, there is a tendency to overuse the third person pronoun - and it's often far from clear which `he' is being referred to. While this may be the intention of the author, several times I had clearly imagined the wrong one and had to re-read the paragraph for sense. Thirdly, I suspect there has just been some editorial oversights. Take for example from fairly early on in the book this: "Go to the barbers, Mimoun, his father nagged, but he turned a deaf ear, and, as it was after that big punch. He would have would have let it slide".
The result was that I ended up loving the idea of the book more than the reality, but there's no doubt it's a compelling story.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Abuse and cultural clashes.
17 May 2010
Format:Paperback
Najat El-Hachmi's debut novel, The Last Patriarch is a story of physical and sexual abuse in a patriarchal Moroccan family, an immigrant story, when first the father and then the family move to Catalonia, and ultimately a story of the narrator, the patriarch's daughter, breaking free of her past as she takes on different cultural values. Narrated entirely from the perspective of the patriarch, Mimoun Driouch's unnamed daughter, the story is also concerned with cultural and imagined histories, and the importance of origin stories.
El-Hachmi, who was born in Morocco and whose own family moved to Catalonia, tells the story in two parts. The first part concerns Mimoun's birth and childhood up to his marriage and emigration to Catalonia. It's a catalogue of violence, sexual abuse and rape, although El-Hachmi makes clear that her narrator may be unreliable and the stories are told with plenty of phrases such as `we expect' or `it isn't beyond the realm of probability that'.
The second half of the book concerns more the clash of cultures, the experience of immigrants and ultimately the challenge to the traditional patriarchal system. The scenes relating to the immigrant experience are particularly effective.
While one strength of El-Hachmi's novel is this all encompassing horrific story, and doubtless where this does occur the patriarchal system protects the perpetrator, it is also potentially a weakness. There were several times that I wished the story focussed either on the cultural clash, or on a daughter brought up in an abusive household, or the impact of a child wanting to break away from tradition.
The Last Patriarch was originally published in Catalan, where it won the most prestigious Catalan language prize. But I couldn't help wondering if perhaps something has been lost in the translation. I found several of the style and grammar choices a significant hindrance to my enjoyment of this book. Firstly, there are no inverted commas (or any other device) for speech. Most of the time it's fairly clear but then you get a couple of people speaking together, split only by a full stop and confusion ensues - at least for me. Secondly, there is a tendency to overuse the third person pronoun - and it's often far from clear which `he' is being referred to. While this may be the intention of the author, several times I had clearly imagined the wrong one and had to re-read the paragraph for sense. Thirdly, I suspect there has just been some editorial oversights. Take for example from fairly early on in the book this: "Go to the barbers, Mimoun, his father nagged, but he turned a deaf ear, and, as it was after that big punch. He would have would have let it slide".
The result was that I ended up loving the idea of the book more than the reality, but there's no doubt it's a compelling story.
El-Hachmi, who was born in Morocco and whose own family moved to Catalonia, tells the story in two parts. The first part concerns Mimoun's birth and childhood up to his marriage and emigration to Catalonia. It's a catalogue of violence, sexual abuse and rape, although El-Hachmi makes clear that her narrator may be unreliable and the stories are told with plenty of phrases such as `we expect' or `it isn't beyond the realm of probability that'.
The second half of the book concerns more the clash of cultures, the experience of immigrants and ultimately the challenge to the traditional patriarchal system. The scenes relating to the immigrant experience are particularly effective.
While one strength of El-Hachmi's novel is this all encompassing horrific story, and doubtless where this does occur the patriarchal system protects the perpetrator, it is also potentially a weakness. There were several times that I wished the story focussed either on the cultural clash, or on a daughter brought up in an abusive household, or the impact of a child wanting to break away from tradition.
The Last Patriarch was originally published in Catalan, where it won the most prestigious Catalan language prize. But I couldn't help wondering if perhaps something has been lost in the translation. I found several of the style and grammar choices a significant hindrance to my enjoyment of this book. Firstly, there are no inverted commas (or any other device) for speech. Most of the time it's fairly clear but then you get a couple of people speaking together, split only by a full stop and confusion ensues - at least for me. Secondly, there is a tendency to overuse the third person pronoun - and it's often far from clear which `he' is being referred to. While this may be the intention of the author, several times I had clearly imagined the wrong one and had to re-read the paragraph for sense. Thirdly, I suspect there has just been some editorial oversights. Take for example from fairly early on in the book this: "Go to the barbers, Mimoun, his father nagged, but he turned a deaf ear, and, as it was after that big punch. He would have would have let it slide".
The result was that I ended up loving the idea of the book more than the reality, but there's no doubt it's a compelling story.
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