La Repubblica di Wally

by Suzanne Ruta, Lucia Olivieri (Translator)

Wally dormiva con la bandana calata sugli occhi, come Cupido, come un condannato a per proteggersi dalla luce, diceva. Per conservare il ricordo dell'Africa, pensava Louise. Era il 1961: lui un immigrato dall'Algeria sconvolta dalla guerra, lei una ragazza newyorkese arrivata in Francia per studiare. Prima che partisse zia Nora le aveva dato un buon consiglio, a pensarci bene l'unico buono che le avesse mai "Louise, non lasciare che gli studi interferiscano con la tua educazione". E cosi fu. Continuava a seguire le lezioni all'università, ma tutto quello che apprese quell'anno lo imparò da lui. Le insegnò la grammatica, la sintassi, la storia della Francia e il francese di strada. Religione, politica e cucina, tutto nello stesso pentolone. Era come imparare le buone maniere a tavola senza avere una vera ma quello che avevano era l'età in cui ogni coppia basta a se stessa e le mura sottili di una stanza sono sufficienti a tenere fuori il mondo intero. La sua stanza, in cui si chiudevano per fare l'amore, era la loro vera nazione, l'unica patria che condividevano, il paese di cui erano cittadini e governo. La loro la Repubblica di Wally. Sono passati quarant'anni, e oggi Louise è vecchia abbastanza per capire quanto giovane era ma ha capito anche che deve fare ammenda in qualche modo. Deve farlo per Wally e per lei. Deve ritrovare il loro figlio.

Genres: Fiction, Africa

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 20, 2011

Reviews

[Henna]

This book portrays an impossible lovestory between an Algerian Colonial War hideaway and a young American student in France in the 1960's.

Louise falls madly in love with Ahmad and her loving feelings end up taking her through purgatory in life and she ends up in her sixties searching for a son lost in the Algerian Civil War, wondering about a life that could have been... Her loved Ahmad (AKA "Wally") is a man torn between what would be right and responsible due to his culture and religion, and between how he feels. Their lovestory isn´t physically everlasting, due to choices, fate and wrong timings.

The storyline of the book was good, and at times even unexpected, and it could have been a profound and a great, impacting story, but for me, unfortunately, the writing lacked emotion. For me, the characters weren´t explored deep enough.

I read books foremost to learn but also to sense emotions such as love, pain, despair and hope. For me, lovestories need to be felt in the heart. This time, despite the tragic story, I couldn´t feel it, I couldn´t touch it, and it didn´t make me weep. 2 stars.

[Juno]

My rating of 3 stars isn't really a rating of the writing in this book..I thought it was well done. It's purely based on my feelings towards the characters,which is in turn coloured by my own life experiences. I am married to an Algerian man born shortly after Independence, and have visited the country and tried to learn a little about the culture and recent history.
I think if I had read this before knowing him I would have found it a tragic ,star-crossed lovers, victims of circumstance kind of way,and loved it.. but as it is I could only think of the poor man's wife and children left behind in Algeria while the two protagonists fell in love in France..
maybe too close to home for me..but that isn't the book's fault...!

[Jacob]

as soon as i can read again -- shortly after memorial day -- i'm going to pick this up.

i loved the two voices in the first few pages -- they're witty and fluent and don't waste time. "Oh Friedrich isn't French, he's a Francophile refugee from Nazi Germany." The Algerian's book is "the kind of thing the French go crazy over for a season anyway, you know how it is with them, it's cyclical and short-lived, like May flies." periods are sparse, everything's a comma, and we're off...

[Baya]

This book truly moved me when I first read it 5 years ago.
This book is about love, the impact of history on relationships, and the resulting wounds post-colonialism. Suzanne Ruta is not from Algeria but she managed to grasp in this book the tragic modern history of this country.

[Ishrat]

I was really expecting more from this book. I'm sure that things like this happened (issues that were outlined in the book) but I think it could have been been written better.

[Ninwa Hanna]

I wanted so badly to love this book - the storyline was good, the overall feel and circumstances are true to real events that happened across the colonized Maghreb region in general. However, the writing didn't do it for me. The style couldn't pull me in, and I felt the characters were not explored deep enough for me to feel connected to them. I finished the book having a lot of context on the relationship and time period, but not really answers of "why".

[Della O'Brien]

Young American falls for Algerian. They both know it won't last. She gets pregnant etc etc

[Chiara]

Doloroso, dolente, intimista, un pò romanzo storico, un pò romanzo d'amore.
La giovane ebrea americana Louise nella Francia degli anni '60 vive un amore coraggioso, impossibile e struggente per Wally, un algerino in fuga dalla guerra (terribile) di liberazione algerina dalla Francia. Molti giovani morirono nel conflitto, molti altri emigrarono. La storia si ripetè qualche decennio dopo, con la guerra civile di Algeria.

La prima parte molto bella, le ultime due parti un pò meno. La Louise sessantenne fatica a farsi capire, forse perchè lotta contro un destino non scelto da lei e i cui risvolti lei stessa non capisce o non è in grado di accettare.

Forse non è un caso che questo libro sia uscito nel cinquantennale dell'indipendenza algerina (1962-2012).

[Vionna]

The plot never came alive and the characters were boring.

[Sabina]

Letto tutto in una giornata, coinvolgente, emozionante e molto scorrevole. Ti trasporta nella Repubblica di Wally

[Kim Miller]

Loved the first 3/4 but it lost my interest at the end ...

[A]

I won a copy of this book from Hachette UK Canada's Twitter contest.

[Chee Fong]

Could not finish reading this book.