SOURCE: Review of This Blinding Absence of Light, by Tahar Ben Jelloun. Publishers Weekly 249, no. 9 (4 March 2002): 65-6.

In the following review, the critic argues that Jelloun offers an overly simplistic rendition of Islamic history in This Blinding Absence of Light.

Based on an incident involving starvation and torture in Morocco, Prix Goncourt-winner Jelloun's latest novel [This Blinding Absence of Light] is a disturbing, grisly account of how a prisoner survived a 20-year internment in which he was locked away in a desert tomb. The narrator, Salim, was captured during an unsuccessful 1971 attempt to overthrow Prince Hassan II, who then secretly sent his enemies off to an isolated, makeshift prison. The conditions approached the horror of a concentration camp; the prisoners were confined in dark, cramped chambers, fed a subsistence-level diet and given no medical attention. They were allowed to communicate, however, which helped them cope with such ghastly...