Abdelkader BenaliReviews

Michaël Zeeman (1958 – 2009) wrote columns and essays for the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, as a journalist and for two years as the editor of the arts section. He wrote on on poetry, prose fiction and non-fiction, music, the theater, and visual arts. For a while was the paper's cultural correspondent in Rome. It was during this time the letters collected in Wie kan het paradijs weerstaan. Romeinse brieven were written.

Abdelkader Benali (1975) is a Moroccan-Dutch writer of novels and short stories, who also writes for de Volkskrant.

Wie kan het paradijs weerstaan. Romeinse brieven is a lively correspondance between these two writers. The letters are foremostly about literature and the arts in the Netherlands and Europe. Various authors and their books are discussed, for instance Annie Ernaux, who would go on to win the Nobel Prize nearly two decades later. However, the two writers also write about their personal lives.½

light footed account of Dutchman who became a pirate in North African service by writer who originates from coastal village and pirate harbour. Broad historical lines, light reading.

Flauwe humor. Soms verwarrend. Erg melig.

A wedding is going to take place in a small Moroccan village, but the bridegroom has disappeared. His born in Holland nephew is looking for him, and in the course of the taxi trip we learn about what’s life is like there for families whose some members have emigrated to Holland.
I don’t think it was worth reading. I learned a little bit about Morocco and the economic emigration there, and there were bits and pieces that were humorous, but I hated the style that was sprawling into a million digressions.

Alexa Stoicescu, 15 april 2022

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