La Jeune Fille au balcon

by Leïla Sebbar

Alger, aujourd'hui. Que sait la jeune fille au balcon ? Que tout est interdit, dangereux, suspect... Elle rêve d'amour, mais ne quittera pas son refuge. Dehors, c'est l'heure de tous les dangers, imaginaires ou réels. En six nouvelles, Leïla Sebbar raconte les liens passionnels entre l'Algérie et la France, les conflits d'identité, les affrontements entre tradition et modernité.

Genres: France

148 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Leïla Sebbar is an Algerian author, the daughter of a French mother and an Algerian father. She spent her youth in colonial Algeria but now lives in Paris and writes in French. She writes about the relationship between France and Algeria and often juxtaposes the imagery of both countries to show the difference in cultures between the two.

Sebbar deals with a variety of topics, and either adopts a purely fictional approach or uses psychology to make her point. Many of Sebbar's novels express the frustrations of the Beur, the second generation of Maghribi youth who were born and raised in France and who have not yet integrated into French society. Her book Parle mon fils, parle à ta mère (1984; Talk son, talk to your mother), illustrates the absence of dialogue between two generations who do not speak the same language.

Reviews

[Alessandro Margheriti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Molto bello questo libro, uno spaccato sulla condizione femminile algerina. Donne divise dalla guerra, dalla tradizione, dalla religione.
Ragazze che quasi non possono uscire di casa, per cui s'innamorano stando affacciate a un balcone.
Ma si sa, la corda tirata troppo a lungo prima o poi si spezza...la ribellione è dietro l'angolo, dunque.

[Chimene Bateman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sebbar writes wonderful collections of short stories, often about women in France and Algeria, and this collection (which I don’t think has been translated into English) was no exception. Particularly interesting was a story based on the real-life photography of Marc Garanger, who was commissioned by the French government in 1960 to take photos of Algerian village women who had been forced to remove their veils. I googled his name after I read the story, and there is so much anger, protest and resignation in these women’s faces. It feels ethically wrong to look at their photos, knowing that they didn’t want to be photographed and that the photography itself was an act of violence, but at the same time the photos constitute a powerful record of French (male) oppression and Algerian (female) resistance.

[Boukhalfa Inal Ahmed · Rating 3 out of 5]

C'est un recueil de nouvelles différentes, ayant chacune un rapport avec le sort de la femme en Algérie, avec l'arrivée des extrémistes. C'est bien écrit, même si ce n'est pas le meilleur livre.

[cam · Rating 3 out of 5]

(livre de cours)

[Edward Payne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Une collection de nouvelles plus ou moins intéressante, mais tout dans l’écriture et dans la manière d’aborder les thèmes est un peu trop facile, simple, simpliste même.

[Chloe Naegeli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learnt a lot about post independence Algeria