Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey

Abstract

WORLD LITERATURE IN REVIEW ^^^^^^^^^^^Hpi i Using a consistently direct, ele gantly concise style, Ananissoh suc cessfully conveys his vision of an irreducible core of moral darkness in the heat and blinding light of the noonday sun. Edward Ousselin Western Washington University M?issa Bey. Puisque mon c ur est mort La Tour d'Aigu?s, France. LAube. 2010.254 pages. 18. isbn 978-2-8159-0000-3 Aida, a divorced, middle-aged Alge rian mother and English literature professor, is writing increasingly desperate messages to her recently assassinated only son. Part revenge tragedy, part mournful introspec tion, Ma'issa Bey's harrowing and superbly written novel bears witness to the tens of thousands of victims of Islamic fundamentalism in this long suffering North African country. Beginning with A?da's new status as a bereaved mother and ending with the moment when she confronts her son's killer, Puisque mon c ur est mort (Since my heart is dead) provides in the course of fifty short chapters the portrait of an ordinary, if somewhat unconventional, woman who strug gles against both her grief and the rigid social norms of her community. Due to a law of amnesty designed to put an end to a decade of civil war, A?da knows that the man who shot her son will not be brought to justice. She describes the societal effect of this law as a pro cess of relegating the brutal, bloody years of a war waged against civil ians to the presumably soothing sta tus of a distant dream. Meanwhile, the murder of her son has corifined A?da to a recurring nightmare that begins "au moment pr?cis o? j'ouvre les yeux sur la lumi?re du jour, de chaque jour" (precisely when I open Ma?ssa Bey Puisque mon cceur est mort roman my eyes to see the first light of the day, of every day). Spkaling into a form of madness, having abandoned her professional responsibilities, she spends her days alone in her apart ment, venturing out only to visit her son's grave or to walk along a desolate beach. A?da finds no sol ace when she learns that her son, Nadir, a medical student, was shot by mistake, the real target having apparently been his friend Hakim, the son of the local police chief. Fit tingly enough, it is the guilt-ridden Hakim who will supply the grieving mother with a gun, ostensibly for her own protection, but which will also allow her to plan and carry out her vengeance. Much of the narrative is devoted to A?da's recounting, in the form of a one-sided dialogue, of her son's short life. From Nadir's circumci sion to the beginnings of his medical studies, from his group of friends to his briefly glimpsed loves, A?da's son slowly becomes a fleshed-out character, even as the ramifications of his death propel the narrative forward. The posthumous portrait of Nadir also furnishes details about how daily life in Algeria has been impacted by the unrermtting terror and Jollings. Speaking about her son's generation, A?da points out that due to the long years of mas sacres and assassinations, normal leisure activities?such as going out to a concert or a film?have disap peared: "Toutes ces choses-l? appar tiennent ? un pass? r?volu" (all those things are part of a distant past). It is in such comments about her son's and her own daily life, which attest to ordinary human concerns, that A?da's own character transcends what might have been a stereotypical depiction of a grief-stricken mother, bent on revenge. While she is at one level an allegorical representation of her conflict-ridden society, A?da remains a deeply fascinating indi vidual, even as she succumbs to the violence that surrounds her. (Edito rial note: To read an essay by Bey, see the November 2007 issue of WLT.) Edward Ousselin Western Washington University Peter Carey. Parrot and Olivier in Amer ica. New York. Knopf. 2010. 387 pages, ill. $26.95. ISBN 978-0-307-59262-0 One thing the polymath Australian novelist Peter...