Book Review: The Dead Ass

My previous book review was dedicated to the now International Star Kamel Daoud. It was almost a year ago and, back then, Daoud was a LQO newspaper chronicler known by a few Algerians. Eleven months later and after some TV appearances in France, a lost Goncourt, a threat by a Salafi clown and a Goncourt First Novel Prize, Daoud has become Algeria’s best author and specialist in all social, Islamic and political questions… abroad.

I still believe that Daoud wouldn’t have been acclaimed that much (in France) and certainly not awarded a penny had he not written something related to Albert Camus and had his political opinions been different. For his novel is boring most of the time just like his chronicles (you can disagree) which are also sad and depressing (you must agree). Today Daoud

Book Review : Meursault, Counter Investigation

I hesitated a lot before reading this book. I had been a reader of Kamel Daoud‘s chronicles (without quite agreeing with their content) before I stopped a few years ago as he grew gloomier than ever. But I checked them again a few times during the last presidential elections and I liked what I read. This added to the fact that I felt Camus‘s The Stranger needed an answer if not a sequel convinced me to make the move.

I read The Stranger many years ago and, like many, felt a void left by the missing details on the Arab man killed by Meursault. This void combined to Camus’s statements/stance during the Algerian war of independence led to the many polemics around Camus and his belonging (or not) to Algeria.