In the Country of Others

Many contemporary novels deal with experiences in and with other cultures, but what is unusual about Leila Slimani's novel is, among other things, the direction of the emigration movement: her novel is set in the 1940s and is the first volume of a trilogy. In this book, she describes the life of her grandparents. Her young, vivacious grandmother Mathilde, newly married, moves with her husband, a Moroccan officer, to the so-called French ‘protectorate’. She quickly realises that even here she will not be freed from the ‘domestic duties’ she fled from. What's more, her husband soon turns out to be a real patriarch, and life in the Moroccan countryside is harder than she thought. Amine takes over the remote farm at the foot of the show more Atlas Mountains. He has precise ideas about how he wants to run it, but he lacks the financial means and the patience. Mathilde raises their two children and insists that their daughter Aïcha be educated at the French convent school. Aïcha is a highly intelligent girl, but she is unable to fit into the French “society” of her place of residence. She is also very sensitive. The family receives support only from a Hungarian Jewish gynaecologist who fled to Morocco with his young wife during the Second World War.
Furthermore, Mathilde and Amine have to contend with increasing racist discrimination both in France and in their new home – all the more so as the conflicts with the occupiers intensify due to the independence efforts.
Slimani tells the story simply, discreetly and with all the necessary nuance. She skilfully and deftly weaves social issues with personal ones. A novel that is ‘brilliant’ precisely because of its sobriety.
She describes everyday life during the 1940s and 1950s from the Moroccan perspective and that of the French community living there. The divide between the two societies could not be greater.
I am already very excited about the second volume. show less

Read Around the World. Morocco.

In the Country of Others is a historical fiction by Moroccan author Leïla Slimani, set in Morocco in the 1940s and 1950s. It is the first book of a trilogy.

French Catholic Mathilde meets handsome Muslim Moroccan soldier Amine Belhaj in 1944 when he is stationed in Alsace fighting for the French in WWII. The two fall in love and after the war Mathilde moves from Strasbourg to Rabat, Morocco, to start what she envisages to be a romantic adventurous exotic life. The reality is somewhat different, and she struggles with the hot, dusty isolation and confines of her new life. On the one hand she is shunned by the French for marrying a Moroccan and the locals perceive her to be a foreigner. Amine shifts from show more being the romantic hero to a controlling, abusive workaholic determined to get ahead. He also is torn between his sympathies with his countrymen (including his brother Oman) who are pushing for independence and his loyalties to the French who he fought for.

Their daughter Aïcha also struggles at the Catholic school she attends with the cruelty of children towards those they perceive as different or other. Mathilde rages at the confines of her life and finally settles herself to giving medical aid to the villagers.

This book gives great insight into life in 1940s and 50s Morocco and the political climate of the time. My main problem was there was not one likeable character in the book. Mathilde varies from being petty and self absorbed to bizarre and almost deranged at times. Nonetheless, this was a worthwhile read but I’m not sure I’ll persist with the sequels. show less

The first volume of a proposed trilogy telling a family history on 20th century Morocco.
I found the early part of the book a little slow and fragmentary, but quickly started enjoying the writing and the content.
Like all good historical fiction, the reader feels privileged to gain an insight into another time, place and culture. The author is not didactic, but I learned much anyway. The characters are believable, and seem to be closely based on the author's family and connections.
I really enjoyed the book, and felt engaged with the family, and the country, as both move forward, with steps and missteps.
Looking forward to reading volume 2.

Written by author of “Lullaby” this is story of a young French woman who falls in love with a Moroccan soldier who is part of the liberating force in her village. Wanting to escape restricted village life she joins her husband in his native country. From then on she learns both how different the country and the role (options for) women is. Tempted not to return after a visit to her father’s funeral in France, she commits to her new life. In the Moroccan background the nationalist movement is growing in strength and violent action. Although trying to largely ignore what is going on around them, they are drawn in. As I read, I wondered if the family might be destroyed by the tumult around them, but the novel ends with them looking show more out on the impending chaos. show less

I'm not sure why I reserved this at the library; and I'm also not sure why I persisted with it when it was a bit of a slog to read. Was it because I'd never read anything set in Morocco before? Nope, I read four: Desert by Nobel Laureate JMG Le Clezio, translated by C. Dickson; The Storyteller of Marrakesh by Indian author Joydeep Roy-Battacharya; and two by Australian authors: Watch Out for Me by Sylvia Johnson, and Closer to Stone by Simon Cleary. Maybe it was because I thought it was time to read an author who was Moroccan?

The trouble is, it reads like the family history it is, turned into a rather long-winded novel. (There are 313 pages and this is only Volume One). The intent is worthy: Mathilde's struggle for self-determination in show more a patriarchal society is an analogy with Morocco's struggle against colonialism under the French. But it's a messy analogy because Mathilde is French, and thus her desire for freedom comes from her French background and the independence that she had in the Resistance. Her ideas about feminism and autonomy come from an 'external' culture, and the implications of this are amplified by the extensive and often brutal commentary about how backward Morocco was in the postwar period when the novel is set.

Odd bits of detail are disconcerting: puzzling irrelevances break up the flow of the writing for no apparent purpose. This paragraph prefaces Mathilde intervention in her niece Selma's rebellious behaviour.

When Mathilde reached the old hobnailed door, she grabbed the knocker and banged it twice, very hard. Yasmine opened it — she'd lifted up her skirts and Mathilde could see that her black calves were covered in curly hairs. It was almost ten in the morning but the house was quiet. She could hear the purring of the cats stretched out in the courtyard and the slop of the wet mop that the maid was using to clean the floor. Yasmine watched in astonishment as Mathilde took off her djellaba, tossed her headscarf onto a chair and ran upstairs. Yasmine coughed so hard that she spat a thick, greenish wad of mucus into the well. (p.90)

Apart from the fact that this is a bad case of Tell Everything, why does Yasmine lift up her skirts, and what are we meant to infer from the sight of those curly hairs? And how does Yasmine from the doorstep cough her disgusting mucus into the well?

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2021/12/29/the-country-of-others-by-leila-slimani-trans... show less

This is the first book in a planned trilogy. How exciting that I have 2 more books to read. Can’t wait. This book is a family saga of the Frenchwoman and the Arab/Moroccan. A mixed marriage in the time of political strife. Mathilde, the Frenchwoman has to navigate her new life in Morocco where the culture is so different than France. There is unhappiness which gradually turns to acceptance. The path of this transformation is the book and is definitely worth a read.

*** : L'Algérie des années 50 vue par une jeune française mariée à un algérien. A suivre.