On December 2, 2020, Djaïli Amadou Amal wins the Goncourt high school student prize for
Les Impatientes
(Ed. Emmanuelle Colas).
A book about forced marriage, marital rape and polygamy, through the different perspectives of women.
"It is a novel committed to the cause of women, to the improvement of their condition
," the author
told
us when her award was announced.
If I myself was married at 17, it is not autobiographical.
(...) It is the story of my sisters, my friends, my neighbors, women all over the world.
It is all this brings together in a fiction in order to sensitize the public to a subject still taboo in our society.
. "
What did the readers of the Figaro Reading Club think?
The editorial staff invited members of its literary group on Facebook to read the book and write a review.
A feminine and feminist novel
Odile Boubakeur appreciated this reading.
“Munyal!
Patience!
It is as much against this word spelled out like a litany as against the violence of men that Ramla, Safira and Hindu each try in their own way to oppose the unfortunate fate that their sex has intended for them.
Through their diversity and universality, they join the generations of women who have tried to push the limits of their gender and write the lines of a feminist and feminist novel that will delight readers in search of sorority towards their distant sisters. "
Must read
Françoise Clamens greatly liked this book.
“Munyal, Patience!
this is the word repeated in all tones, for years, at every point, with each weakness admitted or betrayed by her own family, THE WORD that sums up the life of a girl, become a woman, a wife, passed from the hands and the power from her father or her uncles to those of her husband, imposed by force: slave for life, raped, beaten, humiliated when she passes from the status of first wife to co-wife and becomes .. executioner in her turn!
3 women's lives, 3 violent shocks.
Must read. ”
A necessary novel but ...
If the book seems useful to her, Delphine Frances has some doubts.
“Polyphonic novel which traces the story of three Fulani women who undergo forced marriage and polygamy.
The writing, in its simplicity, is striking and these three protagonists, in the grip of frustration, dementia and jealousy, are of great authenticity and open our eyes to the condition of women in the Sahel.
Novel necessary for a high school audience, personally I did not learn anything.
A mixed final feeling. ”
A fictionalized documentary
For Roselyne Beretti, this novel is “to cry with revolt.
Three stories from women from the Fulani community of Cameroon today.
Marriages imposed on adolescence, rapes, beatings, rivalries between co-wives, that's what the author experienced ... it's not a novel but a fictionalized documentary on what these very young girls are experiencing. we ceaselessly say a single word "Patience" ... patience, submission, forgetting your dreams and ambitions ... in the name of honor and religion. "
Strong and realistic portraits
Finally, for Valérie Atillah “the 2020 high school Goncourt is an excellent vintage!
The Cameroonian author signs a committed polyphonic novel, inspired by real events, which denounces polygamy, arranged marriages and violence against women.
Raised in the cult of the "Munyal", patience, they suffer in silence under the yoke of men.
How far are they ready to go to emancipate themselves?
The lively and uncompromising writing, the strong and realistic portraits help to raise the words of these impatient people. "
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