It was by publishing, in 2006, his first novel The weight of a soul, a jubilant moral tale, which Mabrouck Rachedi made known. His new opus, All the words we haven’t said to each other is a family saga inspired by the history of Algerian immigration to France, against a backdrop of the inexorable rise of the far right. Through his hero’s quest for identity, the novelist succeeds in transmitting in these pages the atmosphere of an era, its threats and its poetry.
Journalist, host of writing workshops, essayist, novelist, short story writer, writer for young people, the Franco-Algerian Mabrouk Raachedi is a man of many talents. Author of a dozen books, he has just published his new novel All the words we haven’t said to each other, an autofictional story, serious and tender at the same time.
For Mabrouk Rachedi, writing is an antidote to the stresses of modern life. ” My books are my way of putting my voice in the hubbub of the world “, he likes to repeat. And to explain: I find that today we are saturated with information. We are sometimes called upon to react very quickly to events. Writing novels allows you to be master of the tempo and to pose a peaceful voice in relation to this agitation. This is also why, alongside my journalistic activities, I also like to take this time, this time when I am master of the destinies of my characters. It really is a privileged way to be out of time and out of this hustle and bustle. »
Desire to write
The life of Mabrouk Rachedi is a novel, rich in changes and reversals. Born in France into a family of Algerian origin, the future novelist grew up in the suburbs of Paris, within a large family. His vocation as a writer, he owes it to his father who, while being illiterate himself, pushed his children towards reading and studies so that they would be, he said, ” better than the French “.
For the young Mabrouck, the path to the realization of parental desire passed through the reading of the classics, including Goriot by Balzac. The writer says he was dazzled by the language and the power of storytelling from the great master of the French novel. ” It made me want to write “, he recalls. The draft of his first novel dates, in fact, from these teenage years, but the desire to write will not last long in the face of the burning ambition to succeed socially and professionally. The son of an immigrant laborer, the teenager had revenge to take on society.
” We came from rather modest social strata and I ran after what I didn’t have: money. And I became a financial analyst in a brokerage firm. At one point, the question of meaning arose for me. Yes, I make money. And after? So I summoned the adolescent in me and he told me to pursue this novel that I had started writing years ago. That’s how I got into writing weight of a soulmy first novel. »
Initiatory story
This “ matter of meaning is at the heart of Mabrouck Rachedi’s new novel, which is both a family saga inspired by the author’s family’s immigration experience and a story of a quest for identity. This quest is embodied by the narrator-character Malik, the youngest son of the Arsaoui family whose novel recounts the adventures and the literary double of the author. Like the author, Malik, too, has thrown his lucrative career in the world of finance on hold in order to devote himself to writing.
The plot of All the words we haven’t said to each other is built around the character of the mother. She had once defied ancestral tradition in order to marry the man she loved. Her husband Mohand, who has been a worker in Paris since the 1950s, will in turn bring her to France after the Algerian war of independence. Together, they will raise their ten children in a city in the great suburbs of Paris, against a backdrop of the inevitable rise of the far right. Nothing better illustrates this “lepenisation” of minds in France in the 1980s and 90s than the election to deputy of the son of Mohand’s closest colleague, under the colors of the National Front. True soul brothers, Gérard and Mohand used to work together for the CGT and sang at the top of their voices The Internationalsometimes until late at night!
An outstanding storyteller, Rachedi delivers with All the words we haven’t said to each other a poetic story, often nostalgic, told in a skilfully organized narrative disorder. The story begins in media res. Mohand died a long time ago. His children prospered, married and became parents in turn.
The story opens on September 29, 2005, a special day. The Arsaouis are in full force, gathered around the matriarch of their family. ” It is a large family which, for the 70th birthday of mother Fatima, decides to offer her a trip in a barge, tells the author summarizing the main lines of his novel. And the end of this journey is the Eiffel Tower. Going up the Seine, from bridge to bridge, there will be comings and goings between the past and the present. Sometimes episodes will refer to historical turning points in Franco-Algerian history. We talk about the Algerian war. We also talk about October 17, 1961, the massacre of 1961. We also talk about the myth of the return to the 1970s, the hopes of the election of François Mitterrand. But there are also, in these round trips between present and past, very personal episodes. There is the big story, there is also the little story. And this little story is also what establishes the identity of these characters. »
“Identity”: the word is out. This is the central theme of All the words we haven’t said to each other. Born from the confrontation of big and small history, identity is neither happy nor unhappy. Above all, it is diverse, as the hero-narrator Malik reminds us, comparing identity to the Eiffel Tower.
” During one of these thousands of readings on everything and anything that I have accumulated in my lifesays Malik, I discovered that the iron used for the whole Eiffel came partly from the mines of Zacar and Rouïna, in Algeria. The most famous monument in the world is like our family, French with bits of Algeria inside “. Will this awareness with which the beautiful novel by Mabrouk Rachedi ends, be able to appease the anger and resentment of Malik and his family, all thirsty for recognition?
All the words we haven’t said to each other, by Mabrouck Rachedi. Grassset editions, 203 pages, 18.50 euros.