1avaland
If you have not read the information on the master thread regarding the intent of these regional threads, please do this first.
***4. Northern Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco, Tunisia, Western Sahara
***4. Northern Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco, Tunisia, Western Sahara
2avaland
ALGERIA
The Last Summer of Reason by Tahar Djaout
Translated from the French by Marjolijin de Jager
The Algerian author Tahar Djaout was "an outspoken critic of the extremism stirring his nation” and was assassinated in his country by Islamic fundamentalist group in 1993. This short novel was found among his papers.
The Last Summer of Reason tells the story of Boualem Yekker, a bookstore owner who holds out against the tide of religious extremism overrunning his community. What is valued in his community has now changed, and people no longer come to shop for literature. Boualem’s family has even left him. Still, Boualem carries on despite threats, taunts and vandalism but retreats further into his more pleasant memories to survive.
This is a deeply mournful book, the feeling of loss is palpable. We struggle with Boualem, and perhaps that is what is so affecting about this novel—because his fate becomes ours.
eta to add country
4StevenTX
The Storyteller of Marrakesh
by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya
This was a recent Early Reviewer selection. Here is my review:
An event in a woman's life might be ordinary or even sordid, but if the woman is extraordinarily beautiful and graceful, it may become a legend. Likewise the most unremarkable of stories, properly embellished by the vision and imagination of a master storyteller, can entrance and enchant its audience. That is both the premise and the theme of The Storyteller of Marrakesh.
Hassan the storyteller narrates an account of his own telling of such a story in the Jemaa el Fna, the market square, in the historic Moroccan city of Marrakesh. The story concerns the unexplained disappearance of two persons from that very square a few years earlier. One was a man from India. His companion was French-American woman of arresting beauty. Hassan was present the evening of the disappearance, as were several of his listeners. Some of them interject their own version of events. Gradually we learn that Hassan's younger brother Mustafa plays a major but mysterious role in the events of that night.
Hassan relates his story in prose that is beautiful without being complex. He paints an enticing word picture of Marrakesh and its Jemaa, and by means of the histories of several characters gives us various perspectives on the traditional cultures of Morocco. The story itself, however, is rather light on both substance and suspense. I recommend the novel chiefly for those who want to immerse themselves in the culture of Morocco.
5arubabookwoman
MORROCO
This Blinding Absence of Light by Taher Ben Jelloun
This is one of my most memorable reads of the last several years.
The novel is based on real events, and is drawn from the testimony of a former inmate of Tazmamart prison in Morocco, where a group of young cadets is imprisoned after a failed coup attempt in which they unwittingly participated. Their cells are so small they cannot stand upright or stretch out full-length, and they are kept in constant darkness. They subsist on water and 'starch,' which they are given once a day. One by one, they begin to die, each in a unique and horrific manner (poisoned by thousands of roach eggs, stung by hundreds of scorpions, let your imagination do the rest).
Each cadet has a function in the loose society that is formed in the prison, and the narrator's function is that of storyteller: he relates the stories of books he has read and movies he has seen to keep the minds of the other prisoners occupied: 'My friends, I would like your attention and absolute quiet, because I am going to take you to America in the 1950's.' Thus begins a surreal narration of A Streetcar Named Desire. The other prisoners can hardly believe the scene of Marlon Brandon on his knees bellowing, 'Stella! Stella!'
He can contemplate a single word, 'coffee,' for an entire day, ending in a 'palace where a king or prince will not get out of bed until he has had two cups of a good brisk arabica imported from Costa Rica, roasted by Italians, and prepared by a Neapolitan chef.'
Despite the grim inhumanity of the subject matter, the small details of the prisoners' endurance prevent the novel from being totally bleak. I highly recommend this book
This Blinding Absence of Light by Taher Ben Jelloun
This is one of my most memorable reads of the last several years.
The novel is based on real events, and is drawn from the testimony of a former inmate of Tazmamart prison in Morocco, where a group of young cadets is imprisoned after a failed coup attempt in which they unwittingly participated. Their cells are so small they cannot stand upright or stretch out full-length, and they are kept in constant darkness. They subsist on water and 'starch,' which they are given once a day. One by one, they begin to die, each in a unique and horrific manner (poisoned by thousands of roach eggs, stung by hundreds of scorpions, let your imagination do the rest).
Each cadet has a function in the loose society that is formed in the prison, and the narrator's function is that of storyteller: he relates the stories of books he has read and movies he has seen to keep the minds of the other prisoners occupied: 'My friends, I would like your attention and absolute quiet, because I am going to take you to America in the 1950's.' Thus begins a surreal narration of A Streetcar Named Desire. The other prisoners can hardly believe the scene of Marlon Brandon on his knees bellowing, 'Stella! Stella!'
He can contemplate a single word, 'coffee,' for an entire day, ending in a 'palace where a king or prince will not get out of bed until he has had two cups of a good brisk arabica imported from Costa Rica, roasted by Italians, and prepared by a Neapolitan chef.'
Despite the grim inhumanity of the subject matter, the small details of the prisoners' endurance prevent the novel from being totally bleak. I highly recommend this book
6whymaggiemay
Though it is a biography, I definitely recommend Cleopatra, a Life, which gives the reader so much information on what Cleopatra's world was like. Truly fascinating.
7avaland
From Sleep Unbound by Andrée Chedid (1952, T 1983, Egyptian-Lebanese-French).
Set in what I presume to be Egypt, this is a mesmerizing story of a woman driven to a desperate act. The book opens with a tale of our protagonist, who is a paraplegic, shooting her husband. But then the book tells the back story of how she came to this point, beginning when she is about 15 and in Catholic boarding school. Less a tale of overt abuse, than a tale of real oppression, on the cultural and personal level, this book reminded me somewhat of Nawal el Saadawi's Woman at Point Zero written about 25 years later. The books are similar in format (how they've chosen to tell the story) and they are both about women who have been driven to kill. And in both, the reader's sympathies are with the women.
8kidzdoc
LIBYA
In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
Shortlist, Man Booker Prize (2006)
This debut novel begins in the Libyan capital of Tripoli in 1979, during the early years of Muammar el-Qaddafi's reign of terror, and is narrated by Suleiman, a 9 year old boy whose father is forced into hiding from Qaddafi's henchmen due to his pro-democratic beliefs after his best friend is beaten, arrested and charged with being an enemy of the state. As an only child whose mother provides little comfort due to her own illness, Suleiman struggles to understand and cope with the disappearance of his father and his good friend's father, as the adults around him attempt to shield him from the brutal reality that takes place in the streets and is displayed on television. The stress takes its toll on Suleiman, whose behaviors become more erratic and inscrutable to his mother and uncle, particularly when he spends more time with a strange man who keeps track of the neighborhood's activities.
I enjoyed this insightful glimpse into the mind and psyche of a young child who is forced to grow up far too quickly, without reliable or completely trustworthy parents and other role models to guide him.
In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
Shortlist, Man Booker Prize (2006)
This debut novel begins in the Libyan capital of Tripoli in 1979, during the early years of Muammar el-Qaddafi's reign of terror, and is narrated by Suleiman, a 9 year old boy whose father is forced into hiding from Qaddafi's henchmen due to his pro-democratic beliefs after his best friend is beaten, arrested and charged with being an enemy of the state. As an only child whose mother provides little comfort due to her own illness, Suleiman struggles to understand and cope with the disappearance of his father and his good friend's father, as the adults around him attempt to shield him from the brutal reality that takes place in the streets and is displayed on television. The stress takes its toll on Suleiman, whose behaviors become more erratic and inscrutable to his mother and uncle, particularly when he spends more time with a strange man who keeps track of the neighborhood's activities.
I enjoyed this insightful glimpse into the mind and psyche of a young child who is forced to grow up far too quickly, without reliable or completely trustworthy parents and other role models to guide him.
9avaland
A Palace in the Old Village by Tahar Ben Jelloun (2009, T. 2011, Moroccan)
Mohammed left Morocco as a young man to work in an automobile plant in France. He later brought his family to France. It has now been forty years and Mohammed is now facing retirement, which he considers unimaginable. The important things in this illiterate man’s life is his faith, his family, and his work routine. As the latter comes to an end, he becomes reflective and turns towards the other two things to fill the gap. The thing is, while Mohammed has been 40 years in France, he never really has ‘left the old country’, while his children have grown-up and assimilated into the culture around them—some even obtaining permanent citizenship.
To some extent, this is a story of parents and children. Those of us with grown children know that children are not ours forever (sometimes we learn this painfully and repeatedly). Mohammed understands this, but like any good parent he worries and frets about his children (this one has married a Christian, that one never calls...etc); it’s just that there’s not just the parent-child gap here, there’s a cultural generational gap too. One cannot help sympathize with Mohammed, who is kind, honorable, old-fashioned and doomed to be disappointed.
The story is also about what his faith means to him. His culture and faith are intricately tied together and we learn about both together. As we learn about how Mohammed thinks, we understand how big the gap between him and his children really is.
Now retired, Mohammed fantasizes about returning to his old village and building a large house there, big enough for him and his wife, all of this children and their families, for a special prayer room...everything important to him. And he sets about doing this, and as he does, the story begins to drift into something less realistic and more folk tale-like.
I’m not a big fan of older-men-reflecting-over-their-lives storylines, but this was a book by Ben Jelloun, whose other works I have enjoyed. This short book is absolutely fascinating for its window into another culture very different than our own. And I think the unusual change in the nature of the narrative at the end of the story fit very nicely with Mohammed search for ‘home’.
Mohammed left Morocco as a young man to work in an automobile plant in France. He later brought his family to France. It has now been forty years and Mohammed is now facing retirement, which he considers unimaginable. The important things in this illiterate man’s life is his faith, his family, and his work routine. As the latter comes to an end, he becomes reflective and turns towards the other two things to fill the gap. The thing is, while Mohammed has been 40 years in France, he never really has ‘left the old country’, while his children have grown-up and assimilated into the culture around them—some even obtaining permanent citizenship.
To some extent, this is a story of parents and children. Those of us with grown children know that children are not ours forever (sometimes we learn this painfully and repeatedly). Mohammed understands this, but like any good parent he worries and frets about his children (this one has married a Christian, that one never calls...etc); it’s just that there’s not just the parent-child gap here, there’s a cultural generational gap too. One cannot help sympathize with Mohammed, who is kind, honorable, old-fashioned and doomed to be disappointed.
The story is also about what his faith means to him. His culture and faith are intricately tied together and we learn about both together. As we learn about how Mohammed thinks, we understand how big the gap between him and his children really is.
Now retired, Mohammed fantasizes about returning to his old village and building a large house there, big enough for him and his wife, all of this children and their families, for a special prayer room...everything important to him. And he sets about doing this, and as he does, the story begins to drift into something less realistic and more folk tale-like.
I’m not a big fan of older-men-reflecting-over-their-lives storylines, but this was a book by Ben Jelloun, whose other works I have enjoyed. This short book is absolutely fascinating for its window into another culture very different than our own. And I think the unusual change in the nature of the narrative at the end of the story fit very nicely with Mohammed search for ‘home’.
10kidzdoc
Book #34: Morning and Evening Talk by Naguib Mahfouz
This is an experimental novel written toward the end of the Nobel Laureate's career, which consists of brief stories about 67 people in three Cairo families spanning five generations over two centuries, from the years preceding Napoleon's invasion of Egypt to the aftermath of Anwar Sadat's assassination and the ascension of Hosni Mubarak to power. The short biographies are arranged in Arabic alphabetical order; as a result, the stories do not have a linear or historical flow. Apparently Mahfouz expects the reader to link these disjointed stories together, in order to weave a tapestry that would represent the complexity of Cairinese society over two centuries. I viewed this as a homework assignment from hell, and sped my way through the stories, which seemed to consist mainly of people in miserable marriages, tormented by their relatives and children and frustrated by societal limitations. Mahfouz is one of my favorite writers, but I would avoid this book like a plague of locusts.
This is an experimental novel written toward the end of the Nobel Laureate's career, which consists of brief stories about 67 people in three Cairo families spanning five generations over two centuries, from the years preceding Napoleon's invasion of Egypt to the aftermath of Anwar Sadat's assassination and the ascension of Hosni Mubarak to power. The short biographies are arranged in Arabic alphabetical order; as a result, the stories do not have a linear or historical flow. Apparently Mahfouz expects the reader to link these disjointed stories together, in order to weave a tapestry that would represent the complexity of Cairinese society over two centuries. I viewed this as a homework assignment from hell, and sped my way through the stories, which seemed to consist mainly of people in miserable marriages, tormented by their relatives and children and frustrated by societal limitations. Mahfouz is one of my favorite writers, but I would avoid this book like a plague of locusts.
11avaland
>10 kidzdoc: I think the last two Mahfouz I read were kind of meh. They were The Beggar and The Day the Leader Was Killed, both very short novels.
12avaland
Morocco
The Last Patriarch by Najat El Hachmi
The Last Patriarch is the story of two people: Mimoun, son of a long line of Driouch patriarchs (and the "last patriarch" of the book's title) and his daughter, who ended his reign of authority.
Narrated by the grown daughter, the story begins in Morocco with the birth of Mimoun. As he grows up, it is clear that he is different, that something is wrong with him. Whether it has an organic cause or the result of abuses by some of the men in his family, Mimoun has great rages, intense jealousies, and uncontrolled passions. While the root of his instability is not clear, it is clear through the narration that Mimoun's behavior is enabled by the women of his family who coddle him, and a culture in which patriarchal authority is supreme.
Mimoun will eventually marry, and then leave his family to go to Spain to work, coming home perhaps once a year. He lives roughly, becomes reasonably successful at business, and certainly lives more comfortably in a modern state with his mistress than his family, who he has left behind at his father's house, all of whom struggle to survive. Until, that is, his family decides the situation is not tolerable and go to Spain to join him.
There isn't anything to like in Mimoun; he's a tyrant, an abuser and often mentally unstable - but he does have a sense of responsibility that makes him settle his family and rejoin them (and keeps the mistress, one of a long line of mistresses). His reign over the family is terrifying at times, but life goes on for them. Once the family comes to Spain, the story becomes the daughter's. Nameless throughout the book, she is bright girl with much promise, who is subject to her father's authority and abuses. He claims to adore his first born daughter, so perhaps she witnesses a bit more than she experiences directly, but his stranglehold on her person in complete. She seeks refuge and comfort in the Catalan dictionary, and later when she is older, in literature. These things help her to assimilate into the Catalan/Spanish culture around her, and will be a foundation in her eventual escape from her father through one final, desperate act.
This book is difficult to read, it is full of relentless abuse of various kinds: violence, attempted suicide, attempted murder...etc.. and yet, and yet... the storytelling is exquisite, and it is the narrative voice of the daughter, who clearly is telling this story from some safe, good place in the future (and thus provides a sense of hope), and who can find humor in the most horrible of circumstances, which mesmerizes the reader, and carries one through the book to the end. It is a wonderfully detailed and vivid picture of family life, both back in rural Morocco, and then later caught between two cultures in Spain. I found that once I had closed the pages, the horror faded and it was the triumph of the daughter, the essence of that desperate act, that really stuck with me.
The Last Patriarch by Najat El Hachmi
The Last Patriarch is the story of two people: Mimoun, son of a long line of Driouch patriarchs (and the "last patriarch" of the book's title) and his daughter, who ended his reign of authority.
Narrated by the grown daughter, the story begins in Morocco with the birth of Mimoun. As he grows up, it is clear that he is different, that something is wrong with him. Whether it has an organic cause or the result of abuses by some of the men in his family, Mimoun has great rages, intense jealousies, and uncontrolled passions. While the root of his instability is not clear, it is clear through the narration that Mimoun's behavior is enabled by the women of his family who coddle him, and a culture in which patriarchal authority is supreme.
Mimoun will eventually marry, and then leave his family to go to Spain to work, coming home perhaps once a year. He lives roughly, becomes reasonably successful at business, and certainly lives more comfortably in a modern state with his mistress than his family, who he has left behind at his father's house, all of whom struggle to survive. Until, that is, his family decides the situation is not tolerable and go to Spain to join him.
There isn't anything to like in Mimoun; he's a tyrant, an abuser and often mentally unstable - but he does have a sense of responsibility that makes him settle his family and rejoin them (and keeps the mistress, one of a long line of mistresses). His reign over the family is terrifying at times, but life goes on for them. Once the family comes to Spain, the story becomes the daughter's. Nameless throughout the book, she is bright girl with much promise, who is subject to her father's authority and abuses. He claims to adore his first born daughter, so perhaps she witnesses a bit more than she experiences directly, but his stranglehold on her person in complete. She seeks refuge and comfort in the Catalan dictionary, and later when she is older, in literature. These things help her to assimilate into the Catalan/Spanish culture around her, and will be a foundation in her eventual escape from her father through one final, desperate act.
This book is difficult to read, it is full of relentless abuse of various kinds: violence, attempted suicide, attempted murder...etc.. and yet, and yet... the storytelling is exquisite, and it is the narrative voice of the daughter, who clearly is telling this story from some safe, good place in the future (and thus provides a sense of hope), and who can find humor in the most horrible of circumstances, which mesmerizes the reader, and carries one through the book to the end. It is a wonderfully detailed and vivid picture of family life, both back in rural Morocco, and then later caught between two cultures in Spain. I found that once I had closed the pages, the horror faded and it was the triumph of the daughter, the essence of that desperate act, that really stuck with me.
13Trifolia
Egypt: The Sisters of Sinai by Janet Soskice
I loved this book on more than one level. First of all, this story exceeds fiction: two feisty twin-sisters, Scottish presbyterians born in 1843 with a very sound, no nonsense view on life and a craving to learn, find the oldest Syriac Bible-manuscript (and many other important manuscripts) when in their fifties. This is not a coincidence but rather the result of unremitting studying and profound curiosity.
After the death of their beloved father who'd encouraged them to study, they decide to make a trip to Egypt to visit the Biblical places. They are in their early twenties then. Do they travel the safe way accompanied by a male chaperone as would be expected in these days? No, they find another woman, a former teacher to accompany them. Do they take the safe and short route? No, they take the tricky and adventurous one. As was usual in these days, on arrival in Egypt they have to choose a local guide to guide them on a boat but when he proves to be unreliable and negligent, do they complain or wine? No, they first go off the ship and buy a couple of cats to chase the rats off the ship and then decide to learn Arabic and Greek which will enable them to talk with the local people and avoid disasters like that on their next trip.
They both got married rather late in life, but both lost their husband after few years of very happy married life. And after the loss of their husband, they were even more adamant to achieve the goals God had set them in life as they firmly believed. And so they went to the Sinai-desert...
I just loved the sisters who despite all that went wrong, never gave up but found a way to get around the problem, no matter what other people thought or did. They were wealthy enough to spend the their entire life in luxury and wealth. They could have travelled to places like the riviera or the Swiss mountains which was fashionable for the rich at the time. Instead, they decided to go backpacking, ride camels in the Sinai, devote the larger part of their lives to filology and scriptures and have fun!
I also loved the way in which Janet Soskice tells this story. I was immediately sucked in because she's not only bringing the sisters to life (and what a life that is) but she's sketching their whole world, the academic scene which they aren't part of because women cannot study at university but which cannot ignore them as self-taught scolars, the religious sensibilities between presbyterians, protestants, catholics, orthodox, jews,..., the way people travel to and in the Orient in the 19th century, life at St-Catherine's convent in the Sinai, etc. The writing is fluent, colourful, often humorous, genuine. Although the author keeps her distance as a historian and she doesn't do any guessing, her research is so elaborate and thorough that she's able to come up with some unbelievable details, background and inside-information (all verified by primary sources) of a very colourful pair of unconventional, open-minded sisters.
So, in case you weren't sure of how I think: I absolutely loved this book and I recommend it to anyone who's slightly intrigued or curious now and also (especially) to anyone who's having a midlife crisis or whatever and thinks it's too late to change course in life (heck, I've even decided to refresh my knowledge of Latin because of these two). Brilliant book. My apologies for being so enthusiastic, but I just can't stop telling anyone what a magnificent book this is.
I loved this book on more than one level. First of all, this story exceeds fiction: two feisty twin-sisters, Scottish presbyterians born in 1843 with a very sound, no nonsense view on life and a craving to learn, find the oldest Syriac Bible-manuscript (and many other important manuscripts) when in their fifties. This is not a coincidence but rather the result of unremitting studying and profound curiosity.
After the death of their beloved father who'd encouraged them to study, they decide to make a trip to Egypt to visit the Biblical places. They are in their early twenties then. Do they travel the safe way accompanied by a male chaperone as would be expected in these days? No, they find another woman, a former teacher to accompany them. Do they take the safe and short route? No, they take the tricky and adventurous one. As was usual in these days, on arrival in Egypt they have to choose a local guide to guide them on a boat but when he proves to be unreliable and negligent, do they complain or wine? No, they first go off the ship and buy a couple of cats to chase the rats off the ship and then decide to learn Arabic and Greek which will enable them to talk with the local people and avoid disasters like that on their next trip.
They both got married rather late in life, but both lost their husband after few years of very happy married life. And after the loss of their husband, they were even more adamant to achieve the goals God had set them in life as they firmly believed. And so they went to the Sinai-desert...
I just loved the sisters who despite all that went wrong, never gave up but found a way to get around the problem, no matter what other people thought or did. They were wealthy enough to spend the their entire life in luxury and wealth. They could have travelled to places like the riviera or the Swiss mountains which was fashionable for the rich at the time. Instead, they decided to go backpacking, ride camels in the Sinai, devote the larger part of their lives to filology and scriptures and have fun!
I also loved the way in which Janet Soskice tells this story. I was immediately sucked in because she's not only bringing the sisters to life (and what a life that is) but she's sketching their whole world, the academic scene which they aren't part of because women cannot study at university but which cannot ignore them as self-taught scolars, the religious sensibilities between presbyterians, protestants, catholics, orthodox, jews,..., the way people travel to and in the Orient in the 19th century, life at St-Catherine's convent in the Sinai, etc. The writing is fluent, colourful, often humorous, genuine. Although the author keeps her distance as a historian and she doesn't do any guessing, her research is so elaborate and thorough that she's able to come up with some unbelievable details, background and inside-information (all verified by primary sources) of a very colourful pair of unconventional, open-minded sisters.
So, in case you weren't sure of how I think: I absolutely loved this book and I recommend it to anyone who's slightly intrigued or curious now and also (especially) to anyone who's having a midlife crisis or whatever and thinks it's too late to change course in life (heck, I've even decided to refresh my knowledge of Latin because of these two). Brilliant book. My apologies for being so enthusiastic, but I just can't stop telling anyone what a magnificent book this is.
14rebeccanyc
Sounds very interesting, especially since I recently read and loved Sacred Trash which partly involves British sisters who helped discover a treasure trove of ancient Jewish documents in a Cairo synagogue.
15Trifolia
# 14 - Well, I checked and they are the same British sisters! Now I have to find Sacred Trash and read that too. I can heartily recommend the book by Janet Soskice, but I guess you'd already come to that conclusion :-).
16rebeccanyc
Sacred Trash has been one of my favorite reads of the year, so now I'm definitely going to look for The Sisters of Sinai!
17labfs39
#15 How interesting! I read (and loved) The Sisters of Sinai based on your recommendation, Monica, and had wishlisted Sacred Trash based on Rebecca's review, but had no idea of the connection between the two. I definitely need to get Sacred Trash now. BTW, also based on SOS, I picked up Mary Kingsley's memoir, Travels in West Africa. I remember the sisters being rather contemptuous of it, but I want to compare Kingsley's perspective and attitudes with theirs.
18Yxvandoolu
Egypt
The Alexander Cipher by Will Adams
Series: Daniel Knox 1
An adventure set in Egypt. Archeologist Daniel Knox is on the trail of Alexander the Great's real burial place.
Positive: The author tries to educate his readers about archeology and Alexander, but not in an unnatural way.
Negative: Personal problem-theme - a young girl needs a DNA match. Might be hitting too close for some, who does not need to read about other's personal problems - having enough of their own.
The Alexander Cipher by Will Adams
Series: Daniel Knox 1
An adventure set in Egypt. Archeologist Daniel Knox is on the trail of Alexander the Great's real burial place.
Positive: The author tries to educate his readers about archeology and Alexander, but not in an unnatural way.
Negative: Personal problem-theme - a young girl needs a DNA match. Might be hitting too close for some, who does not need to read about other's personal problems - having enough of their own.
20MM79
#13 - Yay! I've been hoping to find another book about the Smith sisters. I've read, The Ladies of Castlebrae, and found the sisters to be wonderfully fascinating but the book itself wasn't all that well written and left a lot to be desired. Thank you so much for reviewing this, I definitely plan to order a copy.
22avaland
EGYPT
In Their Father's Country by Anne Marie Rosso
"Anne-Marie Drosso has chosen this unusual approach to tell us Claire Sahli's story—each chapter chronicles the death of someone who has mattered to Claire. Beginning with her father's death in 1924 and ending with her sister's death in 1998, and set against the undercurrent of a politically turbulent 20th century Egypt, the story follows Claire, and to a lesser extent her older sister Gabrielle, skipping through the years and decades, pausing to linger and focus intermittently. This revelation of a life is mesmerizing, and we are soon absorbed in Claire's story."
The rest of the review can be read here
In Their Father's Country by Anne Marie Rosso
"Anne-Marie Drosso has chosen this unusual approach to tell us Claire Sahli's story—each chapter chronicles the death of someone who has mattered to Claire. Beginning with her father's death in 1924 and ending with her sister's death in 1998, and set against the undercurrent of a politically turbulent 20th century Egypt, the story follows Claire, and to a lesser extent her older sister Gabrielle, skipping through the years and decades, pausing to linger and focus intermittently. This revelation of a life is mesmerizing, and we are soon absorbed in Claire's story."
The rest of the review can be read here
23rebeccanyc
Egypt Originally published 1955, translation 1981 and 2001
Proud Beggars by Albert Cossery
In the teeming slums of Cairo, three men enjoy a friendship -- and life. One is a former college professor who, for reasons unknown, has chosen a life of extreme poverty, leavened by hashish. One is his sort-of dealer, a poet who was born into "respectable" poverty and has sunk lower. And the third is a low-level civil servant who pays his colleagues to do his work and considers himself a revolutionary, although one who is always on the lookout for women. For a while the book explores their lives as, mostly cheerfully, they interact with other characters, including the denizens of a local brothel and people who are even poorer than they are, until (not much of a spoiler alert) one of them commits a mostly meaningless murder. Then the fascinating character of the police inspector enters the novel, and the three friends, in the most kindly way, toy with him.
Although the plot, such as it is, revolves around whether the inspector will solve the case, the novel is really about the meaning of life, the vast gap between the rich and the poor and between the powerful and the powerless, and above all, the importance of dignity. Cossery is a wonderful writer, and much of the book is very funny even as it portrays people whose poverty is horrifying and almost unimaginable. I will be looking for his other work.
Note: Cossery writes about Cairo and was born in Egypt of Lebanese and Syrian parents, but moved to Paris and wrote in French.
Proud Beggars by Albert Cossery
In the teeming slums of Cairo, three men enjoy a friendship -- and life. One is a former college professor who, for reasons unknown, has chosen a life of extreme poverty, leavened by hashish. One is his sort-of dealer, a poet who was born into "respectable" poverty and has sunk lower. And the third is a low-level civil servant who pays his colleagues to do his work and considers himself a revolutionary, although one who is always on the lookout for women. For a while the book explores their lives as, mostly cheerfully, they interact with other characters, including the denizens of a local brothel and people who are even poorer than they are, until (not much of a spoiler alert) one of them commits a mostly meaningless murder. Then the fascinating character of the police inspector enters the novel, and the three friends, in the most kindly way, toy with him.
Although the plot, such as it is, revolves around whether the inspector will solve the case, the novel is really about the meaning of life, the vast gap between the rich and the poor and between the powerful and the powerless, and above all, the importance of dignity. Cossery is a wonderful writer, and much of the book is very funny even as it portrays people whose poverty is horrifying and almost unimaginable. I will be looking for his other work.
Note: Cossery writes about Cairo and was born in Egypt of Lebanese and Syrian parents, but moved to Paris and wrote in French.
24StevenTX
EGYPT
Distant View of a Minaret and Other Stories by Alifa Rifaat
Short stories first published in Arabic
Translated into English by Denys Johnson-Davies and published as a collection 1983
Distant View of a Minaret is a collection of 15 stories, all of them set in Egypt, mostly in Cairo. The protagonists are, in almost every case, women. They are women of all ages, economic circumstances, and states of mind. Most of the stories deal with times of passage: puberty, female circumcision, marriage, childbirth, separation, the death of a spouse or parent, and the death of the woman herself. All of the stories occur within the context of Islam, its daily rituals and its traditions governing sexual and family matters. Yet within this framework there is remarkable frankness. In the title story, "Distant View of a Minaret," a young married woman rues her husband's insensitivity to her sexual needs. In "An Incident in the Ghobashi Household," a mother finds a novel way to conceal her unmarried daughter's pregnancy. And in "My World of the Unknown," a story of scorching sensuality, a woman discovers sexual rapture with the help of an enchanted snake.
Other stories focus on the poignant issues of aging, loneliness and death, offering a look at household and community life. In "At the Time of the Jasmine," one of the few stories focusing on a male character, a man's journey back home to bury his father brings him back in touch with the traditions and values of his youth. In "The Flat in Nakshabandi Street" an elderly woman's life has been reduced to the view of a single street from her third story window. Finally, "Just Another Day" brings the collection to a close by following the thoughts of a woman as she slips peacefully from this life to the next.
Alifa Rifaat (1930-1996) was in most respects a typical Arab woman: she was a devout Muslim, did not attend college, spoke only Arabic, and seldom traveled outside her native Egypt. It is all the more surprising, therefore, that her work is that of an accomplished writer and that she so adeptly and candidly conveys to us the sense of her world and its values. She depicts women struggling for independence and fulfillment in a patriarchal society, but they are struggling within the structures and precepts of their religion, not against them.
Distant View of a Minaret and Other Stories by Alifa Rifaat
Short stories first published in Arabic
Translated into English by Denys Johnson-Davies and published as a collection 1983
Distant View of a Minaret is a collection of 15 stories, all of them set in Egypt, mostly in Cairo. The protagonists are, in almost every case, women. They are women of all ages, economic circumstances, and states of mind. Most of the stories deal with times of passage: puberty, female circumcision, marriage, childbirth, separation, the death of a spouse or parent, and the death of the woman herself. All of the stories occur within the context of Islam, its daily rituals and its traditions governing sexual and family matters. Yet within this framework there is remarkable frankness. In the title story, "Distant View of a Minaret," a young married woman rues her husband's insensitivity to her sexual needs. In "An Incident in the Ghobashi Household," a mother finds a novel way to conceal her unmarried daughter's pregnancy. And in "My World of the Unknown," a story of scorching sensuality, a woman discovers sexual rapture with the help of an enchanted snake.
Other stories focus on the poignant issues of aging, loneliness and death, offering a look at household and community life. In "At the Time of the Jasmine," one of the few stories focusing on a male character, a man's journey back home to bury his father brings him back in touch with the traditions and values of his youth. In "The Flat in Nakshabandi Street" an elderly woman's life has been reduced to the view of a single street from her third story window. Finally, "Just Another Day" brings the collection to a close by following the thoughts of a woman as she slips peacefully from this life to the next.
Alifa Rifaat (1930-1996) was in most respects a typical Arab woman: she was a devout Muslim, did not attend college, spoke only Arabic, and seldom traveled outside her native Egypt. It is all the more surprising, therefore, that her work is that of an accomplished writer and that she so adeptly and candidly conveys to us the sense of her world and its values. She depicts women struggling for independence and fulfillment in a patriarchal society, but they are struggling within the structures and precepts of their religion, not against them.
25rebeccanyc
Egypt
The Colors of Infamy by Albert Cossery (originally published 2000, translation 2011)
I became an Albert Cossery fan after reading Proud Beggars. While this novella, his last book, written in his late 80s, treads some of the same ground as that earlier novel, it was still a delight to read because of Cossery's wonderfully vivid satiric writing and his engaging portraits of people who live far outside the bourgeois life style. In The Colors of Infamy, Ossama, a professional thief plying the upper class regions of Cairo unexpectedly finds a letter detailing the corruption of a government official in a wallet he lifts. He then consults with his "professor," a master thief who is disguising himself to evade the police, and they in turn consult a journalist, recently released from jail and living in a mausoleum in the Cairo City of the Dead, to determine how to make best use of this letter. That's the plot.
But what this novella is really about, like the earlier work, is how the poor can live with dignity in a horrifically corrupt and brutal world. As Cossery writes at the beginning of the book, "Ossama was a thief; not a legitimate thief, such as minister, banker, wheeler-dealer, speculator, or real estate developer; he was a modest thief with a variable income, but one whose activities -- no doubt because their return was limited -- have, always and everywhere, been considered an affront to the moral rules by which the affluent live." The response of Cossery's characters to this world, perhaps romanticized and impractical, is to live a simpler life and find delight and amusement wherever they can.
I found it interesting to read this book, with its definition of who the real thieves are, after recently reading Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's Devil on the Cross which also characterizes business owners and government officials as the biggest thieves and robbers. While both works are satiric and pointed, Ngũgĩ 's is more bitter and political, while Cossery's is more light-hearted and ironic.
The Colors of Infamy by Albert Cossery (originally published 2000, translation 2011)
I became an Albert Cossery fan after reading Proud Beggars. While this novella, his last book, written in his late 80s, treads some of the same ground as that earlier novel, it was still a delight to read because of Cossery's wonderfully vivid satiric writing and his engaging portraits of people who live far outside the bourgeois life style. In The Colors of Infamy, Ossama, a professional thief plying the upper class regions of Cairo unexpectedly finds a letter detailing the corruption of a government official in a wallet he lifts. He then consults with his "professor," a master thief who is disguising himself to evade the police, and they in turn consult a journalist, recently released from jail and living in a mausoleum in the Cairo City of the Dead, to determine how to make best use of this letter. That's the plot.
But what this novella is really about, like the earlier work, is how the poor can live with dignity in a horrifically corrupt and brutal world. As Cossery writes at the beginning of the book, "Ossama was a thief; not a legitimate thief, such as minister, banker, wheeler-dealer, speculator, or real estate developer; he was a modest thief with a variable income, but one whose activities -- no doubt because their return was limited -- have, always and everywhere, been considered an affront to the moral rules by which the affluent live." The response of Cossery's characters to this world, perhaps romanticized and impractical, is to live a simpler life and find delight and amusement wherever they can.
I found it interesting to read this book, with its definition of who the real thieves are, after recently reading Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's Devil on the Cross which also characterizes business owners and government officials as the biggest thieves and robbers. While both works are satiric and pointed, Ngũgĩ 's is more bitter and political, while Cossery's is more light-hearted and ironic.
26rebeccanyc
Egypt
Distant View of a Minaret, and Other Stories by Alifa Rifaat (Translation published 1983.)
Cross posted from my Club Read and 75 Books threads
Alifa Rifaat was an Egyptian writer who wrote in the 1950s - 1980s and lived a largely very traditional life. Her stories focus on the lives of women, often in rural settings, and present a straightforward view of sex, love and its absence, and death Women's lives are hard, and Rifaat shows their struggles for happiness in a culture in which men often do not live up to the family and sexual obligations required by their religion. Some of the most moving stories involve the closeness some of the characters to the rural world and its animals, more so, perhaps, then to other people. The daily five calls to prayer set a rhythm for the book, and mark the passing of time. As with any collection, some stories are better than others, but taken together they provide a vivid sense of time and place and the limitations of a world in which a women's role is circumscribed not only by poverty but also by oppressive tradition.
Distant View of a Minaret, and Other Stories by Alifa Rifaat (Translation published 1983.)
Cross posted from my Club Read and 75 Books threads
Alifa Rifaat was an Egyptian writer who wrote in the 1950s - 1980s and lived a largely very traditional life. Her stories focus on the lives of women, often in rural settings, and present a straightforward view of sex, love and its absence, and death Women's lives are hard, and Rifaat shows their struggles for happiness in a culture in which men often do not live up to the family and sexual obligations required by their religion. Some of the most moving stories involve the closeness some of the characters to the rural world and its animals, more so, perhaps, then to other people. The daily five calls to prayer set a rhythm for the book, and mark the passing of time. As with any collection, some stories are better than others, but taken together they provide a vivid sense of time and place and the limitations of a world in which a women's role is circumscribed not only by poverty but also by oppressive tradition.
27kidzdoc
EGYPT
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
The first novel in The Cairo Trilogy is set in a Cairene neighborhood in October 1917, just after the death of Husayn Kamal, the Sultan of Egypt. Kamal was chosen three years earlier as the figurehead of the land that was a part the Ottoman Empire but had been ruled by Great Britain since 1882. The previous leader, Abbas II, was deposed by the British at the onset of World War I, once the Ottoman Empire sided with the Central Powers and against Great Britain. Egypt was declared a British protectorate, which ended its semi-independent status and fueled the nationalist movement to expel the unwanted colonizers.
Palace Walk is centered upon al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, a successful neighborhood shop owner in Cairo. He is a merciless tyrant at home, imposing his unbending will and strict Muslim beliefs on his family, but a beloved and devoted friend to many and a fervent lover of wine, women and song outside of it. The al-Jawad family includes Amina, al-Sayyid's pious and tirelessly devoted second wife, his two daughters, the beautiful and vain Aisha, and the homely but quick witted and razor tongued Khadija, and his three sons, Yasin, a government servant whose prodigious appetite for debauchery exceeds his father's; Fahmy, an idealistic law student and freedom fighter; and Kamal, the youngest of the clan, an irreverent young dreamer who has a nose for getting into trouble but loves everyone in his family passionately and unconditionally.
The al-Jawads and those closest to them each struggle with parallel internal conflicts, in keeping with the struggle of the Egyptian people torn between the protection from the ravages of war by British occupation and the burning desire for independence, between older religious traditions and emerging secular freedoms, and especially between the traditional and modern roles and rights of women in early 20th century Egyptian society. In addition, the three sons of al-Jawad each seem to serve as metaphors for different periods of modern Egyptian history, with Yasin representative of traditional Cairo, Khady of the troubled land during the British protectorate, and Kamal of the bright but uncertain future independent country.
Mahfouz does a masterful job in fully portraying each character, the bustling neighborhood that surrounds Palace Walk, and the deep tension and stifling oppression within the al-Jawad household. Palace Walk is a monumental work, one which is essential to an understanding of the history of modern Egypt, and an outstanding family saga that rivals any other in literature.
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
The first novel in The Cairo Trilogy is set in a Cairene neighborhood in October 1917, just after the death of Husayn Kamal, the Sultan of Egypt. Kamal was chosen three years earlier as the figurehead of the land that was a part the Ottoman Empire but had been ruled by Great Britain since 1882. The previous leader, Abbas II, was deposed by the British at the onset of World War I, once the Ottoman Empire sided with the Central Powers and against Great Britain. Egypt was declared a British protectorate, which ended its semi-independent status and fueled the nationalist movement to expel the unwanted colonizers.
Palace Walk is centered upon al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, a successful neighborhood shop owner in Cairo. He is a merciless tyrant at home, imposing his unbending will and strict Muslim beliefs on his family, but a beloved and devoted friend to many and a fervent lover of wine, women and song outside of it. The al-Jawad family includes Amina, al-Sayyid's pious and tirelessly devoted second wife, his two daughters, the beautiful and vain Aisha, and the homely but quick witted and razor tongued Khadija, and his three sons, Yasin, a government servant whose prodigious appetite for debauchery exceeds his father's; Fahmy, an idealistic law student and freedom fighter; and Kamal, the youngest of the clan, an irreverent young dreamer who has a nose for getting into trouble but loves everyone in his family passionately and unconditionally.
The al-Jawads and those closest to them each struggle with parallel internal conflicts, in keeping with the struggle of the Egyptian people torn between the protection from the ravages of war by British occupation and the burning desire for independence, between older religious traditions and emerging secular freedoms, and especially between the traditional and modern roles and rights of women in early 20th century Egyptian society. In addition, the three sons of al-Jawad each seem to serve as metaphors for different periods of modern Egyptian history, with Yasin representative of traditional Cairo, Khady of the troubled land during the British protectorate, and Kamal of the bright but uncertain future independent country.
Mahfouz does a masterful job in fully portraying each character, the bustling neighborhood that surrounds Palace Walk, and the deep tension and stifling oppression within the al-Jawad household. Palace Walk is a monumental work, one which is essential to an understanding of the history of modern Egypt, and an outstanding family saga that rivals any other in literature.
28kidzdoc
EGYPT
Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz
The second novel in The Cairo Trilogy begins in 1926, seven years from where Palace Walk left off. Egypt is no longer a British protectorate, after the passage of the Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence in 1922, but it has not yet won complete freedom from British rule. As a result, the country is in a state of relative calm in comparison to the 1919 revolution, but leaders of different factions, most notably Sa'ad Zaghlul of the Wafd Party, continued to press for independence. Egypt is ruled by its new King, Fuad I, the former Sultan of Egypt during the protectorate period. He and his wealthy supporters are more closely aligned with the British than with the populist Wafd Party, which adds to the nationalists' ever increasing calls for a government led by the people.
Palace of Desire continues the saga of the family of al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, the Cairene merchant owner. He remains an iron fisted tyrant at home, demanding complete loyalty and strict adherence to the Qur'an by his wife and children, while he continues to enjoy the company of his friends, wine and women outside of it. The main character in this second novel is Kamal, al-Sayyid Ahmad's youngest son, who has matured from a wildly passionate and irreverent youth to become an intense but naïve student who loves philosophy and literature and is a fervent supporter of the Wafd Party. His greatest love, however, is for Aïda, the sister of one of his classmates and his closest confidant, who comes from a wealthy family that is aligned with the King rather than the Wafd Party, spends its summers in Paris, and has turned away from the strict teachings of Islam. Kamal's friends reflect the different middle and upper class segments of Egyptian society, and their political and philosophical discussions portray the different viewpoints held by them.
Meanwhile, Kamal's father and stepbrother Yasin provide comic relief, as the two continue to wallow ever more deeply in the mud of hedonism. Kamal's mother, his sisters and their families occupy a more peripheral role than they did in the first novel. There is also less tension and drama outside of the Abd al-Jawad family, due to the absence of British soldiers and street protests that ended four years earlier.
Palace of Desire isn't nearly as compelling as its predecessor, Palace Walk, but it is still a superb portrait of an ordinary middle class Cairene family and Egyptian society in the mid-1920s, and is highly recommended.
Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz
The second novel in The Cairo Trilogy begins in 1926, seven years from where Palace Walk left off. Egypt is no longer a British protectorate, after the passage of the Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence in 1922, but it has not yet won complete freedom from British rule. As a result, the country is in a state of relative calm in comparison to the 1919 revolution, but leaders of different factions, most notably Sa'ad Zaghlul of the Wafd Party, continued to press for independence. Egypt is ruled by its new King, Fuad I, the former Sultan of Egypt during the protectorate period. He and his wealthy supporters are more closely aligned with the British than with the populist Wafd Party, which adds to the nationalists' ever increasing calls for a government led by the people.
Palace of Desire continues the saga of the family of al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, the Cairene merchant owner. He remains an iron fisted tyrant at home, demanding complete loyalty and strict adherence to the Qur'an by his wife and children, while he continues to enjoy the company of his friends, wine and women outside of it. The main character in this second novel is Kamal, al-Sayyid Ahmad's youngest son, who has matured from a wildly passionate and irreverent youth to become an intense but naïve student who loves philosophy and literature and is a fervent supporter of the Wafd Party. His greatest love, however, is for Aïda, the sister of one of his classmates and his closest confidant, who comes from a wealthy family that is aligned with the King rather than the Wafd Party, spends its summers in Paris, and has turned away from the strict teachings of Islam. Kamal's friends reflect the different middle and upper class segments of Egyptian society, and their political and philosophical discussions portray the different viewpoints held by them.
Meanwhile, Kamal's father and stepbrother Yasin provide comic relief, as the two continue to wallow ever more deeply in the mud of hedonism. Kamal's mother, his sisters and their families occupy a more peripheral role than they did in the first novel. There is also less tension and drama outside of the Abd al-Jawad family, due to the absence of British soldiers and street protests that ended four years earlier.
Palace of Desire isn't nearly as compelling as its predecessor, Palace Walk, but it is still a superb portrait of an ordinary middle class Cairene family and Egyptian society in the mid-1920s, and is highly recommended.
29kidzdoc
ALGERIA
The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal, translated from the French by Frank Wynne
Original title: Le village de l'Allemand ou le journal des frères Schiller
UK title: An Unfinished Business
Here I am, faced with a question as old as time: are we answerable for the crimes of our fathers, of our brothers, of our children? Our tragedy is that we form a direct line, there is no way out without breaking the chain and vanishing completely.
This powerful, thought provoking and unsettling novel is narrated by Malrich Schiller, a young man born to a German father and an Algerian mother. He was sent from his home village of Aïn Deb in Algeria to a Parisian banlieue by his parents, in order to seek a better life there. Malrich, an abbreviation of his real name, Malek Ulrich, has dropped out of school and has frequently run afoul of the local police in his neighborhood, which is populated by Arab and African emigrants who are largely unemployed, bored and trapped in a meaningless existence, while being cowed by local Islamic fundamentalists. His much older brother Rachel, short for Rachid Helmut, also lives nearby; he has a college degree, a successful career in a multinational corporation, and an enviable but troubled marriage. Despite this, he is viewed as an outsider and a sell out by many residents of the banlieue.
Rachel committed suicide in April 1996, after he became increasingly erratic and unreliable, which caused him to lose his job and his wife, Ophélie. After his death she gave Malrich the keys to their house to live in after she moved to Canada, and he soon discovered his brother's diary.
Their parents and dozens of other residents of Aïn Deb were murdered by Islamic fundamentalists two years earlier, in a senseless response to the Algerian military crackdown that followed the election of an Islamist government earlier in the decade. Rachel traveled to his home village soon afterward, and while retrieving his parents' belongings he makes a shocking discovery. His father Hans emigrated from Germany to Egypt and eventually Algeria at the end of World War II, earned the title Mujahid, or Islamic freedom fighter, after he converted from Christianity to Islam and fought bravely in the resistance during the Algerian War for Independence, and was given the honorary title Cheïkh Hassan by his fellow villagers, who often consulted him and respected him for his wisdom and fairness. However, in his personal effects are honorary medals and papers that indicate that he willingly served in the SS during World War II, and was stationed in several of the most notorious concentration camps.
Rachel is profoundly disturbed by this discovery, and feels a suffocating sense of guilt that haunts him over the remainder of his life. He ignores his responsibilities to his job and his wife, and spends his days retracing his father's path from Germany to Egypt to Algeria, in an effort to learn what role his father played in the Holocaust, and how a man who was dearly loved and respected by his family and neighbors could have participated in such monstrous acts. He is likewise troubled by the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Algeria and the banlieue where he resides, and he sees an uncanny parallel between the two.
Malrich is also deeply affected after reading his brother's diary, as his brother hid this knowledge in an effort to protect him, and he is faced with a dilemma: can he stand by and passively accept the atrocities and restrictions that are being inflicted by the Islamic fundamentalists in the banlieue, or even join them in their cause, or should he stand up to them and openly reject their efforts to impose sharia on the community, knowing that he will could potentially pay for his indiscretions with his life?
The German Mujahid is a valuable and necessary book, which explores the history of former Nazis who escaped to Arabic countries toward the end of the Second World War, and compares their crimes to those being committed by Islamic and other religious fundamentalists and dictators throughout the world. It also questions the roles of citizens in these communities, who frequently passively accept or actively participate in crimes against their neighbors. This novel, and much of Sansal's work, was banned in Algeria after it was released. Sansal was recently vilified after his decision to attend the 2012 Jerusalem Writers Festival, which led to the revocation of the €15,000 prize he was slated to receive after he was awarded the Prix du Roman Arabe last year for his novel Rue Darwin. Sansal is a unique and courageous writer, whose voice must not be allowed to fall silent, and this reader eagerly looks forward to the translation of his past and upcoming works into English and the distribution of his books throughout the Arabic world.
The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal, translated from the French by Frank Wynne
Original title: Le village de l'Allemand ou le journal des frères Schiller
UK title: An Unfinished Business
Here I am, faced with a question as old as time: are we answerable for the crimes of our fathers, of our brothers, of our children? Our tragedy is that we form a direct line, there is no way out without breaking the chain and vanishing completely.
This powerful, thought provoking and unsettling novel is narrated by Malrich Schiller, a young man born to a German father and an Algerian mother. He was sent from his home village of Aïn Deb in Algeria to a Parisian banlieue by his parents, in order to seek a better life there. Malrich, an abbreviation of his real name, Malek Ulrich, has dropped out of school and has frequently run afoul of the local police in his neighborhood, which is populated by Arab and African emigrants who are largely unemployed, bored and trapped in a meaningless existence, while being cowed by local Islamic fundamentalists. His much older brother Rachel, short for Rachid Helmut, also lives nearby; he has a college degree, a successful career in a multinational corporation, and an enviable but troubled marriage. Despite this, he is viewed as an outsider and a sell out by many residents of the banlieue.
Rachel committed suicide in April 1996, after he became increasingly erratic and unreliable, which caused him to lose his job and his wife, Ophélie. After his death she gave Malrich the keys to their house to live in after she moved to Canada, and he soon discovered his brother's diary.
Their parents and dozens of other residents of Aïn Deb were murdered by Islamic fundamentalists two years earlier, in a senseless response to the Algerian military crackdown that followed the election of an Islamist government earlier in the decade. Rachel traveled to his home village soon afterward, and while retrieving his parents' belongings he makes a shocking discovery. His father Hans emigrated from Germany to Egypt and eventually Algeria at the end of World War II, earned the title Mujahid, or Islamic freedom fighter, after he converted from Christianity to Islam and fought bravely in the resistance during the Algerian War for Independence, and was given the honorary title Cheïkh Hassan by his fellow villagers, who often consulted him and respected him for his wisdom and fairness. However, in his personal effects are honorary medals and papers that indicate that he willingly served in the SS during World War II, and was stationed in several of the most notorious concentration camps.
Rachel is profoundly disturbed by this discovery, and feels a suffocating sense of guilt that haunts him over the remainder of his life. He ignores his responsibilities to his job and his wife, and spends his days retracing his father's path from Germany to Egypt to Algeria, in an effort to learn what role his father played in the Holocaust, and how a man who was dearly loved and respected by his family and neighbors could have participated in such monstrous acts. He is likewise troubled by the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Algeria and the banlieue where he resides, and he sees an uncanny parallel between the two.
When my parents and everyone else in Aïn Deb were murdered by the Islamists, Rachel got to thinking. He figured that fundamentalist Islam and Nazism were kif-kif—same old same old. He wanted to find out what would happen if people did nothing, the way people did nothing in Germany back in the day, what would happen if nobody did anything in Kabul and Algeria where they've got I don't know how many mass graves, or here in France where we've got all these Islamist Gestapo. In the end, the whole idea scared him so much he killed himself.
Malrich is also deeply affected after reading his brother's diary, as his brother hid this knowledge in an effort to protect him, and he is faced with a dilemma: can he stand by and passively accept the atrocities and restrictions that are being inflicted by the Islamic fundamentalists in the banlieue, or even join them in their cause, or should he stand up to them and openly reject their efforts to impose sharia on the community, knowing that he will could potentially pay for his indiscretions with his life?
The German Mujahid is a valuable and necessary book, which explores the history of former Nazis who escaped to Arabic countries toward the end of the Second World War, and compares their crimes to those being committed by Islamic and other religious fundamentalists and dictators throughout the world. It also questions the roles of citizens in these communities, who frequently passively accept or actively participate in crimes against their neighbors. This novel, and much of Sansal's work, was banned in Algeria after it was released. Sansal was recently vilified after his decision to attend the 2012 Jerusalem Writers Festival, which led to the revocation of the €15,000 prize he was slated to receive after he was awarded the Prix du Roman Arabe last year for his novel Rue Darwin. Sansal is a unique and courageous writer, whose voice must not be allowed to fall silent, and this reader eagerly looks forward to the translation of his past and upcoming works into English and the distribution of his books throughout the Arabic world.
30rebeccanyc
MOROCCO
The Bottom of the Jar by Abdellatif Laâbi
Originally published 2002; English translation 2013.
The heart of this undoubtedly semi-autobiographical novel is the delightful story of a young boy, Namouss, living in Fez, in Morocco, apparently in the early 1950s. The independence movement against the French is getting underway, but leaves the boy and his family largely untouched in the central part of the book which is told in the third person. However, this story of Namouss's childhood is bookended by the narrator, writing in 1989 in the first person, watching the fall of the Berlin Wall with his aging father and recounting, at the beginning, the tale of his older brother's marriage and, at the end, the impact of the independence movement. Laâbi, a leading Moroccan poet, novelist, and playwright, was imprisoned by the Moroccan government in the post-independence era, and a literary journal he started banned; he lives in exile in France.
The novel poetically captures the sights, sounds, and smells of Fez and its medina (or walled section) and souks, as well as the characters of Namouss's family, including his mother Ghita with her vivid and creative complaints and comments, his hardworking and patient father Driss, and a strange but entertaining uncle, among others. Through "Radio Medina," or word of mouth, everybody knows everything that is happening. The family is Muslim, and so the reader learns about the way women must cover themselves up when nonfamily members are around (in fact, Namouss's mother rarely seems to go out on her own; her husband, a saddlemaker by trade, sends food home for her to cook). The pranks Namouss and his friends engage in are entertaining, and the few trips the family takes outside Fez to the countryside reveal the beauty of the natural landscape.
Namouss is thrilled to go to school and enchanted by learning new words, a poet in the making, no doubt. As the first person narrator says towards the end:
"The sky was never quiet for long in Fez. You only had to bother looking at it. Why did it fascinate me so much since I had never heard the word "poetry" and could only muster "stars" to describe the myriad celestial bodies glistening in the night heavens?
My word hoard was a meager, meager affair. The inability to pin down the objects in my mind and say "you are called this, and you that" infuriated me. And since I have recognized you and named you with my own mouth, come now, stop being so mysterious, follow me. Jump into my pocket and let's go! You will be companions during my journey, my confidantes, and should we encounter danger along the road, you will become the tongue of my cry and the instruments of my courage." p. 204
The residents of Fez apparently think highly of themselves compared to both other Moroccans and the French colonialists. At the very end of the book, the older Namouss imagines his now dead mother saying, about the fall of the Berlin Wall, "A falling wall . . . it can't have been built very solidly. The walls of Fez are still standing after all."
The Bottom of the Jar by Abdellatif Laâbi
Originally published 2002; English translation 2013.
The heart of this undoubtedly semi-autobiographical novel is the delightful story of a young boy, Namouss, living in Fez, in Morocco, apparently in the early 1950s. The independence movement against the French is getting underway, but leaves the boy and his family largely untouched in the central part of the book which is told in the third person. However, this story of Namouss's childhood is bookended by the narrator, writing in 1989 in the first person, watching the fall of the Berlin Wall with his aging father and recounting, at the beginning, the tale of his older brother's marriage and, at the end, the impact of the independence movement. Laâbi, a leading Moroccan poet, novelist, and playwright, was imprisoned by the Moroccan government in the post-independence era, and a literary journal he started banned; he lives in exile in France.
The novel poetically captures the sights, sounds, and smells of Fez and its medina (or walled section) and souks, as well as the characters of Namouss's family, including his mother Ghita with her vivid and creative complaints and comments, his hardworking and patient father Driss, and a strange but entertaining uncle, among others. Through "Radio Medina," or word of mouth, everybody knows everything that is happening. The family is Muslim, and so the reader learns about the way women must cover themselves up when nonfamily members are around (in fact, Namouss's mother rarely seems to go out on her own; her husband, a saddlemaker by trade, sends food home for her to cook). The pranks Namouss and his friends engage in are entertaining, and the few trips the family takes outside Fez to the countryside reveal the beauty of the natural landscape.
Namouss is thrilled to go to school and enchanted by learning new words, a poet in the making, no doubt. As the first person narrator says towards the end:
"The sky was never quiet for long in Fez. You only had to bother looking at it. Why did it fascinate me so much since I had never heard the word "poetry" and could only muster "stars" to describe the myriad celestial bodies glistening in the night heavens?
My word hoard was a meager, meager affair. The inability to pin down the objects in my mind and say "you are called this, and you that" infuriated me. And since I have recognized you and named you with my own mouth, come now, stop being so mysterious, follow me. Jump into my pocket and let's go! You will be companions during my journey, my confidantes, and should we encounter danger along the road, you will become the tongue of my cry and the instruments of my courage." p. 204
The residents of Fez apparently think highly of themselves compared to both other Moroccans and the French colonialists. At the very end of the book, the older Namouss imagines his now dead mother saying, about the fall of the Berlin Wall, "A falling wall . . . it can't have been built very solidly. The walls of Fez are still standing after all."
31Trifolia
MOROCCO
Une année chez les Français by Fouad Laroui (2010) - 3,5 stars
A sweet little book about a bright Moroccan boy who gets a scholarship and leaves his village in the mountains in order to get educated at a French school in Casablanca. This book has its flaws: almost everyone is a bit weird yet kind, there is no real plot, the author does not tie up everything neatly, but the way in which he gives his readers a little insight into the feelings of the young boy is quite beautiful and reason enough to read and enjoy this book.
Une année chez les Français by Fouad Laroui (2010) - 3,5 stars
A sweet little book about a bright Moroccan boy who gets a scholarship and leaves his village in the mountains in order to get educated at a French school in Casablanca. This book has its flaws: almost everyone is a bit weird yet kind, there is no real plot, the author does not tie up everything neatly, but the way in which he gives his readers a little insight into the feelings of the young boy is quite beautiful and reason enough to read and enjoy this book.
32Tess_W
EGYPT
The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George. This 976 page tome took me months to complete. When reading historical fiction in which I am not learned, I have a compulsion to check out and research many of the claims/personages contained within. I found that this book is very historical accurate as to battles and personages. This book was written in the 1st person with Cleopatra as the narrator. The "fiction" that comes to play are the conversations she has with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. The last chapter of the book the author discusses her years of research in preparation of writing this book. 5 stars
The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George. This 976 page tome took me months to complete. When reading historical fiction in which I am not learned, I have a compulsion to check out and research many of the claims/personages contained within. I found that this book is very historical accurate as to battles and personages. This book was written in the 1st person with Cleopatra as the narrator. The "fiction" that comes to play are the conversations she has with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. The last chapter of the book the author discusses her years of research in preparation of writing this book. 5 stars
33thorold
I finished two North African books this year, not much in common between them really...
Q1 (see also my Club Read thread http://www.librarything.com/topic/278102):
The delight of hearts (ca. 1250) by Ahmad al-Tifashi (Tunisia, 1184-1253) - compilation of medieval Arabic dirty jokes, anecdotes and erotic poems about sex between men
Q3 (see also my Club Read thread http://www.librarything.com/topic/293138):
Une enquête au pays (1981) by Driss Chraïbi (Morocco, 1926-2007) - darkly funny transposition of the roman policier into the depths of the Moroccan countryside where the cops' assumptions about how the world works fail to apply
Q1 (see also my Club Read thread http://www.librarything.com/topic/278102):
The delight of hearts (ca. 1250) by Ahmad al-Tifashi (Tunisia, 1184-1253) - compilation of medieval Arabic dirty jokes, anecdotes and erotic poems about sex between men
Q3 (see also my Club Read thread http://www.librarything.com/topic/293138):
Une enquête au pays (1981) by Driss Chraïbi (Morocco, 1926-2007) - darkly funny transposition of the roman policier into the depths of the Moroccan countryside where the cops' assumptions about how the world works fail to apply
34AnnieMod
EGYPT
Brooklyn Heights by Miral Al-Tahawy, translated from Arabic (Egypt) by Samah Selim
The American University in Cairo Press, Hardcover, ?? words (50-60K range based on rough estimate); 192 pages
Original publication: 2010 (in Arabic as بروكلين هايتس); 2011 in English (this translation)
Read: October 21, 2022 - October 22, 2022 - 4 stars.
Hend grew up in one of the villages around Cairo as the only daughter and youngest child of a Bedouin family. When we meet her at the start of this novel, she had just immigrated to USA with her 8 years old son, sans her husband and with very little English and had rented a small apartment in a Muslim neighborhood in Brooklyn, some time in the autumn of 2008 (Obama winning the election is one of the first times we see her communicating with her son). But this is not the typical immigration story of perseverance and success against all odds. Or not entirely anyway.
Instead we walk the streets of Brooklyn with Hend and see her reactions to the city and its inhabitants. Most of the Brooklynites we meet are immigrants like her, mostly from the Muslim Arabian world but there are a few others as well - the Orthodox Jews, the dancing teacher neighbor. And while she walks the streets of this new city, she often thinks about her life before she moved - from her childhood to the end of her marriage. As the novel progresses, we start also hearing the stories of other inhabitants of her world - both in the new and in the old worlds.
And somewhere in all that jumble of stories, memories and new experiences emerges the longing for a home - the home some of the characters can never return to, the home another character is slowly forgetting, a place one can call home. Is your home where you were born? Or can you make your home elsewhere, away from the culture you are used to and belong to? Hend never figures these questions although she ends up pondering a lot of them when things happen around her. She is almost always a passive observer - it feels like she was always an observer of her own life, even in the passages about her past.
It works beautifully to a point. I appreciated that the new immigrant felt displaced and looking for her place in the new life and did not find friends even before arriving (while I know that some people are like that, my experience was closer to that of Hend when I moved). I wish the novel was longer - it is too short to support all the backstories and all the stories in the now and here - and because of that a lot of them feel incomplete. I am not sure if that was intentional - after all, all of these stories still continue after the end of the book but the novel felt incomplete.
The novel won the 2010 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature (given to an Arabic novel which had not been translated into English yet) and was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (aka the Arabic Booker) in 2011. The author's personal story parallels her heroines to a certain extent - al-Tahawy is from a Bedouin family and her childhood was probably very similar to Hend's (writer's license notwithstanding). She also moved to USA around the same time as her character (although I am not sure if it is to Brooklyn initially).
This was the author's 4th novel and the other 3 are also translated into English so I plan to check them as well - despite my misgivings, it is a novel worth reading - if for nothing else, for the details of modern Bedouin lives. But the immigration part of the story also works, as banal and tired as this genre had become in recent years.
Brooklyn Heights by Miral Al-Tahawy, translated from Arabic (Egypt) by Samah Selim
The American University in Cairo Press, Hardcover, ?? words (50-60K range based on rough estimate); 192 pages
Original publication: 2010 (in Arabic as بروكلين هايتس); 2011 in English (this translation)
Read: October 21, 2022 - October 22, 2022 - 4 stars.
Hend grew up in one of the villages around Cairo as the only daughter and youngest child of a Bedouin family. When we meet her at the start of this novel, she had just immigrated to USA with her 8 years old son, sans her husband and with very little English and had rented a small apartment in a Muslim neighborhood in Brooklyn, some time in the autumn of 2008 (Obama winning the election is one of the first times we see her communicating with her son). But this is not the typical immigration story of perseverance and success against all odds. Or not entirely anyway.
Instead we walk the streets of Brooklyn with Hend and see her reactions to the city and its inhabitants. Most of the Brooklynites we meet are immigrants like her, mostly from the Muslim Arabian world but there are a few others as well - the Orthodox Jews, the dancing teacher neighbor. And while she walks the streets of this new city, she often thinks about her life before she moved - from her childhood to the end of her marriage. As the novel progresses, we start also hearing the stories of other inhabitants of her world - both in the new and in the old worlds.
And somewhere in all that jumble of stories, memories and new experiences emerges the longing for a home - the home some of the characters can never return to, the home another character is slowly forgetting, a place one can call home. Is your home where you were born? Or can you make your home elsewhere, away from the culture you are used to and belong to? Hend never figures these questions although she ends up pondering a lot of them when things happen around her. She is almost always a passive observer - it feels like she was always an observer of her own life, even in the passages about her past.
It works beautifully to a point. I appreciated that the new immigrant felt displaced and looking for her place in the new life and did not find friends even before arriving (while I know that some people are like that, my experience was closer to that of Hend when I moved). I wish the novel was longer - it is too short to support all the backstories and all the stories in the now and here - and because of that a lot of them feel incomplete. I am not sure if that was intentional - after all, all of these stories still continue after the end of the book but the novel felt incomplete.
The novel won the 2010 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature (given to an Arabic novel which had not been translated into English yet) and was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (aka the Arabic Booker) in 2011. The author's personal story parallels her heroines to a certain extent - al-Tahawy is from a Bedouin family and her childhood was probably very similar to Hend's (writer's license notwithstanding). She also moved to USA around the same time as her character (although I am not sure if it is to Brooklyn initially).
This was the author's 4th novel and the other 3 are also translated into English so I plan to check them as well - despite my misgivings, it is a novel worth reading - if for nothing else, for the details of modern Bedouin lives. But the immigration part of the story also works, as banal and tired as this genre had become in recent years.
35Trifolia
A Bookshop in Algiers / Our Riches by Kaouther Adimi - 3 stars
Author’s nationality: Algerian
Original publication date: 2017
Author’s age when first published: 31
Written in: French
Read in: Dutch translation
Format: e-book
Why I read this :
In my search for suitable books for the African novel challenge in January, this book caught my eye. It wasn't quite what I was looking for, because I actually wanted an Algerian story by an Algerian author in an Algerian context and the French context therefore seemed less interesting to me. But since France is an integral part of Algeria's history and since I have a soft spot for bookstore books, I read it anyway. The fact that it is a short novel made the choice easier.
Summary:
Based on true events, the book tells the story of Edmond Charlot, a young man in his twenties, who opened a bookshop (Les Vraies Richesses) in Algiers in the 1930s and also became a publisher and champion of a literary scene that transcended borders. His bookshop became the place to be for writers, poets, publishers, students, a.o. Albert Camus (who had some of his first works published by Charlot).
My comments:
In this book we follow three storylines: that of Charlot through fictionalized diary fragments, that of Ryad who has to clean up the bookshop in 2017 and the author who's the voice of the Algerian people.
Charlot's diary fragments are interesting because they depict the hectic pace of the entrepreneur and enable the author to give a lot of information in a very concise manner. But sometimes it was a bit too much name dropping without the necessary context. Ryad's story seemed a bit superfluous to me, but perhaps necessary to complete the circle. Perhaps the most impressive was the anonymous voice of the Algerian people, although it is very limited. However decisive the storyline of Charlot's bookstore is, this is also the story of Algeria, a colony of France that tried to become independent and pays a very heavy price for it.
I must admit that I know very little about colonialism and the struggle for independence. That lack of knowledge is one of the reasons I've joined the African Roman Challenge. Ailthough this book offers no more than a very concise look at a complex and painful history, its merits are that it is well written, it rescues Charlots bookshop from oblivion and it has made me curious enough to explore this topic further, so it does have its value.
Recommended for:
Anyone who likes to read about booksellers or wants to take a cursory glance at a small aspect of Algeria's history.
Author’s nationality: Algerian
Original publication date: 2017
Author’s age when first published: 31
Written in: French
Read in: Dutch translation
Format: e-book
Why I read this :
In my search for suitable books for the African novel challenge in January, this book caught my eye. It wasn't quite what I was looking for, because I actually wanted an Algerian story by an Algerian author in an Algerian context and the French context therefore seemed less interesting to me. But since France is an integral part of Algeria's history and since I have a soft spot for bookstore books, I read it anyway. The fact that it is a short novel made the choice easier.
Summary:
Based on true events, the book tells the story of Edmond Charlot, a young man in his twenties, who opened a bookshop (Les Vraies Richesses) in Algiers in the 1930s and also became a publisher and champion of a literary scene that transcended borders. His bookshop became the place to be for writers, poets, publishers, students, a.o. Albert Camus (who had some of his first works published by Charlot).
My comments:
In this book we follow three storylines: that of Charlot through fictionalized diary fragments, that of Ryad who has to clean up the bookshop in 2017 and the author who's the voice of the Algerian people.
Charlot's diary fragments are interesting because they depict the hectic pace of the entrepreneur and enable the author to give a lot of information in a very concise manner. But sometimes it was a bit too much name dropping without the necessary context. Ryad's story seemed a bit superfluous to me, but perhaps necessary to complete the circle. Perhaps the most impressive was the anonymous voice of the Algerian people, although it is very limited. However decisive the storyline of Charlot's bookstore is, this is also the story of Algeria, a colony of France that tried to become independent and pays a very heavy price for it.
I must admit that I know very little about colonialism and the struggle for independence. That lack of knowledge is one of the reasons I've joined the African Roman Challenge. Ailthough this book offers no more than a very concise look at a complex and painful history, its merits are that it is well written, it rescues Charlots bookshop from oblivion and it has made me curious enough to explore this topic further, so it does have its value.
Recommended for:
Anyone who likes to read about booksellers or wants to take a cursory glance at a small aspect of Algeria's history.
36labfs39
TUNISIA
The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai, translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud
Originally published 2017, English translation 2021, 195 p., 4*
Sidi is a beekeeper in the village of Nawa, Tunisia and passionate about protecting "his girls." As the novel opens, one of his hives has been destroyed by massive hornets of a type he has never seen before. He vows to learn about the intruder and not only protect his hives, but breed bees that can defend themselves against the hornets. Sidi is also extremely leery of the new democratic elections, the first after the overthrow of The Handsome One, and the Party of God officials that have come to the village with handouts in exchange for votes. He worked for a time in Saudi Arabia and is aware of the hypocrisy of the zealots. The two plot lines merge as one serves as an allegory for the other.
Yamen Manai was born in Tunis and is a scientist as well as writer. In an interview he said he was watching a National Geographic program about how Japanese bees defend themselves against the giant Asian hornet and had the inspiration that led to his writing this allegorical novel set in Tunisia after the Arab Spring. His writing incorporates both the political situation and environmental concerns, yet is often funny. Manai credits Arabic poetry and the oral tradition with influencing his writing.
Note: I found the prologue off-putting, but it had little to do with the subsequent story and could easily have been cut.
The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai, translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud
Originally published 2017, English translation 2021, 195 p., 4*
Sidi is a beekeeper in the village of Nawa, Tunisia and passionate about protecting "his girls." As the novel opens, one of his hives has been destroyed by massive hornets of a type he has never seen before. He vows to learn about the intruder and not only protect his hives, but breed bees that can defend themselves against the hornets. Sidi is also extremely leery of the new democratic elections, the first after the overthrow of The Handsome One, and the Party of God officials that have come to the village with handouts in exchange for votes. He worked for a time in Saudi Arabia and is aware of the hypocrisy of the zealots. The two plot lines merge as one serves as an allegory for the other.
Yamen Manai was born in Tunis and is a scientist as well as writer. In an interview he said he was watching a National Geographic program about how Japanese bees defend themselves against the giant Asian hornet and had the inspiration that led to his writing this allegorical novel set in Tunisia after the Arab Spring. His writing incorporates both the political situation and environmental concerns, yet is often funny. Manai credits Arabic poetry and the oral tradition with influencing his writing.
Note: I found the prologue off-putting, but it had little to do with the subsequent story and could easily have been cut.
37labfs39
ALGERIA
So Vast the Prison by Assia Djebar, translated from the French by Betsy Wing
Originally published 1995, English translation 1999, Seven Stories Press, 3*
If I had to describe this book in a single word, it would be "gaze." Assia Djebar, a filmmaker as well as writer, is always aware of sightlines and who is gazing at whom. Women, whose gaze is restricted to a slot through their veils, are like camera lenses, with an intense, directed focus, but one that is too frequently shuttered. Perpetually aware lest they fall under a man's gaze, the women try to remain invisible. Yet there are strong women in the book, who defy their imposed limits, often through language: Zoraide, who passes notes to the Captive Captain in Don Quixote; Tin Hinan, mother of the Tuareg, who brought the Berber alphabet to the desert; the narrator/author's own writing.
The book is divided into four parts, each with a very distinct style. Part 1, What is Erased in the Heart, is an emotional, non-linear account of the narrator/author's platonic love affair with the younger man she calls The Beloved. The narrator says that, "It is not fiction I desire. I am not driven to unfurl a love story of inexhaustible arabesques," and yet that describes it perfectly. Part 2, Erased in Stone, is the story of the discovery by Europeans of the stele at Dougga, written in both Punic and a Berber alphabet. Each chapter in this section is a short biography of one of the men who was instrumental in bringing the knowledge to Europe that the Berbers had had a written language much longer than scholars knew. Part 3, A Silent Desire, alternates chapters that describe the life of the narrator/author's grandmother and mother, with chapters about making her first film, "The Arable Woman." The title of the film is taken from an Arabic lament, recited at the death of her mother's sister:
O my other self, my shadow, no one so like me,
You are gone, you have deserted me, left me arable,
Your pain, a plowshare, turned me over and seeded me with tears.
Part 4, The Blood of Writing, is short, almost an essay, on writing and Algeria's bloody history.
I had a hard time getting through the first part. I understood that it represented "the daily wretchedness of the women of this city of invisible lusts and repression," but the swirl of emotions was hard to navigate. I much preferred the sections on the history of the language and her family history. It is hard to say how much of the novel is fiction, clearly much of it is about her and her family. It is, perhaps, of a shared style with the oral tradition she describes, of illiterate women whose memories are a history rarely shared. A history told in the female voice, outside the scope of the scribes and clerks who record men's history, less factual and more impressionistic.
So Vast the Prison by Assia Djebar, translated from the French by Betsy Wing
Originally published 1995, English translation 1999, Seven Stories Press, 3*
If I had to describe this book in a single word, it would be "gaze." Assia Djebar, a filmmaker as well as writer, is always aware of sightlines and who is gazing at whom. Women, whose gaze is restricted to a slot through their veils, are like camera lenses, with an intense, directed focus, but one that is too frequently shuttered. Perpetually aware lest they fall under a man's gaze, the women try to remain invisible. Yet there are strong women in the book, who defy their imposed limits, often through language: Zoraide, who passes notes to the Captive Captain in Don Quixote; Tin Hinan, mother of the Tuareg, who brought the Berber alphabet to the desert; the narrator/author's own writing.
The book is divided into four parts, each with a very distinct style. Part 1, What is Erased in the Heart, is an emotional, non-linear account of the narrator/author's platonic love affair with the younger man she calls The Beloved. The narrator says that, "It is not fiction I desire. I am not driven to unfurl a love story of inexhaustible arabesques," and yet that describes it perfectly. Part 2, Erased in Stone, is the story of the discovery by Europeans of the stele at Dougga, written in both Punic and a Berber alphabet. Each chapter in this section is a short biography of one of the men who was instrumental in bringing the knowledge to Europe that the Berbers had had a written language much longer than scholars knew. Part 3, A Silent Desire, alternates chapters that describe the life of the narrator/author's grandmother and mother, with chapters about making her first film, "The Arable Woman." The title of the film is taken from an Arabic lament, recited at the death of her mother's sister:
O my other self, my shadow, no one so like me,
You are gone, you have deserted me, left me arable,
Your pain, a plowshare, turned me over and seeded me with tears.
Part 4, The Blood of Writing, is short, almost an essay, on writing and Algeria's bloody history.
I had a hard time getting through the first part. I understood that it represented "the daily wretchedness of the women of this city of invisible lusts and repression," but the swirl of emotions was hard to navigate. I much preferred the sections on the history of the language and her family history. It is hard to say how much of the novel is fiction, clearly much of it is about her and her family. It is, perhaps, of a shared style with the oral tradition she describes, of illiterate women whose memories are a history rarely shared. A history told in the female voice, outside the scope of the scribes and clerks who record men's history, less factual and more impressionistic.
38Tess_W
TUNISIA
The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai
This novel is set in Tunisia and tells the tale of Islamic fundamentalism two ways: through beekeeping and attacks from foreign hornets on the hives and from fundamentalist (foreign to the original religion) attacks on the population. The beekeeping analogy was interesting, the religious fundamentalists, not so much. I almost put the book down while reading the prologue, which can be skipped! Very creative how the bees and the fundamentalist story lines supported each other. 206 pages
Yamen Manai is a Tunisian writer whose first novel was published in 2010, Comar d’Or Prize, which does not appear to be translated. It won a Tunisian Writer's Prize as well as the Soleil Prize in France. Manai currently lives in Paris and his 4th novel, Bel Abime, (also not translated) won the Orange Book Prize in Africa in 2021.
The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai
This novel is set in Tunisia and tells the tale of Islamic fundamentalism two ways: through beekeeping and attacks from foreign hornets on the hives and from fundamentalist (foreign to the original religion) attacks on the population. The beekeeping analogy was interesting, the religious fundamentalists, not so much. I almost put the book down while reading the prologue, which can be skipped! Very creative how the bees and the fundamentalist story lines supported each other. 206 pages
Yamen Manai is a Tunisian writer whose first novel was published in 2010, Comar d’Or Prize, which does not appear to be translated. It won a Tunisian Writer's Prize as well as the Soleil Prize in France. Manai currently lives in Paris and his 4th novel, Bel Abime, (also not translated) won the Orange Book Prize in Africa in 2021.
39deandreruf3
Este usuario ha sido eliminado por spam.
40labfs39
>38 Tess_W: I agree with you that the prologue is unnecessary and almost turned me off to the book, which I ended up enjoying a lot.
41rocketjk
My review of Ghost Season by Fatin Abbas has been moved to the proper thread as per >42 ELiz_M:, below.
43rocketjk
>42 ELiz_M: Ah, thanks. I obviously missed that. I will repost my remarks about Ghost Season there tomorrow when I have a minute.
44rocketjk
I finished Proud Beggars by Albert Cossery (translated from the French by Thomas W. Cushing). The pocket biography of Cossery on the front page of my NYRB edition of Proud Beggars tells us, "Albert Cossery (1913-2008) was a Cairo-born French writer of Lebanese and Greek Orthodox Syrian descent who settled in Paris at the end of the Second World War and lived there for the rest of his life." Proud Beggars, first published in 1955, brings us the tale of three men living in a poor section of Cairo. The narrative revolves around three friends who have more or less chosen their impoverished status, their sarcastic views of the "bastards and thieves" who control societies power structure and the joy they find in the small details of humanity and urban life. When a young prostitute is murdered in nearby brothel in what appears to be a motiveless crime, into the picture comes police inspector Nour El Dine who feels in the solving of such crimes and punishment of their perpetrators not any compassion for the victims but instead a maintenance of order, a defense of the status quo. Our three heroes take him on gleefully as a worthy if not particularly threatening adversary. And Nour El Dine has his own dissatisfactions and doubts. Although the book is written in French by an author living in Paris, I'm counting this as a reading trip to Egypt due to the narrative's location in Cairo, which is also the location of Cossery's birth.
