Algerian Childhood by Leila Sebbar (Editor), Marjolijn de Jager (Translator)

From the Publisher

This unique anthology probes deeply into the diverse experiences of French and native Algerian, male and female, rich and poor, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian people who, through their writing, congregate here to recount personal tales of growing up in this region in North Africa, experiences that bind them as humans. Through literature, Sebbar deftly cultivates an imaginary landscape that does not yet exist within Algeria: a public ground based upon reconciliation and respect for differences.

In "Bare Feet," famed writer Helene Cixous recounts when, at the tender age of seven, an encounter with a young shoeshine boy made her acutely aware of the harsh realities of her own class standing. And in "The Lost Child," Albert Bensoussan reaches back to the remarkable day when, preparing for Rosh Hashanah, he was befriended by a young Muslim girl, only to have their relationship inexplicably severed a few short years later.

These sixteen stories, wrought with youthful exuberance and a passion for place, reflect how ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds greatly shape lifelong values and perceptions.

Leila Sebbar was born in Algeria to an Algerian father and a French mother and has published numerous essays, short stories, and novels, including the Shérazade trilogy and Silence on the Shores. She is currently a teacher in Paris, and has worked on diverse literary and French cultural reviews.

Malek Alloula
Jamel Eddine Bencheikh
Albert Bensoussan
Helene Cixous
Annie Cohen
Roger Dadoun
Jean Daniel
Mohammed Dib
Nabile Fares
Fatima Gallaire
Mohamed Kacimi-El-Hassani
Jean-PierreMillecam
Jean Pelegri
Leila Sebbar
Habib Tengour
Alain Vircondelet

Publishers Weekly

After 132 years of resistance, Algeria finally succeeded in gaining independence from the French in 1962, only to face equally bloody internal strife during the ensuing years. An impressive group of Francophone writers has been gathered in this unique and inspired collection of autobiographical narratives emphasizing childhood in that turbulent place. By such authors as H l ne Cixous, the French feminist writer and theorist, and canonical Algerian writers like Malek Alloula, the stories all reside in the same context of loss, violence and division, each moving like strands of a web outward toward a new and distinct selfhood, which is to say, a new nationhood. Cixous describes her beloved Algeria as a captive "body composed of Arab, Spaniard, Jew, Catholic, military and French [which] was not free. No matter how I loved it. It was a political body, swollen, limbs inflamed, a monster people, mouths gasping tongues laden with gobs of saliva ready to be spit in each others faces, puffy knees, throats thick with afterthoughts, strangers to themselves, foreign, furious. Joy stayed up on the mountain." Jean Daniel recounts that in his "French Algeria, the life of the senses was Mediterranean and the life of the mind, to me, was Parisian." And childhood itself is investigated as Cixous, for instance, decides that "children painfully force themselves to imitate `the child' they never are, and, as they cannot manage this, they pretend and devote themselves to hiding their deception." Captivity and childhood consciousness are conflated in the powerful prose of this wonderful meditation on postcolonial Algeria. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

In these 16 short pieces, editor and writer Sebbar evokes an "imaginary landscape," a "utopia," and a child's world devoid of racial hatred. The contributors several generations of males and females of Arab, Jewish, and Kabyle origin, including some French settlers all lived in Algeria during childhood. Several came to realize the importance of friendships among people of different races and religions. In "Childhood," for example, Habib Tengour recounts an elderly woman's description of Jews as people who wake up in the morning with "their mouths full of worms." But this depiction contrasts sharply with the behavior of Tengour's Jewish neighbors, who are clean, kind, and generous to his family. In "The Sources Return," Alain Vircondelet, the son of a French father and Arab mother, describes how he witnessed the war for Algerian independence from his window, where he saw the corpses of dead women lying in the street. Other contributors include Algerian authors Mohammed Dib and Alek Alloula, and French theorist H l ne Cixous. Not light reading, these informative narratives offer insights into the daily lives of their authors and provide impressions of children growing up in war-ravaged Algeria prior to independence from the French in 1962. Recommended. Bob Ivey, Univ. of Memphis Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

In her foreword, Anne Donadey (comparative literature and women's studies, U. of Iowa) outlines the political history of Algeria as background for the collection of autobiographical essays that follow. The writers include a number of well-known writers in the French language who now live in exile from their native Algeria. The stories were collected by Sebbar, an author from Algeria who now lives in Paris; they're presented here in a competent translation by de Jaeger (literary translation, New York U.). Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Internet Book Watch

Ably translated into English by Marjolijn de Jager and enhanced with an informative foreword by Anne Donadey, An Algerian Childhood is Leila Sebbar's deftly edited collection of true stories by novelists, poets, essayists, and journalists who, despite their current state of exile, hold an enduring sense of connection with Algeria. The autobiographical stories of men and women who are expatriates of their beloved homeland because of the political turmoil racking that Algeria for the past decades, offers the reader a riveting anecdotal history of a nation in turmoil ranging from the power politics of governmental controls, to the anti-Semitism of the 1940s and the bloody ramifications of the massacre of Algerians demonstrating for independence. An Algerian Childhood is highly recommended reading for students of 20th century Algerian history and North African postcolonial literature.

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents