Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Tous les hommes désirent naturellement savoir by Nina Bouraoui

2 reviews

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The writing in this was stunning, like so beautiful and gentle but then so vivid and violent

‘I feel guilty but I don't know how I've sinned.’

‘“I've learned how to ignore things for which there are no words. Without a name, nothing can exist.”’

‘France is an outfit I wear; Algeria is my skin, exposed to sun and storms.’

‘This photograph sums up my father - he's there but he's not really present, a prince with his crown in his hands, trying to keep it out of sight.’

‘Everything turns to blood, grime, mud, fire. An apocalypse. They are murdering my childhood.’

‘I want to be a magician, transform reality when it doesn't suit me, tell stories the way I like them, with happy endings.’

‘We stand tall on the swings, my sister and I, two birds in flight, unfettered, free.’

‘I'm not trying to put myself in danger, I just want to see how long it will take for someone to notice I've gone. I'll find out how much they love me.’

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james1star's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Wow! Honestly this book totally blew me away, by page three I knew it was something special and at thirty three it became a new favourite of mine.

Bouraoui’s work of autofiction tells her story of being a lesbian in 1980s Paris exploring her sexuality and identity under the backdrop of a growing threat (AIDS) and a legacy of silence and shame within the queer community. This marks the ‘chapters’ (they’re tiny, none more then three pages) headed ‘Becoming’ with the others: ‘Remembering’ and ‘Knowing’ giving the reader insight into Nina’s childhood split between Algeria and France, where her Father and Mother are from respectively. There is rather minimal plot but you don’t read it for this, the poetic, lyrical, mesmerising, darn right beautiful prose pulls you in and refuses to let you go from page one right to the very end. The writing is so exquisite leaving me stunned on nearly every page, I underlined whilst reading and only about 70% is left untouched, that’s how amazing I found it. What I also loved was how relatable parts of this was, as a queer person reading this there was just a lot I could not only understand but wholeheartedly feel within me and for this I truly appreciate books you can see yourself in. The queer experience is only half of what’s encapsulated within, that if being an immigrant and having two nationalities/identities is so well articulated. Additionally, themes of friendships, relationships, family dynamics, motherhood, religion and politics, racism and so many more are discussed. 

I could fill pages upon pages with quotes from this book but I’ll narrow it down so you have something to look forward to when you read it… because you must read this book. These are the best from the first thirty three pages, there’s a lot where this comes from: 
‘In the gay community (I like these two words, they don’t do much belong to me as own me)…’ 
‘France is an outfit I wear; Algeria is my skin, exposed to sun and storms.’ 
‘There is such thing as a gay childhood. My childhood. No excuses are needed. There’s no explanation. It simply is.’ 
‘The gay child is not lacking, she is different, outside of the norm, inside a normality of her own; not until later will she come to understand that her normality marks her out from others, condemns her to secrecy and shame.’ 

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