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lorenadh27's review
2.0
I really wanted to enjoy this book but I just couldn't. While the story, broadly, is interesting, I didn't find the characters engaging, except maybe Jallal. I think I would have preferred it if I could have found a copy in French, but the English translation felt quite stiff at times. Sort of made me think of Effroyable Jardins, but that might just be because of the circus and the presence of war. I didn't like that book either. Anyway, a tentative 1.5 rounded up to two and my third book in my literary journey around the world.
serialreader's review
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and War
Moderate: Violence
lowlovesbooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
esquiredtoread's review
2.0
Algeria Book around the World
So I am incredibly ignorant to this period in history. I am grateful to learn more about the war, The French's involvement in Algeria, and the aftermath. I started the read the world challenge for this very reason, to learn a lot more apart from my own perspective.
However, as a book this was not very good. In the same chapter we got a VARIETY of POVs, all in third person and many different perspectives. Every chapter, right after a "cliffhanger" we went through a VARIETY of time periods back and forth and forward again. This choppy formatting made it very difficult to stay engaged with the characters and very difficult to follow the storyline.
Anna's past with the circus I thought was brought in way too late in the book. By the time we went allll the way back and explored Anna's childhood and her life in the circus I felt like it was a bit too late to get her backstory? Or to care about it?
And finally, I find that almost everytime a male author tries to write a graphic sex scene (or even semi graphic) from the female POV --even in third person!-- it is disturbing moreso than sensual or romantic. This really took away from the love story for me and I never really got it.
I kept reading this book for the history, what I was learning, the little boy Jallal.
So I am incredibly ignorant to this period in history. I am grateful to learn more about the war, The French's involvement in Algeria, and the aftermath. I started the read the world challenge for this very reason, to learn a lot more apart from my own perspective.
However, as a book this was not very good. In the same chapter we got a VARIETY of POVs, all in third person and many different perspectives. Every chapter, right after a "cliffhanger" we went through a VARIETY of time periods back and forth and forward again. This choppy formatting made it very difficult to stay engaged with the characters and very difficult to follow the storyline.
Anna's past with the circus I thought was brought in way too late in the book. By the time we went allll the way back and explored Anna's childhood and her life in the circus I felt like it was a bit too late to get her backstory? Or to care about it?
And finally, I find that almost everytime a male author tries to write a graphic sex scene (or even semi graphic) from the female POV --even in third person!-- it is disturbing moreso than sensual or romantic. This really took away from the love story for me and I never really got it.
I kept reading this book for the history, what I was learning, the little boy Jallal.
williamc's review
5.0
The Lovers of Algeria is a horrifyingly vivid, achingly tragic novel with, at its core, a fragile and imperfect love story spanning decades of loss, relocation, and hopeful discovery in its North African setting. The story, told in overlapping flashbacks and contemporary (1997) scenes, is too involved to recite, but it should be enough to say that Anna, a Swiss gaouria, and Arab Nassreddine have an unconventional love affair that begins when they are young adults and continues, or tries to continue, amid four decades of war between European, Algerian, and religious interests. The scenes of conflict are intensely graphic, but Benmalek’s skill as an author is equally as true in crafting scenes of memorable, albeit sad beauty for his cautious but passionate pair; these are the scenes that may — and I am not sure they do — transcend two lives brimmed with disappointment. Love, we hope, can outlast everything, but the scars of destruction this story undresses for us do not fade from memory so easily.
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