Youssef Benasser's Reviews > Noces

I read Noces and Eté when I was living and working in Tunis. Two months into this trip, I was starting to get a strong feeling about life in the heir of ancient times Carthage. I could not however express much of that feeling, until I read Noces and l'Eté.

The descriptions that Camus gives of his Algeria struck me as detached and perspicacious. It gave an accurate perception of feelings that I had failed to express about Tunis. This is one of the most beautifully written, and less romanticized, descriptions of North African cities. It lacks the naive excitement of orientalists, and the blind sentimentalism of local authors. There is nothing to be found here but the blunt and barren void that North African cities offer to their inhabitants.

I offered this book to my best-friend before she left to China, and would recommend it to anyone going on a long and distant trip.