Review of Muffled Rhythms by Khalid Chaouch

Muffled Rhythms by Khalid Chaouch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Disclosure:
As a graduate in the English Department, I try to look for some different publications in English written by Moroccan, so I come across this book of Poetry, It's me who add it to the Goodreads database in addition to the author profile.

Overview:
First of all the book is a collection of Poems written by a Moroccan English Teacher, Most of the Poems' subjects inside the book spoke about the life and the Childhood of the Author, his Psychological imagination about certain situation in life.
Concerning the main contents, the Book starts with a preface that shows the main objectives of the Moroccan culture translated in English, after that the numbering system of the book contents goes in the reverse, it begins with Ten: A Cry in the Wadi, and so it goes till it last to One: The last poem. So the general synopsis that the reader may outcome, is that the Poem writer tries to avoid all the Political aspects of his society, and gave much focus to the childhood and the main cultural components that he encounter during his life. Sometimes the reader may come across some surpasses concerning the form of the poem especially in the poem of Roots and the Wheel of Misfortune.

Positive and Negative Aspects:
The general idea that the reader may encounter is that, Khalid Chaouch tries to implement some of the new forms of Poetry to his publication. And that is quite obvious from the pragmatic form of all his poems; there is much focus on blanks, playing with letters and forms of the Poems, there is a new touch concerning the subject that each poem takes, in addition to the simplicity of expression. Anyway this touch modernization tend to be so dominant in the whole Poetic work. in addition to the over focus of Arabic elements in most of his poems. Concerning the stylistics, most of the poems represent a new form of this techniques, meaning that even with modernization, stylistics may come across all the forms of our speech.

My Personal Reaction:
Personally, the writer of this work used to be my teacher in several subject, during my study in the faculty, so as word, I admit that I enjoy this publication of Poems, mostly due to its witty style, and the simplicity of the Moroccan soul, away from the life complication, as a reader I got the feeling that these poems came from the soul of simplicity and childhood, so the least thing we can do is to enjoy it and forget about our backgrounds.

Recommendations:
I am not quite sure for whom I may recommend this Poems, but since the writer has won a prize from the British council in Morocco, I came to believe that most British people became familiar with the style of that writer. Thus I recommend this poems to all the funs of the Moroccan life, and those who have the intention to explore the main components of the Moroccan cultural life.

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