La jeune fille et la mère

by Leïla Marouane

La mère rêve pour sa fille d'instruction et de liberté. On les lui avait promises, à elle, après l'indépendence algérienne; elle n'a connu que les grossesses à répétition, les services et les répudiations d'un mari tyrannique. Mais un été, elle découvre que l'honneur de la jeune fille a été compromis. Alors la violence longtemps refoulée explose...
Prix Jean-Claude Izzo 2006, Prix de l'Association des écrivains de langue française 2006

Genres: France, Feminism

178 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Manny · Rating 4 out of 5]

That night, the angel manifested himself before me again. He stood, his outline shimmering slightly in the darkness of my bedroom.

"Bouzoul", I said, "I know you want me to write my story. But what do I have that a million other young Algerian girls don't have? We've all been working from dawn till dusk kneading the dough baking the bread washing the clothes tethering the goat feeding the baby."

Bouzoul said nothing.

"And we've all been bored enough to let some boy drag us behind a bush take our clothes off fondle our thirteen-year-old bodies. Maybe we even enjoyed it. And then we get discovered screamed at forced to spread our legs while our parents determine whether our most precious possession, our hymen, is still intact."

Bouzoul looked disappointed.

"And we've all had our crazy mothers shave our heads tie us to a palm tree beat us half-dead. I'm nothing special."

Bouzoul lifted an eyebrow. I sighed.

"Okay, okay," I said. "You're right. I can see the funny side."

[C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really want to give this 2.5 stars. I liked it - I thought it was well written and I liked a lot about the character portrayals, especially the ambivalence/ambiguity of the mother - but I can't think about it outside of the context of a book written by an Algerian woman, in French, published in France, in which a young girl is heavily sexualised, and in which all of the negative stereotypes about Algeria are present. Whether or not they are true or inaccurate is irrelevant.

[Zaaf Fiir · Rating 5 out of 5]

A marvellous book...

[Elaysa ~ Viaggiando tra mondi di carta ~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

La jeune fille et la mère non è solo la storia di una ragazzina e sua madre, non è solo la storia di una vita familiare travagliata e piena di abusi.
In queste pagine la grande storia penetra la piccola storia in un connubio che lascia letteralmente a bocca aperta.
Ci troviamo in Algeria, in una società di impronta maschile, in cui le donne, ragazzine comprese, devono sottostare al volere degli uomini della famiglia. In questo caso abbiamo Djamila, una ragazzina di tredici anni narratrice e protagonista principale del romanzo, e sua madre. Due donne succubi che tentano in tutti i modi di riscattare il loro ruolo, lontane dalle imposizioni degli uomini.
Entrambe lottano per l'indipendenza, personal e del paese, in un mondo in cui le donne non sono ancora considerate degne.
Tante sono le tematiche che si affrontano in questo libro: abusi psicologici, emancipazione, abusi sessuali, violenza, volontà di affermarsi e di costruirsi una vita propria. Il risvolto è sorprendente (e positivo).

[Sonia Camba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reseña: https://youtu.be/VDiCnQURHqA