Claude Gueux by Victor Hugo – Book Review

 

Note: I read this novella in French

Cliquez ici afin de lire mon avis en français

Claude Gueux is a novella by Victor Hugo, a story that brings to light the cruelty in France in the 19^th century, and also the absurdity of the death penalty. These are debates that are relevant even today, even though most of Europe has eliminated the death penalty from their statute, a majority of the global population still lives under systems that continue to apply this barbaric practice (like US, China, India, Japan, Indonesia, etc.)

The story starts with the arrest of a poor worker, Claude Gueux, accused of stealing groceries as he was unable to feed his family anymore. However, the rations given to him in the prison was not sufficient for him and he found an inmate named Albin who was willing to share his bread with Claude. A friendship developed between them over time, which did not please the director of the prison. As a result, the director transfers Albin to another prison which impacted Claude a lot, and despite multiple demands from him to the director bring Albin back to his cell, it was rejected by the director, which provoked Claude to do crimes far more serious in nature for which he was eventually sentenced to death.

The bias and the cruelty of the system was shown well by the author, where the system forces people under precarious circumstances to commit small crimes and then, the environment in the prison is so grave that it provokes far more violent crimes. Even the judges were not willing to listen to the words of Claude and how he was provoked whereas the statements of the prosecutor and the police were taken verbatim without much of cross-examination from the judges.

The problem I had with this book was the notes that were provided by the publisher of my pocket edition (Emmanuel Buron). I understand that this is a novel that takes place in the 19^th century and a present day reader needs a bit of context for which the notes could be important. However, on most occasions it was more like a dictionary giving definitions of words which we commonly use in France even today, such as ‘sinistre’ in which case I was not sure if the target audience were Francophones or students of the French language. The important footnotes were sunk in between so many of these definitions that it became difficult for me to focus.

To conclude, I enjoyed this short read, and is a novella that is pertinent even today, given the reforms we need in criminal justice. I award the book a rating of eight on ten.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Segu by Maryse Condé – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘The year is 1797, and the kingdom of Segu is flourishing, fed by the wealth of its noblemen and the power of its warriors. The people of Segu, the Bambara, are guided by their griots and priests; their lives are ruled by the elements. But even their soothsayers can only hint at the changes to come, for the battle of the soul of Africa has begun. From the east comes a new religion, Islam, and from the West, the slave trade. Segu follows the life of Dousika Traore, the king’s most trusted advisor, and his four sons, whose fates embody the forces tearing at the fabric of the nation. There is Tiekoro, who renounces his people’s religion and embraces Islam; Siga, who defends tradition, but becomes a merchant; Naba, who is kidnapped by slave traders; and Malobali, who becomes a mercenary and halfhearted Christian.

Based on actual events, Segu transports the reader to a fascinating time in history, capturing the earthy spirituality, religious fervor, and violent nature of a people and a growing nation trying to cope with jihads, national rivalries, racism, amid the vagaries of commerce.’

Note: I read the novel in French

Segu is the first novel of the historical fiction series written by the French writer Maryse Condé. The plot takes place in West Africa (roughly around present day Mali) during the 18^th century, before the arrival of organised religions, that is, Islam and Christianity. The main characters are from the family of a Bambara nobleman close to the king of Segu named Dousika Traoré. The story captures the changes in West Africa during this time, with the arrival or religions, Europeans and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

The story starts by introducing Dousika Traoré and his family. His son Tiékoro has adopted Islam and Malobali was lost to slavery and sent across the Atlantic. The story follows several generations of this family and the impact the slave trade has had on them, how they end up getting split across the world and how the adoption of Islam and Christianity has impacted the family, as well. The story features European families (with slaves), the courts of the kings in Africa at that time, and also shows certain social problems like the interethnic tensions between the Fulani and the Bambara. There was also the problem that the society was largely illiterate and the only way to learn to read was to embrace these ‘foreign’ religions.

I have never read a historical novel that takes place in the Sahel region, and in that sense, I learnt a lot of things, including the fact that the arrival of organised religions to this region is fairly recent. The author had also done a good job in showing the complicity of some of the African rulers, who profited from the Transatlantic slave trade with the Europeans, where not even the nobles were spared (if they were, that does not justify the practice either, but in most social injustices, those that are privileged are spared the worst of it).

It is not a novel that is very easy to start given there are several characters, and I often had to look at the family tree given by the author to understand the familial connections – similar to what I had to do for an equally difficult read; One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. It is not an easy book to read either given that there are a lot of violent depictions – including rape, exploitation of slaves and unjust executions.

I found that the character of Tiékoro was most interesting, but again, was difficult to fully concentrate on him as well given how many different characters that were there. However, I understand that given this is the first instalment and you need to set up this base to bring the full story into the picture in the next book.

To conclude, this novel has provided a good start to the series and I wish to read the next one. I award this book a rating of seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘The United States is the richest country on earth, yet has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. One in seven Americans live below the poverty line, a line which hasn't shifted over the last fifty years, despite the efforts of successive governments. Why is there so much scarcity in this land of dollars?

In Poverty, by America, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond examines American poverty today and the stories we tell ourselves about it. Spanning social isolation, mass incarceration, the housing crisis, domestic violence, crack and opioid epidemics, welfare cuts and more, Desmond argues that poverty does not result from a lack of resources or good policy ideas. We already know how to eliminate it. The hard part is getting more of us to care.

To do so, we need a new story. As things stand, liberals explain poverty through insurmountable structural issues, whereas conservatives highlight personal failings and poor life choices. Both abdicate responsibility, and ignore the reality that the advantages of the rich only come at the expense of the poor. It is time better-paid citizens put themselves back in the narrative, recognizing that the depth and expanse of poverty in any nation reflects our failure to look out for one another. Poverty must ultimately be met by community: all this suffering and want is our doing, and we can undo it.’

Poverty, by America is a book written by the US-based sociology professor Matthew Desmond, explaining the causes and effects of poverty in the US. This book starts by explaining the sheer numbers of poverty, considering US is a country with considerable population and the number of poor in the US is more than the whole populations of certain countries like Australia. The author then explains structural issues, and how certain solutions proposed by the ‘pro-establishment’ - such as a stable marriage, are the kinds that support those who are already in a stable situation.

It is split into nine short chapters and talks about how many people find it difficult to imagine or understand the choices of someone who is poor, even among those who is sympathetic towards the poor and often make callous conclusions as to how they must be poor at ‘budgeting’.

I am not from the US, and even though I have got members of family (immediate and extended) living in the US, I have not been there. However, US has overwhelming influence on the world economy and it is true that the systems that US creates has cascading effects in the rest of the world. However, it must be noted that this book is very US-centric and and the examples that the author cites needs to be extrapolated to your own jurisdiction as circumstances might be very similar.

I am going to digress and refer another book I have read and reviewed in this blog – Poor Economics by Nobel laureates Abhijit V Banerjee and Esther Duflo (click here to read the review of this book) – who explain ‘poverty trap’ and reading this book in conjunction with those concepts did help me to apply to where I live (European Union in general, France in particular).

I would say that this book would be very interesting to Americans, but when he goes into specific policy details of various administrations in the past and how it affected a particular county in a particular state – that is too much detail for an outsider.

Maybe my expectation for the book was a tad misplaced – I expected it to be how the US system (the ultra-capitalist) system creates a lot of poor who cannot escape the poverty trap and are at the same time, this ‘poverty’ created by America is exported to the rest of the world (such as the sweatshops that exist in South and East Asia primarily meant to serve American industrial interests). The talk of rest of the world was very minimal barring how certain systems were better managed in France or the Netherlands.

On the whole, I found it a rather easy read, given I have read a lot on the subject, and I would say it could be a helpful read for most Americans, given how there are a lot of misconceptions around the poor, who live from paycheque to paycheque. I gained some insights on reading this book but given I am a major in economics myself, none of the contents that I read were particular moments of epiphany. Let me know in the comments if you had such moments (assuming you are not someone with a background in economics).

I award the book a rating of six on ten.

Rating – 6/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

So long a letter by Mariama Bâ – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Ramatoulaye Fall, a recently widowed Senegalese teacher, writes a letter to a lifelong friend recounting her struggle for survival after her husband took a second wife.’

Note: The novel is in French, and I read the original in French. Cliquez ici afin de lire mon avis en français

So Long a Letter is a classic from Senegalese literature, written by Mariama Bâ. It is also classified under feminist literature – originating from Africa. The main character is Ramatoulaye, who is in her mourning period after the death of her husband, with whom she had not been living for a long time. She expresses the struggles of her life to her best friend, Aissatou in this ‘long letter’.

Ramatoulaye chose to separate from her husband after he married for a second time, and she rejected polygamy. However, she is in a very conservative Senegalese society, who do not understand why would anyone be angry at their husband for this. Even Aissatou, a divorcée for the same reason, is an outlier in the same society during that era.

Our main character had to go through several difficulties emanating from her separation, having to raise all her 12 children alone. Each of them had different needs and were at different stages of their lives, some very young children and some of them being adults. She expresses all these difficulties and also the changes in Senegalese society through her letter, that she has observed, such as her daughters being increasingly westernised.

There was also a lot of pressure on Ramatoulaye to remarry after the death of her husband, which she had refused. It needs to be taken into account that this novel was written in 1979, and considering their era, both Aissatou and Ramatoulaye took revolutionary steps – thus being considered a feminist novel in Senegal.

As I am not that well versed with Senegalese culture, I felt that there were way too many important characters in such a short novel. It took me some time to get used to the setting – and for example, two important characters, Ramatoulaye’s deceased husband ‘Madou’ and Aissatou’s ex-husband ‘Modow’ have very similar sounding names. While the lack of familiarity with the names is a problem with me, the reader, I do not think it would have been any different even if these names were familiar.

To conclude, I had an occasion to discover a new country through my reading and was also happy to notice that there were such movements started by people like Mariama Bâ, to challenge the ‘traditions’ of her society. I award the novel a rating of seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,
Andy