A review by crafalsk264
The Last Summer of Reason by Tahar Djaout

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

In 1993, the author of this book was murdered by the Armed Islamic Group for his support of secularism and opposition for what he considered fanaticism. He had already lost his wife and children when they desert him to become fundamentalists. This book was the last written by Djaout and untitled at the time of his death. The story follows an Algerian bookseller, Bouslem Yekker, has a good life with a wife, son and daughter and friends who love books and knowledge almost as much as he does. In the late 1980s Islamic fundamentalism began to infiltrate the schools, the political organizations and mosques of Algeria. Using tactics most recently demonstrated by Hitler’s and the Nazi party, the country became more and more intolerant. 

The book is a chronicle of how a society that valued the written word and its study for hundreds of years are now slipping into fundamentalism and books are one of the first tiers of democracy and civilization. Although Djaout wrote this in his home country of Algeria, it can be generalized to any country and any time. The slide toward fundamentalism is a constant temptation and intolerance is often its shadow or its midwife. Djaout had not titled this manuscript when he died. The tile was taken from the first line in the third chapter. There are so many quotes that to choose one is very difficult. One of my favorites appears below…  

“Djaout posed the question in his novel – how long would you resist the change that he experienced? How long would you resist to keep your basic freedom of thought?  The closing words of this novel written by Djaout shortly before being murdered:  “Will there be another spring”?”
  From…The Last Summer of Reason by Tahar Djaout 

Recommend to readers interested in Africa, Dystopian, Books-About-Books, religion.