This Blinding Absence of Light (French 2001, English translation 2002) By Tahar Ben Jelloun

 

In 1972 a military coup against King Hassan II of Morocco failed.  The military officers who organized the attempted coup were executed.  The soldiers who were just following the orders of their commanding officers when they forced their way into the King’s palace, were tried and sentenced to prison.  Author Tahar Ben Jelloun tells of their plight in his award-winning novel This Blinding Absence of Light.

The soldier-prisoners were hooded and taken from their cells and thrown into a back of a truck which sped off into the night – they thought to certain death.  No notice was given, no family member was informed, no records were kept, they just disappeared.  They had been transported to Tazmamart, a secret facility for political prisoners in the Atlas Mountains in the southeast of the country.  They were surprised that they were not killed, but soon realized their punishment was worse.  Each was put in a solitary cell, with ceilings so low they could not stand, and without windows or any other source of light.  They could die, and most did, but they would not be killed. 

The book is narrated by a prisoner named Salim, and as hard as it may be to believe, it is not entirely depressing.  It is a story of the personal mechanics of survival, including working out a communications network with neighboring cells, and is steeped in faith and philosophy.  It is in fact a compelling read (and even includes several incredibly funny passages (i.e. the telling of A Streetcar Named Desire).  

Through negotiations with the guards – who like them were merely following orders -- they were finally able to establish minimal contact with the outside world.  Through one such contact they were able to get word to Amnesty International of their existence in this secret gulag.  Years later they would be freed as a result of international pressure on the government of Morocco.  One released prisoner eventually managed to get smuggled out of the country to France where he met and told the story to Ben Jelloun.

While that story outlines the cruelty mankind is capable of, and you know how it’s going to end, and you also know it isn’t going to be pretty, you keep reading it because of Salim’s wise and unfathomably good heart.

Recommendation:  Great Read

I’ve blogged two other books by Ben Jelloun, A Palace in the Old Village and Leaving Tangier,  both were excellent.