I apprecitate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found this a really interesting read and the characters are quite engaging. it kept me reading until the end. I highly recommend.

Tried reading this one and it just was not meant for me. This does not mean that it is not a good book, I just was not in the right place to be reading it and have decided to not try picking it up anytime in the near future.

I believe this is a decent introduction to Moroccan culture, but I struggled with the amount of racism and clearly male perspective throughout. It was nice to read some magical realism, but it was distracting and jarring rather than expertly woven throughout.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

2.5 stars

It is tough to review this novel. The Pleasure Marriage is not my first Tahar Ben Jelloun book. I liked previous books, so I was excited about this one.

In contrast to the name “The Pleasure Marriage”, the story has almost nothing to do with pleasure. The Pleasure Marriage is a story of a family that started with a pleasure marriage. I like the first part of the story in Senegal with Amir and Nabou. And also Karim and his positivity. After Amir brought Nabou to Fez, Morocco, the story went downhill for me. And at one point, it was like someone put this story on a fast-forward. Too many events simply passed by, and it completely lost its meaning for me.

There is a lot of racism and inequality in this novel. But we get a feeling that this is a common thing, and almost all are comfortable with that. I wanted to like this more, but unfortunately, it was not a good read for me.

I quite enjoyed the first part of this book, which is the story of a romance between Amir, a merchant in Fez, and Nabou, with whom he contracts a “pleasure marriage” in Senegal when he is there on business. Such temporary “pleasure marriages” were sanctioned by Islamic law, and were common-place and accepted. But Amir goes against the grain and insists on talking Nabou back to Morocco and making her his second wife, much to the anger of his first wife. So far so good. The racism that Nabou has to endure, the bitterness of the wife, and so on, all make for a relatively interesting, if banal, conventional love story. But then the novel veers off course and turns into an exploration of racism, interracial marriage and intolerance through the experiences of a number of characters, none of whom I could relate to, and the narrative becomes too diffuse and unfocused, jumping about in time and place, and generally feeling muddled. Essentially I felt that the book was just too ambitious and tried to cover too many bases at once, and although it’s always enlightening to learn about another culture, in this case Morocco, here the writing just wasn't strong enough to carry that ambition.

This book tries to do too much, encompass and combine several genres into a very short novel and the end result isn’t the best. On their own Any one of the strands could have been an excellent read (minus the racial profanities) by themselves but combined the novel isn’t what the reader was sold in the description.

The first storyline is the pleasure marriage between Amur the white Moroccan trader and Nabou the Sudanese woman he entered the pleasure marriage with when he visited her every year when he travelled for business. They had twins / a black and a white baby and he brought them back to live with his first wife. This is where I fell out of interest with the book. There are graphic sex scenes, racial insults and references to slavery. Even though the translator puts a disclaimer in the introduction pointing out the insults we’re of the time I feel they could have been toned down or put in foot notes so they weren’t in the Reader’s face. This part of the book is short so it seems like two stories compressed into one as the book follows the inter generational family struggles of their children and grand children, and how Selim tries to escape to Europe. again this portion of the novel would have made a great stand alone book showing how Morocco has changed, I enjoyed reading the descriptive passages, they made me want to visit! The racial slurs, prostitution and anti blackness just put me off the book.

By the end I was unsure if the book was a ethnographic/ sociological analysis of several generations living in Dakur then Morocco and documentation of their experiences or just an attempt to shock readers with explicit sex scenes, racial insults and a blasé attitude to prostitution.

According to the description, this was supposed to be "an epic love story that explores desire and the intolerance for interracial marriage in Moroccan society". The main characters were Amir, who was a married prosperous business owner, and Nabou, the woman that he entered into a "pleasure marriage" with each year when he went on his annual buying trip for his business. Pleasure marriages were temporary marriages permitted by Islamic law, and although he never meant to, he ends up falling deeply in love with Nabou. Because it is also permissible for husbands to have up to 4 wives, he brings her home and officially marries her, and she becomes pregnant and has twins.... one baby is Black like herself and the other is white like he is. They come of age on the opposite sides of racial, social, and political chasms and chart vastly different courses.

When I read what this book would be about I thought it sounded interesting. I regret the decision now, but at least I can say that I have read it.. First let me say that there is a very long note from the translator at the beginning of the book, explaining why there are so many racial slurs and what they are (it is the time period the book is written in), which is also why there is so much prostitution and slavery. I had to constantly keep reminding myself that "it was just that time period", so that I did not get disgusted and throw the book down. Another thing that was a bit too much for me was all of the graphic sex scenes. You could definitely tell they were written by a man... I am just saying. Every time I thought the storyline might be getting good, it just seemed to gloss over (and throw in a few sex scenes) and then it was off to something else entirely. So, I can't in all honestly recommend this. Maybe a creative writing class might would read that, but other than that, I don't see anyone else reading this.

The pleasure marriage really means prostitution and I found this off putting. I did like some of the characterization and story and knew parts were going to be controversial. But this was also anti-black, racist, promoted prostitution in Africa as ok. Just no. Left a sour taste in my mouth and cannot be ok with this as a woman. Cannot recommend. Glad it was 160 pages.

Thanks to Netgalley, Tahar Ben Jelloun and Northwestern University Press Curbstone books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review,

Available: 6/15/21

I'm afraid I could not finish this. While I appreciate it is set in a different culture, I found some of the story offensive. A 'pleasure marriage' is actually prostitution under another name, and the 'pleasure' I would imagine to be all on the part of the man who is paying for it. So, while this wasn't a shock to me as it is the whole premise of the story, the dreadful racist remarks and behaviour from some of the characters towards the black 'pleasure wife' was pretty awful, even if an accurate reflection of the culture portrayed. So not really my cup of tea.
Thanks to the publisher for a review copy.

My thanks to NetGalley and Northwestern Press for this advance copy

The concept of a ‘pleasure marriage’ to protect against sin is an interesting subject. Rita Nezami’s preface and glossary were extremely informative and provided meaningful background information.

What a wonderful, initially enchanting and vivid, latterly recounting a very moving and sad moral tale. The translator has captured the essence with sensitivity and skill preserving the author’s words. It is a novel dense with the history and culture of North Africa, and abusive racism. For readers with an infinity of Morocco and Senegal there is much to delight.

'The Pleasure Marriage' starts off as a love story between Amir, a white Moroccan merchant, and a black Senegalese woman, Nabou. After contracting a 'pleasure marriage' (a temporary, legitimate relationship) in Dakar, they decide Nabou should return to Fez with Amir and become his full second wife, much to the upset of his existing wife. The short novel charts their relationship and the challenges they face, then moves on to the lives of their children and grandchildren. So what starts as a love story develops into more of a multi-generational saga (albeit a short one).

The novel has some slightly magical realist sections, although these might be interpreted merely as dreams. It does have a tendency to wander off the plot at times on these flights of imagination - some readers will love this. I didn't, but was able to skim them and get back to the plot. The writing is much praised in the blurb for its beauty, which sometimes indicates a story that is style over substance. That's not the case here - it's very readable. It is a translation, and I think it must be a good one as it never comes across as awkward or strangely worded. It reminded me somewhat of Paulo Coelho's 'The Alchemist' in terms of the setting and style.

Plot wise, it is very much a story of two parts, almost two short series in sequence, which isn't the best plot structure for a novel in my opinion. Firstly there is the story of Amir and Nabou, with all the strife and tension created by the second marriage and Nabou's experience as a black immigrant to Morocco. Then there is the story of their children and their grandchild Selim, who becomes involved with sub-Saharan migrants and attempts to escape to Europe. The uniting theme between the two is racism, and there are appalling descriptions of the prejudice faced by the black characters.

The main characters are reasonably likeable, but a bit bland. I didn't feel strongly emotionally engaged with any of them, which lessened the impact of the book. The only character I felt a connection with was Karim, Amir's youngest son with his first wife, and a person with Down's Syndrome. Not only did I like him as a character and individual and care about his fate, but I really liked the positive portrayal of someone with the condition.

Overall, 'The Pleasure Marriage' is an interesting book that is readable, without being outstanding. It would be a good book to read if you are visiting Morocco, or want to be transported there through literature, as it is very evocative and covers much of the country in the course of the characters' travels. One of my favourite aspects of reading was being reminded of some of the places I've visited there.

I was really disappointed. The description was so intriguing but the reality was a very political and strangely written novel. It promised a love story against the odds but that part of the novel was astoundingly short. The description warned of some racism 'in context' of 20th century North Africa, however it was very uncomfortable to read and felt gratuitous. I am very disappointed that I read this and I finished it only in the hope of it getting better....but it never did.

I was intrigued by the opportunity to learn about countries and cultures I was not familiar with. This book has a fairly strong and interesting start with colorful characters and situations but then seemed to drag with little actual plot, less well developed characters and situations and large leaps in time. I gave up about 80% in. Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC of this book.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3890912614

The Pleasure Marriage

Thank you to Net Gallery for an advanced copy.

The description of this book immediately peaked my interest. I am a reader of diverse authors and themes and gravitate to stories of cultural differences. I was so looking forward to diving in and getting lost in this story.

Unfortunately, it just wasn’t what I interpreted the story to be as a result of the description. Perhaps it’s lost in the translation. Even though I was unable to connect and stay engaged with this story perhaps someone else can as the author has certainly had much success with the number of books he has authored.

I was given an ARC of this title courtesy of #netgalley, Tahar Ben Jelloun and the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited to pick up this title, to read about an epic love story between a man and his second wife. I was extremely disappointed. The only thing epic about this story is the left of time it covers (a couple of decades). The book itself is rather short which only adds to the sense that the whole story is rushed.

The narration was bland, lot's of telling, barely any showing, nothing flash or decorative about it. The plot was bitty, it didn't focus on anything for too long and raised more questions than it answered.

I can't think who I would recommend this book too. It's a quick escape to nowhere in particular. I can only award this book a 2/5 stars for effort.

1 star *may change??? I'm stuck between a 2 and a 1
TW: racism, anti-blackness, ableism (?), misogyny
Okay, the next time I see a book in the "new" section in Netgalley and I think, "Wow, why has nobody requested this? Maybe I should do it" I'm going to slap myself across the face and refer back to this review.
The worst part is that the description was so good. Like, genuinely good. A Moroccan-based world about interracial marriage and the cultural significance of it as well as the racism faced by black women. Pair that up with a plot heavily centering on Islam, I was really interested in this and confused as to how nobody else seemed to notice it.
Turns out that sometimes it's better to conform.
Wow. I mean, this took me off guard. It starts off with a storyteller setting up the tale of Amir and Nabou with background information. He narrates the book, so the story isn't very connected to the characters and is kept at a distance, but I honestly didn't mind this much. What I did mind is the painfully awkward and honestly a bit weird sexual references?
Now, this book is literally called the 'pleasure' marriage, so I don't know what I was expecting. I don't mind sex in books or it being talked about, but you can tell this was written by a man. You can really tell.
Usually I'd give examples to show what I'm talking about, and trust me when I say there are a number of them, but I genuinely do not want to type them out. I will leave just one that completely surprised me (for context, this character is 15):
"Karim, excited by the feeling of the girl's firm breasts against his chest, ejaculated under his gandoura. Feeling ashamed, he didn't know where to go or how to hide the patch of sperm that was quite visible. His father pretended not to have seen anything, passed his arm over his shoulder, and they walked away quietly."
Sighs.
Yeah, no further comment. There are so many other things like this that I physically can't.
My first red flag was the fact that the translator's note at the beginning has like 7 different slurs??? The translator is talking about slurs against Jewish and black people and she just... drops them all? I mean, I knew from that moment I was in for something alright.
I just don't know what to say. I don't mind the writing style, and I wish it had focused more on Nabou learning about Islam or on the cultural aspects instead of whatever Tahar Ben Jelloun was doing.
Men should not be allowed to write about women at all at this point.
Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced reader's copy.