Customer Rating: Summary: A rich collection of facts on Tangier Comment: If you wish to learn, or discover new information about Tangier there is no better book.
I read it twice and enjoyed it fully. The select bibliography is particularly useful if you wish to pursue further your quest for knowledge of things Moroccan and others.
Mr Finlayson masterly use of many books he has quoted makes this a wholesome story intelligently written and full of very accurate facts.
For me the discovery of somebody called Edward Westermarck, a Finn who was also professor at the LSE, is sufficient to justify buying and reading this book. E. Westermarck embarked on a brave journey to Morocco back in 1898 and made several trips spending some 7 years in Morocco. He was an eminent anthropologist and has written many books on Morocco and the Moors- using this term generally. I have managed to get hold of one of his books - a two-tome giant entitled Ritual and Belief in Morocco. Notwithstanding that it is a heavy reading packed with facts it is difficult to put down once you start reading it. It gives an extraordinary, unique and invaluable insight into this part of the World.
If there is anything that could be said to detract from this excellent work than it is that Mr Finlayson quotes verbatim from many books he refers to. Reading those books later detracts from their value giving you a feeling of read this before. However, on the other hand it saves you reading some of them for most of the information and juiciest bits are quoted in this work.
This is a small minus and very subjective.
There is another finicky detail in the chapter on Paul and Jane Bowles when he comments about time standing still or moving at a slower pace. By the way this is the best book on Paul and Jane Bowles- it should have been a separate work. In this context he mentions Truman Capote and his description of a dreamy encampment of Moroccan peasants at Sidi Kacem, a beach (sic) just outside Tangier after nightfall during Ramadan.
I am not an expert on Morocco (and you should rightly say don't comment) but have made many journeys and have in possession many maps of Morocco. As far as I know Sidi Kacem is a town, a main railway junction where one changes trains, or not. It is not on the sea. I also checked all the information available and could not find a beach called Sidi Kacem. I may be wrong about this and I am sorry, however if I am correct it throws a slight shadow on the author's depth of knowledge about Morocco.
I mention this for the sake of accuracy and if anything it tells more about Truman Capote- but that is probably typical of him as he would in his 'regal' way dismiss small details like that- this sounds a bit presumptuous.
highly recommended
If you wish to know about Tangier there is no better book. I read it twice and enjoyed it fully. The select bibliography is particularly useful if you wish to pursue further your quest for knowledge of things Moroccan and others.
Mr Finlayson masterly use of many books he has quoted makes a wholesome story intelligently written and full of very accurate facts.
For me the discovery of somebody called Edward Westermarck, a Finn who was also professor at the LSE is sufficient to justify buying and reading this book. E. Westermarck embarked on a brave journey to Morocco back in 1898 and made several trips spending some 7 years in Morocco. He was an eminent anthropologist and has written many books on Morocco and the Moors- using this term generally. I have managed to get hold of one of his books - a two-tome giant entitled Ritual and Belief in Morocco. Notwithstanding that it is a heavy reading full of facts it is difficult to put down once you start reading it. It gives an extraordinary insight into this part of the World.
If there is anything that could be said to detract from this excellent work than it is that Mr Finlayson quoted verbatim from many books he refers to. Reading those books later detracts from their value giving you a feeling of deja vue. However on the other hand it saves you reading some of them for most of the juiciest bits are quoted in this work.
This is a small minus.
There is another finicky detail in the chapter on Paul and Jane Bowles when he comments about time standing still or moving at a slower pace. In this context he mentions Truman Capote and his description of dreamy encampment of Moroccan peasants at Sidi Kacem, a beach (sic) just outside Tangier after nightfall during Ramadan.
I am not an expert on Morocco but have made many journeys and have in possession many maps of Morocco. As far as I know Sidi Kacem is a town, a main railway junction where one changes trains, or not. It is not on the sea. I also checked all the information available and could not find a beach called Sidi Kacem. I may be wrong about this and I am sorry, however if I am correct it throws a slight shadow on the author's depth of knowledge about Morocco. I mention this for the sake of accuracy and if anything it tells more about Truman Capote- but that is probably typical of him as he would in his regal way dismiss small details like that- this sound a bit presumptuous.
