Reviews for Children of the New World: A Novel of the Algerian War

The average rating for Children of the New World: A Novel of the Algerian War based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-03-08 00:00:00 Joyce Bowes Wonderfully structured, short book that tells the story of one Algerian day, both normal and pivotal: March 24th, 1956. In many ways, the novel resembles the "Wandering Rocks" chapter of Ulysses - 22 intersecting characters pass in and out of the town square and hand off the baton of narrative as they go. The novel begins with tragedy, and the perspectives of 4 very different women: one permanently cloistered in her home; one living alone, with her husband rebelling in the mountainside; one in jail; one condemned in town as a spy, whose morality defies the expectations of the town. From there, after a pivot chapter with a policeman, the book switches to the perspectives of 4 local men, each of whom will be altered by the women. It's really well thought out, and the characters, particularly Cherifa, the cloistered woman, are wonderful. The war and action seem very far away at times, and I liked how the reader is made to supplement the book with research, how the battle on the mountain feels like a 3-D television at the edge of most of the sequences. I did feel that scenework melted away a bit as the novel went along - it was written quickly, and it sometimes shows in the second half. The book also trails off more then ends, which might be an obligation of structure but still felt disappointing. My secondary reading has mainly talked about CHILDREN in context as a feminist work of sociology, and it serves that essential purpose well, but one shouldn't overlook Djebar's essential novelistic skills and evocative writing either. Recommended.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-12-29 00:00:00 Laura Lalor March 24th, 1956. One day, twenty characters and 272 well-written pages later, I am left amazed by the amount of caring Assia Djebar awakened in my somewhat blasé heart. Indeed Les enfants du nouveau monde (Children of the New World in English) strikes me as a splendidly structured novel I won't forget, and a much-needed voice for Algerian women of the time. Recommended to every reader who's interested in reading about a generation sacrificed at the altar of greed by France and its decades-long colonization. TW : Rape, torture