Assia Djebar (trans. Marjolein de Jager) Children of the World: A novel of the Algerian War. The Feminist Press, 2011, 233 p. ISBN: 9781558615106
Reading through layers A book that does not lend itself to a fast read makes for a difficult subject on which to write. The reader navigates through the eyes of multiple, intertwined, characters whose movement toward the future of a young, nascent nation unfolds as a spectacle; one where the reader is inexorably drawn and propelled to the radiant apotheosis. Clarisse Zimra describes it in her afterword as “visually kinetic [and] almost three-dimensional” (224). While Djebar wrote a work about the Algerian War, as the subtitle suggests, its appeal to a broad audience across time and place is aided by its style and structure. |