Customer Reviews

The Pillar of Salt

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"Pillar of Salt" is a remarkable autobiographical novel about coming of age in the Jewish ghetto of Tunis during the 1930s and 1940s. Besides providing an enjoyable narrative, Memmi conveys a vivid picture of the impact of French colonialism on Tunisian society in general and on Tunisian Jews in particular. It is a study of multiple alienation, at once from traditional Jewish culture, Tunisian Muslim culture, and French culture. Memmi's work also sheds light on the little known story of the Holocaust in Axis-occupied Tunisia as well as the growth of zionism among North African Jews.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in French colonialism, North Africa, and modern Jewish history. It is also simply a good read.

This (semi)autobiographical book was written in the mid fifties. It deserves to be plucked from obscurity and placed among the better novels of the 20th century. Artful prose tells the story of a boy growing up in colonial Tunis. He is at the crossroads of Jewish, French, African and Moslem/Arab culture. He is unable to assimilate all these influences into his life, so he rejects his background and is left with a void he cannot fill. Highly recommended.

This is a great book about the life of an African Jew covering pre and postwar France. Compelling and thought provoking!

I was looking forward to reading this because I am going to Tunisia and I love literature, especially if it's challenging literature. But instead of being challenging, I found this narrative quite tedious and eventually annoying. It reads is almost like a Woody Allen parody of an existential memoir. Memmi is totally self-absorbed and alienated almost from birth. As a kid he is alienated from his parents, from other kids, from his culture--enough already. Remember the scene of the young Woody/Alvy going to a psychiatrist in "Annie Hall"? I swear it's young Memmi:

Alvy's mother: He's been depressed. All of a sudden, he can't do anything.
Doctor: Why are you depressed, Alvy?
Alvy's mother: Tell Dr. Flicker. (To the doctor) It's something he read.
Doctor: Something he read, huh?
Alvy: The universe is expanding...Well, the universe is everything, and if it's expanding, some day it will break apart and that will be the end of everything.
Alvy's mother: What is that your business? (To the doctor) He stopped doing his homework.
Alvy: What's the point?