SOURCE: Salti, Ramzi M. Review of Poésie complète: 1966-1995, by Tahar Ben Jelloun. World Literature Today 70, no. 2 (spring 1996): 456.

In the following review, Salti argues that the publication of Poésie complète: 1966-1995 is “long-overdue” and speculates that, for Ben Jelloun, “poetry has always represented a medium of expression that no other literary genre can provide.”

When Tahar Ben Jelloun became the first North African writer to win the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 1987 for his novel La Nuit sacrée, he was instantly hailed by the francophone world for overcoming boundaries that had thus far barred certain non-French writers from one of France's most prestigious literary prizes. Although that unprecedented literary honor did much to secure a place for Ben Jelloun among France's leading novelists, it seemed somehow to overshadow the vast body of poetic works that the Moroccan-born and -raised writer has regularly produced since...