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the complete review - politics / journalism

Algerian Chronicles

by
Albert Camus

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

B : solid collection, but very much of that time and those circumstances

See our review for fuller assessment.

  From the Reviews:

• "The singular importance of Algerian Chronicles is that it brings together for the first time in English all of Camus's writings on Algeria (.....) Certainly, in all these essays he demonstrates a most un-Parisian aversion for abstraction and a taste for the concrete detail that reveals the reality of a situation." - Andrew Hussey, Literary Review
  
  
• "Some of the most memorable pages here restate an argument Camus had already developed at length in The Rebel (.....) Even more eloquent, perhaps, are his remarks on the responsibility of intellectuals in times of hatred" - Susan Rubin Suleiman, The New York Times Book Review
  
  
• "Programmatic at times and fixed historically in the French-Algerian war -- replete with its particular repression and violence, massacre and torture -- the impassioned, politically committed Camus addresses issues that feel as current today as they did more than 50 years ago." - Publishers Weekly
  
  
• "Algerian Chronicles, never before translated in its entirety, is a document worth having. But to understand fully why Algeria in the 1950s was such a painful subject for Camus, it is necessary to join him at large in the kingdom of poverty that was his boyhood and youth. Perhaps the Kaplan-Goldhammer team will turn their attention to the essays of L'Envers et l'endroit and Noces, books about a country that no longer exists by one of the 20th century's most enduring writers." - James Campbell, Wall Street Journal

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       Algerian Chronicles collects Albert Camus' writings about Algeria from 1937 through 1958; the collection as originally published in French in 1958 has been augmented by several other pieces, including one from 1937 (the original collection begins with his 1939 articles for Alger républicain about 'The Misery of Kabylia') as well as several later letters to the editor and the like.
       The long section on 'The Misery of Kabylia' is a closer look at then famine-stricken and densely populated Kabylia (Kabylie), a Berber-dominated region on the northern edge of Algeria. Camus' articles describe the region and the issues -- many exacerbated by the 1939 famine -- and Camus suggests what some of the underlying problems are, and how they could be dealt with. The relationship to the colonial power France plays a role in much that is wrong here, but this is not yet the full-fledged 'Algerian problem' that explodes after 1945. Nevertheless, Camus' broad overview suggests much of how colonial rule has gone wrong here. (As he dryly notes at another point: "French colonial doctrine in Algeria since the conquest has not been notable for its coherence".)
       Throughout these pieces, Camus tries to combat the: "the incredible ignorance of the metropolis in regard to North African affairs". Clearly, he sees this disconnect between the reality on the ground and the perceptions in France as fundamental in the intensification of what became the Algerian crisis, with the two sides (as it were) failing spectacularly to get on the same page (i.e. communicate in any meaningful way). As such, the pieces offers numbers, facts, and observations which are meant to open French eyes as to the actual conditions in Algeria -- and both some of the causes as well as likely consequences.
       After 1945, as hostilities escalated, the situation became even more intractable, as the two sides dug themselves in -- and remained blind to the other. Camus notes:

The French authorities believe that the repression had ended the rebellion. In fact, it signaled the beginning.

People are fighting about the method and the means, while no one pays any attention to the ends.

Algeria will be lost, with terrible consequences for both the Arabs and the French. This is the last warning that can be given by a writer who for the past 20 years has been dedicated to the Algerian cause, before he once again lapses into silence.

Even if dishonorable methods are accepted in the name of realism and effectiveness, they are therefore useless, except to discredit France both at home and abroad.

- M.A.Orthofer, 19 April 2013

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Links:

• Harvard University Press publicity page

• Bookforum
• Kirkus Reviews
• Matière et Revolution (French)
• Publishers Weekly
• Scotland on Sunday
• The Scotsman

• Albert Camus at books and writers
• Nobel Prize in Literature, 1957

• See Index of books from and about Africa
• See Index of Books by Nobel laureates under review

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About the Author:

       French-Algerian author Albert Camus won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature. He lived 1913 to 1960.

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