Famed Algerian author Yasmina Khadra was recommended to me by a friend (who incidentally has read all of Khadra’s books…except this one).
“La Dernière nuit de Rais” is a fictional retelling of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s last days. The entire book is narrated in the first-person, i.e., by Gaddafi himself. He tells us about his childhood, his meteoric ascension to power, as well as his bitter fall from grace. I appreciated that the book does not make any outright judgements for or against Gaddafi, but presents facts and allows readers to come to their own conclusions.
The novel tackles a very complicated and interesting individual, but seems almost too short for the task. The novel could, and perhaps, should, in my opinion, have been at least two or three times long. Given the short length, the narrative jumped very quickly from topic to topic. I would have appreciated more background on Gaddafi’s life, his views and motivations, etc, or that the novel simply not stretch to cover Gaddafi’s biography, but only focus on his last nights and struggles with his internal demons.
This was a good novel with some flashes of brilliance (the very last few sentences about Van Gogh’s ear, for one). However, I felt that Khadra missed an opportunity to deliver a truly brilliant novel, had he chosen to polish and better develop the philosophical debates underlying Gaddafi’s (and really all dictators’) actions. (Ex/ Can cruelty and murder in order to build a utopian society ever be justified?) While reading this novel, I just kept thinking about how much better Aitmatov wrote about this in his brilliant “The White Cloud of Genghis Khan”. I also kept thinking about how “La Dernière nuit…” might be well suited to a theatrical adaptation…
All in all, I would recommend this book to those interested in learning more about North African history/politics.
My final rating: **** (very good)
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