From Publishers Weekly
Tahar Djaout, Algerian author of The Last Summer of Reason, was killed in 1993 at the age of 39 in an attack attributed to an Islamic fundamentalist group. The Watchers, the writer's second novel to be published in English, is a pensive, darkly humorous work about an inventor's quest to register his invention and an old rebel's final burst of paranoia. Working late at night, Mahfoudh Lemdjad draws up plans for a modernized loom; Menouar Ziada spots Lemdjad's lighted windows and suspects that he is plotting against the government. False accusations nearly sink Lemdjad, but the tables are unexpectedly turned at the novel's conclusion. Djaout's clotted prose makes for slow going, but his examination of the vagaries of power is illuminating. Trans. from the French by Marjolijn de Jager.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Booklist
Djaout, assassinated in his native Algeria by Islamic extremists in 1993, won the Prix Mediterranee for this tale of two intersecting lives. Menouar Ziada fought for the winning side in his nation's civil war, and as a result enjoys a relatively luxurious lifestyle. Mahfoud Lemjad, meanwhile, isn't a veteran and so lives in a cramped studio apartment, where he works day and night on his invention: a modified loom. Mired in a swamp of passport and patent applications, Mahfoud perseveres through interminable bureaucracy and wins a prize at an international invention convention. The local government needs someone to blame for bungling Mahfoud's applications, and so the old soldier Menouar must make a final sacrifice for his inept, corrupt country. Mahfoud and Menouar find their societal roles reversed by a government that cares only for its own survival, serving and pleasing its citizens only when convenient. A furious and passionate indictment of injustice, misogyny, and everyday oppression, Djaout's defiant voice rings as true here as it did in The Last Summer of Reason [BKL O 15 01]. John Green
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Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
