SOURCE: Sellin, Eric. Review of Les Yeux baissés, by Tahar Ben Jelloun. World Literature Today 66, no. 4 (autumn 1992): 759-60.

In the following review, Sellin offers a positive assessment of Les Yeux baissés, arguing that the novel succeeds on both a narrative and allegorical level.

Sometimes authors fade after winning a big prize. Such is not the case with Tahar Ben Jelloun. A series of brilliant novels, including two of his finest, La Prière de l'absent (1982) and L'Écrivain public (1983), culminated in a very successful diptych—L'Enfant de sable (1985) and La Nuit sacrée (Prix Goncourt 1987)—that brought Ben Jelloun international fame. He did not rest on his laurels, publishing in short order a brief, haunting tale of an old man's recollections of his youth, Jour de silence à Tanger (1990), and the excellent novel under review, Les Yeux baissés.

We find in this novel many of the...