Thank you so much, Funmi, for this post! It will be useful for my French lit. course next fall.
President, Association of African Women Scholars (AAWS)
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Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2015 11:00 PM
To: cafeafricana1 Okelola
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud (Author), John Cullen (Translator)
The Meursault Investigation – June 2, 2015
"A tour-de-force reimagining of Camus's The Stranger, from the point of view of the mute Arab victims." —The New Yorker
He was the brother of "the Arab" killed by the infamous Meursault, the antihero of Camus's classic novel. Seventy years after that event, Harun, who has lived since childhood in the shadow of his sibling's memory, refuses to let him remain anonymous: he gives his brother a story and a name—Musa—and describes the events that led to Musa's casual murder on a dazzlingly sunny beach.
In a bar in Oran, night after night, he ruminates on his solitude, on his broken heart, on his anger with men desperate for a god, and on his disarray when faced with a country that has so disappointed him. A stranger among his own people, he wants to be granted, finally, the right to die.
The Stranger is of course central to Daoud's story, in which he both endorses and criticizes one of the most famous novels in the world. A worthy complement to its great predecessor, The Meursault Investigation is not only a profound meditation on Arab identity and the disastrous effects of colonialism in Algeria, but also a stunning work of literature in its own right, told in a unique and affecting voice.
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Nothing…prepared me for [Daoud's] first novel, The Meursault Investigation, a thrilling retelling of Albert Camus's 1942 classic, The Stranger, from the perspective of the brother of the Arab killed by Meursault, Camus's antihero. The novel...not only breathes new life into The Stranger; it also offers a bracing critique of postcolonial Algeria... The premise is ingenious: that The Stranger, about the murder of an unnamed Arab on an Algiers beach, was a true story…Meursault is less a critique of The Stranger than its postcolonial sequel." —The New York Times Magazine
"A tour-de-force reimagining of Camus's The Stranger, from the point of view of the mute Arab victims." —The New Yorker
"[A] retelling of Albert Camus's classic The Stranger from an Algerian perspective...[this] debut novel reaped glowing international reviews, literary honors, and then, suddenly, demands for [Daoud's] public execution." —New York Times
"Daoud has said that his novel is an homage to Albert Camus's The Stranger, but it reads more like a rebuke...Where Camus's godless prose is coolly mathematical in its ratio of words to meaning, Daoud's work conducts waves of warmth. The sand and the sea and the sky and the stars, which, for Camus, seem to negate life rather than affirm it, are, for Daoud, vital witnesses and participants in his existence." —NewYorker.com
"Kamel Daoud's remarkable debut novel isn't simply a postcolonial reimagining but an allegory of his own country and time...[The Meursault Investigation] has the magnetism of its forebear, but its themes of voicelessness and vengeance feel utterly present-day." —Vogue
"Camus's The Stranger is vividly reimagined in Daoud's intensely atmospheric novel...readers will be captivated." —Publishers Weekly (Starred review)
"The nameless Arab victim of Albert Camus's The Stranger receives a biography and a name in this thoughtful, controversial rejoinder from the other side of the colonial question...Fiction with a strong moral edge, offering a Rashomon-like response to a classic novel." —Kirkus Reviews
"[A] blazing, brilliantly conceived debut novel...An eye-opening, humbling read, splendid whether or not you know and love the original." —Library Journal
"In The Meursault Investigation, Kamel Daoud takes us to a territory that is clearly his own. I loved the unexpected depth to the restorative nature of the text, which enthralls the readers all the more, especially when they are familiar with Albert Camus's The Stranger. It is a wonderful novel and I enjoyed reading it." —Nuruddin Farah, award-winning author of Hiding in Plain Sight
"A superb novel…In the future, The Stranger and The Meursault Investigation will be read side by side." —Le Monde des livres
"Very beautiful writing, original, located between suppressed anger and bursts of elation." —Les Echos
"A breathtaking and effectively realized novel. The Stranger becomes a palindrome… The Meursault Investigation approaches the incredible, in that it reverses the perspective and point of view not without an emphatic ferociousness, all while playing with the prose and perspective of The Stranger." —La Croix
"A remarkable homage to its model." —Le Nouvel observateur
"An intense and surprising story." —La Montagne
About the Author
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