BookReviews from our Book Club
The Country of Others
By Leïla Slimani ( 2020 )
ARTICLE BY CAROLINE D .
Young , excitable , and adventurous , 22-year-old Mathilde meets handsome Amine Belhaj , a Muslim Moroccan soldier ( Spahi ) while he is stationed in her small hometown in Alsace during World War II . They fall in love , marry , and , after the libération , Mathilde follows Amine to Morocco to start a new life together on his farm . Despite her initial romanticism ( even keeping Ramadan with her in-laws ), Mathilde is swiftly caught up in a kind of no-man ’ s land between cultures , traditions , and religions . Her French compatriots make fun of her ( it doesn ’ t help that she is not only in a mixed marriage but also a head taller than her husband ) whilst the locals don ’ t really trust her . As a person , Mathilde is fiercely independent , but as a wife , her life is dominated by men and the culture she has adopted — she has no voice , no influence , no power .
There is a recurring theme in the novel of one person evoking tradition to wield power and even violence over another . Mathilde ’ s children are considered métisse and suffer in silence . Her husband loses the voice she fell in love with once he ’ s back in his native land —“ Publicly , Amine exudes pride in having been willing to die for France , but , alone , he would shut himself away in silence and brood over his cowardice , his betrayal of his people .” Over time , Mathilde changes … and we are confronted with the question : is this change in Mathilde a sign of assimilation , a survival instinct , or a resigned submission ?
The story of Mathilde and Amine is mirrored by Morocco ’ s struggle for independence post-World War II . Both Morocco and Mathilde & Amine work hard to realize their ambitions but clash when the lack of a voice is underlined by a constant lack of money and clout to make their dreams come true .
Leila Slimani writes stunningly and keeps you totally captivated ( although increasingly disturbed ) while reading the book . Mathilde is no hero . She is not even an anti-hero . She is real . On the one hand , she had the balls to wed not only a foreigner but a colored man in the 1940s , when this was a total no-go in her social sphere . But she has sides to her one just cannot sympathize with . While she herself suffers from discrimination , she bullies her
local maid , who she treats as a racial inferior . Slimani ’ s book jolted me and made me research the Spahi . Even I , a French national , had no idea that over 80,000 Moroccan soldiers fought for France during World War II — that they went from being freedom fighters ( beginning of World War II ) to losers ( during Vichy ) and then victors ( de Gaulle ), and lastly to be perceived as traitors to their own country because France didn ’ t deliver on its promise of independence . On a personal note , my parents post-war Franco-German love story and wedding , which neither of their families was willing to attend ( she a French Catholic from a family of industrialists fighting Vichy in the free zone , he a Protestant German ), simply pales in comparison to this story told by Laila Slimani .
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