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Customer Reviews (2)

I couldn't put it down - facinating
This book claims to take on, for the most part, the position of women in contemporary Algeria. But you can see many people's lives and how they're affected in this book. The narrative switches back and forth between Sultana, an Algerian woman doctor who lives in France, and a Frenchman in Algeria, Vincent. From the first few pages to the very end, it captivated me. It is hard to understand the FIS (Front Islamique du Salut, a radical Islamist Algerian political group) and their way of living. Sultana is an extremely dignified with much credibility and worthy of anyone's respect, yet she is called a [...] by her fellow Algerians when she walks on the street or goes to a bar or does anything really. The very end is the most surprising act of repression of all.

But there are so many glimpses of hope in this book as well, the little girl character of Delilah, the nurse Khaled (even though he said some distasteful things to Sultana in the beginning, he emerged as a better character toward the end). It seems that Algeria is torn between the strong, fundamental Islam, and the changing world and people not wanting to be oppressed (who would?). Most of the Algerians I met were not very religious, but I was in the city of Alger and Bejaia. Maybe fundamentalism is always a negative thing when it comes to faith and sprituality. Nobody has the right to force their ideas on others, isn't that why we have rhetoric? (trying to be ironic).

I'm sure this book was much better in its original French language text, although the translation is very good as well. Highly recommended. Algeria is facinating.

Excellent for the classroom.
One of the very best works of contemporary fiction set in the Maghrib.Raises the issues you would want for class discussion without the aggressive "eradicatory" anti-Islamism of most Algerian writers. ... Read more

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Of Dreams and Assassins is the urgent and rhythmic fourth novel of Malika Mokeddem, her second to appear in English. Born in Algeria to a Bedouin family that had only recently become sedentary, Mokeddem was raised on the stories of her grandmother, who encouraged her education at a time when girls did not go to school. Though raised in a tolerant version of Islam, Mokeddem nevertheless felt the weight of custom and tradition. Of Dreams and Assassins, though not strictly autobiographical, evokes through the beauty and vastness and oppressive heat of the desert Mokeddem's early yearning for freedom. Through its heroine, Kenza, and her simultaneous rebellion and immersion in the literary classics at a boarding school, the novel dramatizes the possibilities for women to express their identities.

Kenza is an exile, first in her own society and later in France. Born during a visit to Montpellier in the year of Algerian independence, she returns with her mother to Oran to find her father has taken another wife. Her mother leaves alone, never to return. Kenza's subsequent search for herself through the mother she doesn't know, told in a frank first-person narrative, mirrors the struggle of Algerian women to make a place in a society that has stripped them of their rights in spite of their crucial participation in the war for independence. Kenza's suffocating childhood in the house of her boisterous, leering father is broken only by summers in the desert, where the dates "become golden brown and gleam like little clusters of suns that mock the children." Eventually, Kenza, like Mokeddem herself, leaves her home to go to school in Montpellier, because she can no longer tolerate life in Algeria.

Of Dreams and Assassins is a protest, against the subjugation of women in Algeria and the violence of the last ten years, perpetrated by fundamentalist Muslim guerrillas. In exile, Kenza puts her hope in mtissage, the blending of cultures embodied by the character of Slim, her friend and confidant, who lives happily with his mixed-race origins. Kenza's story dramatizes Mokeddem's belief that the future of Algeria lies in its women and in education; only through liberation and education can the pain of Kenza's exile be redeemed. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from International Fiction Review, published by International Fiction Association on January 1, 2003. The length of the article is 970 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Malika Mokeddem Of Dreams and Assassins.(Book Review)
Author: Patricia Geesey
Publication: International Fiction Review (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2003
Publisher: International Fiction Association
Volume: 30Issue: 1-2Page: 100(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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This digital document is an article from World Literature Today, published by University of Oklahoma on March 22, 1999. The length of the article is 559 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Malika Mokeddem. La nuit de la lezarde. Paris. Grasset. 1998. 228 pages. 118 F. ISBN 2-246-57311-4.(Review)
Author: Nada Elia
Publication: World Literature Today (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 1999
Publisher: University of Oklahoma
Volume: 73Issue: 2Page: 373

Article Type: Book Review

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This digital document is an article from Siempre!, published by Editorial Cruzada, S.A. DE C.V. on March 2, 2008. The length of the article is 408 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: La prohibida: Malika Mokeddem.
Author: Ricardo Muòoz Munguîa
Publication: Siempre! (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 2, 2008
Publisher: Editorial Cruzada, S.A. DE C.V.
Volume: 54Issue: 2855Page: 76(2)

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more