Book Freak 162: Yesterday and Today

A Moroccan's street vendor's unvarnished tale of survival in 1960s tangier

I came across Yesterday and Today, by Larbi Layachi, 30 years ago on the secondhand bookshelf of The Psychic Eye bookstore in Sherman Oaks, California (the San Fernando Valley’s answer to the late beloved Bodhi Tree bookstore in West Hollywood). I was attracted to the unvarnished paper stock of the cover, a defining characteristic of Black Sparrow Press, most famous for being Charles Bukowski’s publisher. I cracked it open and was hooked by the first sentence:

The summer of 1962 I was without work, as usual.

(Can you think of a more perfect sentence to make you want to keep reading? The only one I can think of is from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, but you need the second sentence to fully grab you: “The bench on which Dobbs was sitting was not so good. One of the slats was broken; the one next to it was bent so that to have to sit on it was a sort of punishment.”)

Larbi Layachi (1937–1986) was an illiterate Moroccan servant and street vendor who gained international recognition through his collaboration with American writer Paul Bowles, author of The Sheltering Sky. Layachi's novel Yesterday and Today describes daily life in Tangier during the 1960s and the main character's (a stand-in for Layachi) constant struggle finding work, making ends meet, and navigating the complex social structure of a multicultural city undergoing rapid change.

As a writer who is always trying to become better at writing, I find Layachi's direct and unembellished narrative style inspirational. He recounts his day's activities in a matter-of-fact manner, using simple language and short sentences:

"I decided to go to the beach for a swim. I stayed at the beach until twelve-thirty. Then I walked up to work. I said to myself, 'I've made good time. One thousand francs is very good pay.' The Baron was waiting for me when I arrived. He said, 'Larbi, I want you to go to the market and buy some vegetables and fruit.' He gave me a list of what he wanted me to buy and some money. I went to the market and bought everything on the list. When I got back to the apartment, the Baron was sitting in the living room reading a book. He said, 'Put the vegetables in the refrigerator and the fruit in the bowl on the dining room table.' I did as he asked."

Even though he uses simple dialogue and short, descriptive sentences, he brings the scene to life, giving readers a vivid sense of his interactions and surroundings in Tangier:

"The following day I went to see Lalla Ann at nine in the morning. She said, 'Larbi, why did you come so early?'

I told her I was very excited about getting the job.

She said, 'Sit down, won't you? Have some breakfast.'

'No, thank you. I've had my breakfast.'

'You must have something to drink —coffee or tea.'

'I would like tea.' She told the maid to make tea. I sat there drinking my tea. Lalla Ann was ready and she called a taxi. We left the apartment and took an elevator downstairs. We took a taxi down to the Avenida de España."

Layachi’s earlier novel, A Life Full of Holes, was written under the pen name Driss ben Hamed Charhadi. Like Yesterday and Today, he wrote it by speaking Arabic into a tape recorder, which was translated by Bowles.

From a 1964 review of A Life Full of Holes in The New York Times:

Here is Morocco as seen from the bottom up by an observer too inexperienced to tell anything but the truth. It is a land where anything is tolerated, where anything is acceptable so long as a man can stay alive. Life may be cheap—but it is incredibly precious.

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