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A review by takemyhand
A Bookshop in Algiers by Kaouther Adimi
2.0
You'd think I'd adore this book, partly because of its setting (both the bookstore and the city) and partly because of its approach but, no. Let me explain why I am not head over heels for this.
The book is set in Algiers, and over the set of a couple of decades, going back and forth between the 1930s until the 1960s, and 2017 and this is how we meet our two man characters: the original bookshop owner, Edmond Charlot, and the one tasked to empty it years later, Ryad.
Now, I was already skeptical because of the fact a French man was owning a business in Algiers during colonial times, and I was right to be, but I'll get to that later.
The plot itself was pretty interesting, it critiqued how the current state of things in Algeria is to get rid of anything that isn't inherently useful for the economy, and a lending library/bookshop/bankrupt publishing house obviously isn't making the cut. The reality of things is they bought the place to turn it into a food place, which is a very common thing to happen in Algiers, where many places' history is disregarded for benefit and profit in the short-term. At least, it was intriguing enough for me to pick it up.
The book is divided into three narrations, Edmond Charlot's notes, Ryad's present actions, and some unnamed, 1st person plural narration. The latter was definitely the most gripping part: telling of all the horrors and injustice the people of Algeria have suffered through while making the reader feel included definitely had the expected effect. For Ryad's point of view and the present part of the timeline, it kind of came up short to me, I wanted more of it, to know more of how he felt, but in my opinion that part was not developed enough. Abdallah's character also was not used to his full potential, as a man who worked there in the bad times of the bookstore, but after independence, he had a million stories to tell about it, yet remained relatively passive in face of the change.
Now, Edmond Charlot's pieces of narration were told through excerpts from his notebooks, and pan through multiple decades, beginning in the 1930s. He's a French man, who one day, decides to open a bookstore/publishing house library dedicated to the Mediterranean. A noble cause and an interesting lens, but I simply could not feel any entirely positive feelings toward him or his purpose. A little history for the ones who might not know but Algeria was under French rule for over a century, its people reduced to exploitation and condemned to poverty, all the while the French enjoyed a little piece of paradise near the civilized world. Right from the get-go, Charlot's bookstore was not dedicated to the native Algerians, but rather to a selective part of the population at the time, privileged enough to access school and learn how to read. Now don't get me wrong, I'm aware of the historical context, and I know the author was too, but as bad things happen to Charlot, I could not summon even a drop of sadness. He tries opening a branch of his publishing house in Paris, only to come back running because "competition was too fierce" and he was looked down on for coming from Algiers. It may be true, but it will never be as intense as the actual Algerians who were barely considered humans, much less citizens at the time. The entire axis of Mediterranean literature is solely focused on European Mediterranean, and despite the regret, he feels at learning Mouloud Feraoun had sent him a manuscript only to get rejected by his co-publicist, during his entire time at the head of it, he had only bothered looking for French, Italian, Spanish writers.
I took it all with a pinch of salt, and agree that characters like these are necessary to explain the intricacies and complexities of life as Algerians in our homeland at a time it was not even legally ours, but whatever sympathy I was expected to feel simply did not show. I felt a lot more reading about the pain, the hope for liberation after WWII only for it to be shut down violently, and the national rise for the desire to be treated like humans. All of those chapters, albeit small, were to me, the true essence of this book.
The book is set in Algiers, and over the set of a couple of decades, going back and forth between the 1930s until the 1960s, and 2017 and this is how we meet our two man characters: the original bookshop owner, Edmond Charlot, and the one tasked to empty it years later, Ryad.
Now, I was already skeptical because of the fact a French man was owning a business in Algiers during colonial times, and I was right to be, but I'll get to that later.
The plot itself was pretty interesting, it critiqued how the current state of things in Algeria is to get rid of anything that isn't inherently useful for the economy, and a lending library/bookshop/bankrupt publishing house obviously isn't making the cut. The reality of things is they bought the place to turn it into a food place, which is a very common thing to happen in Algiers, where many places' history is disregarded for benefit and profit in the short-term. At least, it was intriguing enough for me to pick it up.
The book is divided into three narrations, Edmond Charlot's notes, Ryad's present actions, and some unnamed, 1st person plural narration. The latter was definitely the most gripping part: telling of all the horrors and injustice the people of Algeria have suffered through while making the reader feel included definitely had the expected effect. For Ryad's point of view and the present part of the timeline, it kind of came up short to me, I wanted more of it, to know more of how he felt, but in my opinion that part was not developed enough. Abdallah's character also was not used to his full potential, as a man who worked there in the bad times of the bookstore, but after independence, he had a million stories to tell about it, yet remained relatively passive in face of the change.
Now, Edmond Charlot's pieces of narration were told through excerpts from his notebooks, and pan through multiple decades, beginning in the 1930s. He's a French man, who one day, decides to open a bookstore/publishing house library dedicated to the Mediterranean. A noble cause and an interesting lens, but I simply could not feel any entirely positive feelings toward him or his purpose. A little history for the ones who might not know but Algeria was under French rule for over a century, its people reduced to exploitation and condemned to poverty, all the while the French enjoyed a little piece of paradise near the civilized world. Right from the get-go, Charlot's bookstore was not dedicated to the native Algerians, but rather to a selective part of the population at the time, privileged enough to access school and learn how to read. Now don't get me wrong, I'm aware of the historical context, and I know the author was too, but as bad things happen to Charlot, I could not summon even a drop of sadness. He tries opening a branch of his publishing house in Paris, only to come back running because "competition was too fierce" and he was looked down on for coming from Algiers. It may be true, but it will never be as intense as the actual Algerians who were barely considered humans, much less citizens at the time. The entire axis of Mediterranean literature is solely focused on European Mediterranean, and despite the regret, he feels at learning Mouloud Feraoun had sent him a manuscript only to get rejected by his co-publicist, during his entire time at the head of it, he had only bothered looking for French, Italian, Spanish writers.
I took it all with a pinch of salt, and agree that characters like these are necessary to explain the intricacies and complexities of life as Algerians in our homeland at a time it was not even legally ours, but whatever sympathy I was expected to feel simply did not show. I felt a lot more reading about the pain, the hope for liberation after WWII only for it to be shut down violently, and the national rise for the desire to be treated like humans. All of those chapters, albeit small, were to me, the true essence of this book.