Zwei Frauen kämpfen um ihren Platz in der traditionnellen Gesellschaft des Maghreb

This is Assia Djebar's first novel, written when she was just twenty years old. Perhaps I was judging a book by its cover, but I didn't have high expectations for it, but, on the other hand, this is the first novel of a woman who would win the Neustadt Prize and whose name gets mentioned in the same sentence with "Nobel" from time to time.

Set in Algeria, Nadia tells the story of one young woman's summer escapades. Nadia has European looks and education, she is beautiful, arrogant, cynical, somewhat spoiled, and bored. She is rebelling against convention, and likes to think herself highly individual. She begins to play games and toy with the people around her in her own narcissistic way. But Nadia really doesn't have a solid sense of self and through tragedy she will be humbled and changed. I would be tempted to call this a coming-of-age novel, it certainly has many of those qualities, but her transformation feels a bit incomplete at the end. Nadia is a character who is difficult to warm to, although I did support her desire for freedom from convention, and was more sympathetic as her insecurities began to be revealed.

What is remarkable about the book, is that it is nearly apolitical, with barely a mention of Algerian's war for independence going on at that time. However, some literary criticism seems to see in Nadia's quest for self-identity, a reflection of Algeria's own quest for identity. The book is interesting, but mostly, imo, because it is Djebar's first novel. I can see glimpses in this first, rather immature novel, of the writer that Assia Djebar will become. ( )

One of the books I read earlier this year was Bonjour Tristesse by Francois Sagan and I would advise anyone reading The Mischief or Sagan's novella, to read the other as there are many parallels between the two. Both are narrated by a young beautiful, female bored by the passing of slow, hot summer days and are about their ill-fated attempts to break their lethargy by mischief involving those around them. In both cases, the female protaganists veer from wanton disregard for the feelings of those who are pawns in their summer play, to low-level guilt which do not deter them from their destructive ends.

Nadia cuts an interesting femme fatale, and I was particularly interested in her analysis of her motivations and feelings, which betray adolescent indifference about the future and the complexeties which underly the actions of those around her.

It brought to mind my own teenage selfishness and arrogance and I blushed at the truth in these pages. ( )