Waiting for Gary Cooper: Historical novel

ASIN B089YYSVHK moved to this edition.
Among many other things, “Waiting for Gary Cooper” is a classic Bildungsroman. The narrator, Jonathan Marciano, arrived in Haifa from the small town of Sefrou, in the highlands of Morocco, at age 10.

When he finds out that the Sabra girl he is in love with listens to Carmen, he makes his father pawn his most cherished possession to buy a record player so that he can immerse himself in her music, but doesn’t hesitate at the same time to resort to the incantations and amulets of his exorcist uncle to win her love.

Jonathan and his uncle are trying to find their way in the reality of the nascent modern state of Israel, where the magic of the old country seems to have stopped working, helping each other as best they can interpret the new world. Can an immigrant from the Atlas mountains win the heart of a dyed in the wool sabra? And can an exorcist survive in a land without dybbuks?

The story moves forward with relentless drive as it grapples with these questions. There is not a moment’s respite, not a page without the story line taking an unexpected turn or some exotic character being added to the cast. Humor, poetry, introspection, and a touch of magic realism are all mixed in a perfect brew that keeps the reader’s attention riveted.

In this endlessly fascinating book, the Arab Maghreb, the timeless Jewish tradition, and the emerging State of Israel meet and crisscross each other in a hundred ways, illuminating and commenting on each other. It is not a story that can be found in books about Morocco or about the early years of the State.
Although culture, politics, and social realities are chronicled on every page, the book is entirely unpolluted by any social or political agenda, and it is utterly non-judgmental. The emphasis is on the moment-to-moment experience, characterization, and the narrator’s attempt to capture the subjective reality of one adolescent at a critical point in his life .

In the process, Bensimhon paints a clearer picture of the land and its people than any work I know by the celebrated Israeli authors.

I believe that readers everywhere will find the same fascination in Bensimhon’s Sefrou and Haifa as they find in Pamuk’s Istanbul, in Rushdie’s Mumbai, or in Vargas Llosa’s Lima.

Gabriel Lanyi