Impostures

What a wild ride! Impostures by al-Hariri tells the adventures of Abū Zayd al-Sarūjī as he travels through the medieval Middle East. In a series of echoing stories, readers learn that he is a linguistically brilliant trickster. This fact makes translation a difficult thing: how does one transform extensive wordplay in one language to another? Translator Michael Cooperson performs literary pyrotechnics as he turns ancient Arabic wordplay into English stories that convey the same kind of literary gymnastics. Cooperson chooses to use dozens of different literary styles—from Geoffrey Chaucer to Mark Twain, from Shakespeare to Virginia Woolf, as well as a whole array of global accents. The book is absolutely fascinating—but the reader must be aware that at heart it is an intellectual puzzle rather than a collection of simple folk tales.

My review of "Impostures" by al-Ḥarīrī is based solely on this translation, and I feel like such an experimental and original undertaking in translating a book written nine centuries ago according to a vastly different literary tradition deserves its own review in addition to the book.

Impostures is a collection of 50 encounters
with Abū Zayd, a con-man with so many tricks up his sleeve, but in the end, his genius and cunning boil down to his mastery of language. In addition the frame narrative makes the reader experience the sense of incredulity anyone would be expected to feel after hearing Abū Zayd's adventures.

At first I was a bit hesitant about the translation because of the idea of English voices being used for an Arabic work of literature did not sit well with me, but as I read I saw it was not in an effort to make it just easier or culturally closer. Deciding on what author's voice or specific variety of English is going to be adapted requires an excellent mastery of such a complex, ever transformative source material!

From the reader's perspective, it is not any easier to read just because English narrative examples are followed, in fact, it's quite the opposite especially for the chapters (?)/impostures that use regional dialects or sociolects of English. But I think it's quite enjoyable if you are not in a rush to finish it quickly.

Excellent book. I love a good con. And this book delivers. I read it was translated from Arabic to English, which must have been very difficult but great job.

This book follows a middle Eastern man around the Mideast. Very clever, he is a con man and takes on different roles to con people. An excellent and clever wordsmith, and the descriptions of the places and different adventures he goes on is unbelievably great! I gave it 4 stars for its unique and just a downright great read! 4 stars! Again!

Special thanks to NYU press and NetGalley for my ARC copy.

Impostures is based on the Maqamat written by the Basran poet al-Hariri in the 11th Century. The book is a series of 50 anecdotes about a wandering conman called Abu Zayd, who ekes out a living through cunning and his mastery of language.

The stories are a bit formulaic and repetitive, but that is not the point. What this is about is the word games that Abu Zayd plays, and the cleverness of the prose. For example, in the original Arabic, there is a palindrome that occupies an entire paragraph, a letter that can be read forwards or backwards, and verse where the words alternate between having dots in them and not having dots.

This wordplay presents great challenges to a translator, and Cooperson really delivers a masterclass in translation and adaptation. Each story is rendered in a different English narrative style, depending on the subject matter. We get Chaucer, Dickens, Wodehouse, Twain, Defoe, Doyle, Fielding, Boswell and copious other writers used as models for translation, and also translations using Singlish, Spanglish and Strine, as well as slang used by '20s era diners and Western cowboys. Cooperson also solves the challenges of things like the dots and no-dots by posing similar challenges in English.

This is a book to dip into rather than read right through, as there is no real plot thread running through the 50 impostures. Fans of riddles, wordplay and slang should find plenty to enjoy here.