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November 2015 Vol. 53 No. 3

Hubbell’s Remembering French Algeria is an intriguing and important contribution to scholarship on the representation of Algeria in literature and film.  The study focuses on writing by members of the Pied-Noir community, the European citizens of French Algeria who fled the colony during or shortly after the war of independence.  Hubbell (Univ. of Queensland, Australia) highlights the importance of exile in crafting and maintaining Pied-Noir identity.  She demonstrates that memory of the lost homeland is carefully maintained through repetition and return, twin strategies to reconnect the writer and the community with a lost homeland but that also constantly renew the pain of separation.  Hubbell’s analysis focuses in particular on the writing of Marie Cardinal and is supported with examples from Hélène Cixous, Jacques Derrida, and Albert Camus, among others.  Hubbell also includes numerous examples, both written and cinematic, by members of Pied-Noir cultural associations.  This work will be valuable for scholars of literature and film about Algeria, and for those interested in issues surrounding memory, exile, and cultural identity.

--D. L. Boudreau, Mercyhurst University

Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.