The Last Summer of Reason

Posted on 02 December 2017 by Tahar Djaout

This elegantly haunting work of fiction features bookstore owner Boualem Yekker, who lives in a country overtaken by a radically conservative party known as the Vigilant Brothers, a group that seeks to control every aspect of life according to the precepts of their rigid moral theology The belief that no work of beauty created by humans should rival the wonders of their god is slowly consuming society, and the art once treasured is now despised Boualem resists the new regime with quiet determination, using the shop and his personal history as weapons against puritanical forces Readers are taken into the lush depths of the bookseller s dreams, the memories of his now empty family life, and his passion for literature, then yanked back into the terror and drudgery of his daily routine by the vandalism, assaults, and death warrants that afflict him Books have been the compost in which Boualem s life ripened, to the point where his bookish hands and his carnal hands, his paper body and his body of flesh and blood very often overlap and mingle In the end Boualem himself didn t see a clear distinction any He has met so many characters in books, he has come in contact with so many destinies that his own life would be nothing without them Marketing plans for The Last Summer of Reason A percentage of proceeds go to ABFFE Joint promotions with ABFFE and member stores, including highlight in Bookselling This Week, Galley mailing BookSense Galley Program participation National advertising Co op availableTahar Djaout was considered one of the most promising writers of his generation, and was a firm believer in democracy Djaout s murder wasattributed to the Islamic Salvation Front, who reported that he was killed because he wielded a fearsome pen He is the author of eleven books, including the novel Les vigiles, which won the Prix Mediterrane. Best Read [ The Last Summer of Reason ] author [ Tahar Djaout ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr Can a man exist with a heart capable of committing the horrors thus told This brief, terrifying tale of dystopia was found in he author s papers after fundamentalists killed him outside his home in in Algeria in 1992 This is an interminable nightmare, but one with blessing Such terrors are sanctioned from on high and that is the element which scares me People are often so certain about religion Doubt is removed Butchering everyone else can be viewed to assist and assert...review originally written for Bookslut Tahar Djaout was assassinated for writing books like The Last Summer of Reason His words are disconcerting, discomforting, and it s not only the fundamentalist Islamic groups who have been attributed the responsibility for his death who should be uneasy, it should be all of us This book is an elegant argument ...This is most of all a love letter to books, and their expression of dreams and ideas This is also a warning cry about people who destroy books because they hate dreams and ideas the sort of people who love only control death.Lately I ve been thinking a lot about ideas in books and speech, and the necessity of dissent Here, the author evokes a world in which those who love ideas are silenced and persecuted This world is dark, bleak and scary and it is also a parallel to the repress This is most of all a love letter to books, and their expression of dreams and ideas This is also a warning cry about people who destroy books because they hate dreams and ideas the sort of people who love only control death.Lately I ve been thinking a lot about ideas in books and speech, and the necessity of dissent Here, the author evokes a world in which those who love ideas are silenced and persecuted This world is dark, bleak and scary and it is also a parallel to the repressive communities and institutions within our own very real world.But Tahar Djaout s last book feels so unfinished In some ways this makes the bookpowerful, because it serves as a reminder that Djaout was actually murdered by religious extremists before the book was published In other ways, though, I think it makes the narrator s terror, anger, love...Boualem Yekker, bookseller in an unnamed county, is living on borrowed time as someone who does not buy into the new extremely religious regime in his country The dictatorial new laws are enforced with violence and through coercion, and require women to be completely covered and religious rituals to be practiced They also forbid things like books, music, and mixed gender or otherwise immoral socializing Boualem s family, disgusted with his refusal to comply, have left him We spend the nove Boualem Yekker, bookseller in an unnamed county, is living on borrowed time as someone who does not buy into the new extremely religious regime in his country The dictatorial new laws are enforced with violence and through coercion, and require women to be completely covered and religious rituals to be practiced They also forbid things like books, music, and mixed gender or otherwise immoral socializing Boualem s family, disgusted with his refusal to comply, have left him We spend the novel in Boualem s thoughts and dreams He considers his past, including wonderful memories, and dreams terrible things Books the closeness of them, their contact, their smell, and their contents constitute the safest refuge against this world of horror They are the most pleasant and the most subtle means of traveling to acompassiona...Beklemmend hoe Tahar Djaout de defaitistische gedachtewereld beschrijft van een boekhandelaar in een fundamentalistisch islamitisch regime In alles een soort islamitische staat avant la lettre, met een zedenpolitie, met rigide kledingvoorschriften, met een propaganda offensief in kunst, cultuur en wetenschap, met openlijke vijandigheid naar vrouwen toe en met een uitgebreid kliksysteem om de brave gelovigen van de ongelovigen te scheiden Een politieke en ideologische beweging om verschillende Beklemmend hoe Tahar Djaout de defaitistische gedachtewereld beschrijft van een boekhandelaar in een fundamentalistisch islamitisch regime In alles een soort islamitische staat avant la lettre, met een zedenpolitie, met rig...Getting assassinated by fanatic extremists for your writing is badassThis review is for the English translation of an Algerian book.If I was one of those heathens who highlights in books, I would have highlighted every word in this one The writing is stunning I wish I had read this book sooner instead of letting it linger on my shelf for months.I first heard of author Tahar Djaout several years ago, but The Last Summer of Reason is t...This lyrical story all thestunning for being a translation portrays the importance of art and the dangers of fundamentalism with power and brevity I cannot recommend itenthusiastically The brilliant and incisive preface by Wole Soyinka is a must read.One of my favorite books ever written This novel is so important, especially in times like these.This novel reminds you of how important it is to understand one another, no matter how different People have a right to have different interests, beliefs, and opinions This is what makes the world such a magically diverse place.Below are a few of my favorite quotes The proliferation of a mind set that feeds on a compulsion to destroy other beings who do not share, not even the same beliefs, bu One of my favorite books ever written This novel is so important, especially in times like these.This novel reminds you of how important it is to understand one another, no matter how different People have a right to have...I was introduced to this book as a result of reading A History of Algeria by James McDougall, which described the sort of absurd, random violence this author found himself caught up in This was a time when Algerians were burning books, murdering intellectuals, beating up unveiled women and killing people because they found wine corks in their garbage The radicals were choosing to kill anyone who refused to think and act as they did Tahar Djaout was an outspoken critic of the Islamic extremis I was introduced to this book as a result of reading A History of Algeria by James McDougall, which described the sort of absurd, random violence this author found himself caught up in This was a time when Algerians were burning books, murdering intellectuals, beating up unveiled women and killing people because they found wine corks in their garbage The radicals were choosing to kill anyone who refused to think and act as they did Tahar Djaout wa...

English
02 December 2017

Tahar Djaout