Favorite readings can be shared.
Our community recommends a new book to you every day.
Today, "The belly of men" by Samira El Ayachi, published on September 2, 2021 by Éditions de l'Abe.
Marceline Bodier, bookstagramer and contributor to the
20 Minutes
Books
reading group
, recommends
The Belly of Men
by Samira El Ayachi, published on September 2, 2021 by Éditions de l'Abe.
Her favorite quote:
… As long as we are in each other's arms, my daddy, you and me, it's going to be fine, it's going to be fine.
Why this book?
Because we can well imagine that the first sentence of the book
is heavy with meaning: "It is of my father that I think when they come to seek me". The belly of men is that of the visceral bond between a girl and her father. It is this bond, in a painful family with the most classic Oedipal ties (“There will always be her between daddy and me” - guess who “she” is), but also where the children grow up with the idea that “ If you don't want to end up like your mother, do school well ”. Hannah will be a French teacher, then a teacher. But at what cost…
Because we suspect that the date of November 14, 2016
on which the book opens is not chosen at random. The 2015 attacks are one of the common threads. But they are unexpectedly so, the meaning of which is revealed at the end and reflects on the society in which we want to live. Because is it normal to arrive in police custody when you refuse to change your desires for an open society, because you prefer to try to change a so-called world order where attacks are inevitable?
Because the belly of men is the mine in which they descend
every day, at the risk of their lives. The reference to
Germinal
is omnipresent, and this book fascinates Hannah as much as it repels her. Until the day when she has access to her father's story: all the obscure events of her childhood suddenly take on meaning, from the reasons for their ban on returning to Morocco until her father appeared on television one evening. from 1987. Neither hero nor fallen, his father is a man who has in turn suffered and taken in hand his destiny.
Because the stomachs of men are also that of all humans,
"with an eight-meter pipe and all the fears folded in it". A pure concentrate of extreme emotions, between fears of firedamp and silicosis, fear of the consequences of withdrawing into oneself, and fear of confronting one's story. The novel is set at the exact point where dramatic historical events meet, and the intimate story that must deal with and move forward anyway. It is an understatement to say that I was upset on all pages.
Because the belly of men is finally the earth,
"She who nourishes it, She who will eat it": and the men of history, they are Moroccans who fled the drought in their country in the sixties. , the first climatic immigrants, whose story has not yet been told.
“We didn't leave because of no work / we left because of the drought”.
Enough to renew the reading of our recent past, around themes which, far from disappearing, are becoming even more urgent.
The essentials in 2 minutes
The plot.
Hannah, a teacher, was arrested on November 14, 2016 after having committed a serious act: which one?
Why during her police custody, is it the story of her father that she thinks of, a Moroccan minor who fought for their rights to be recognized?
History crushes humans, but not blindly ...
Characters.
It is the story of Hannah's distraught love for her father, and how the immigration story of this father (Moroccan, who became a minor in northern France) translates into that of his daughter. (teacher after a path of academic excellence, but who sabotages her career).
Places.
“You left the desert bed to embrace the northern mist,” Hannah said of her father.
We travel a lot in The Belly of Men, and always in places full of strong feelings, whether they are the Atlas Mountains, the depths of the mines, or the beaches of the Opal Coast.
The time.
The belly of men is also an account of a little-known story, that of 78,000 Moroccans who came to France to work in the coal mines between 1963 and 1977. Numerous reproductions of administrative documents adorn the book, which is also a testimony.
The author.
Samira El Ayachi is the author of the highly acclaimed
Women Are Busy
.
At the end of Le
Ventre des hommes
, "she thanks the former miners, in particular [her] father and her friends", once again placing herself at the fascinating point where autofiction and contemporary history meet.
This book was read with
tears in my eyes.
I already knew that Samira El Ayachi was a captivating author, I discovered her overwhelming with a book which is an ode of love to the father, in which everyone can only recognize themselves.
Buy this book at Fnac
Do you want to recommend a book that you particularly liked? Join our community by clicking here
20 minutes of context
Some of the links in this article are sponsored.
Every time you buy a book through one of them, we get a commission which helps us pay our bills.
To avoid any conflict of interest, we have adopted the following method:
1. The contributors to the section choose their books, write their files and their reviews in complete independence, without worrying about any links that will be added.
2. The links are added a posteriori, each time we find the recommended product on one of our partner platforms.
Thanks in advance to everyone who clicks!
Novel
Morocco
Book sheet 20 Minutes
Books
Attacks of November 13
Mine