Mista wrote:Maiwenn wrote:There was seemingly only one reference to North Africans/Arabs in the entire book (the journalist had been sent to research the living conditions of Arabs, if my memory does not fail me). The 1940s were an... interesting time in the colonial history of Oran/Algeria/North Africa. It made me wonder how removed French citizens from mainland France lived their lives from the autochtone culture and people. I realize this wasn't central to the book at all, but I still found it weird.
This is equally striking in The Stranger, if not more - precisely because it's not central to the book there either, but to modern eyes it's an unavoidable theme. I think it gives an accurate picture of the situation, though. I just finished reading L'Art de perdre by Alice Zeniter, which tells the history of a family who had to emigrate from Algeria to France in 1962, and follows the family over three generations, and in the first part, which mostly takes place in Algeria in the fifties, it is very clear that it wasn't normal for French colonists to mingle with the indigenuous people. Obviously, since this is a recent book by an author of Algerian descent, the attitude towards the situation is different, but the reality of the situation as portrayed is pretty much the same.
I also think this is very interesting, and that's one of the reasons I'd like to read Meursault, contre-enquête
I'm honestly a little relieved to read this. I was becoming concerned I had missed something.
I started listening to the audiobook of L'Art de Perdre on a roadtrip a while back, but never started it back up once home. I should finish it....
I'll be joining you reading Meursault next month (once I've read L'Étranger first). There were a couple of talks at the Maghreb-Orient des Livres in January which might be of interest (in French). I haven't watched either yet, as I think it might be best to read the Camus and the Daoud first.