Tahar Djaout was an
Algerian writer, poet, and journalist whose work reflected support for
secularism in his country, and a disdain not of Islam, but for religious
fundamentalism. In 1993 he was
assassinated by members of the Armed Islamic Group because of his
growing notoriety. The Last Summer of
Reason was published posthumously from a manuscript discovered in his personal
papers. Its title refers to a family's last summer vacation prior to a bloody civil war.
The primary
character in the fiction novel is Boualem Yekker who lives in an unnamed
country clearly patterned on Djaout’s native Algeria. He is a lover of poems
written in Arabic, and world literature. He makes his living as a bookseller,
buying and selling hard to find books for people who appreciate them. The novel
is a series of progressing personal essays on how the country is changing as a result of
the growing presence/dominance of religious fundamentalism in the country’s
post-colonial politics. That presence is
encapsulated in a group of men collectively known as the Vigilante Brothers
(VBs). They are thugs, not unlike
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood or Algeria's Armed Islamic Group.
They “convert”
the general public to their cause and make life miserable for those who don’t
sign on, eventually even recruiting Yekker’s wife and children. The children join the VBs, not because they are
“true believers,” but because they want to belong to something, and the
Vigilantes have equated and merged their religion with the post-colonial
nationalism. His wife signs on because life will be easier if she’s not thought
to be a holdout. Yekker sees what is
going down, but adamantly resists.
Eventually,
Yekker’s family will move out of his house and disown him. Deserted, he
develops nightmares. In one such
nightmare he dreamt his son had become a VB enforcer, and turned in him. In the dream, Yekker kills his son.
Back to the
waking hours, the Vigilantes close down his bookstore, having already scared away
his customers and burned his inventory in the street. Their mantra is that only “one” book is needed. They post a note on the store
door telling Yekker they have changed the lock and he should not try to enter. It
informs him they will “be in touch” to let him know what, if any, of his
belongings he may remove.
Without his
family, and now locked out of his own store, Yekker further slips into a
dreamworld, his dreams being the only avenue left to him of the way things
were before all this madness began, not knowing if the country will ever return to the way it was.
Recommendation: Yes, for students of history (and
although this is technically “fiction” be there no doubt this is Algeria).
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