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Farida Belghoul: Georgette!

Georgette is a seven year girl, daughter of Algerian immigrants, and this is her story as told by her. She faces the dilemma of many immigrants – torn between the culture of her parents and that of the country of her birth. She also faces the same problem as other ethnically different groups, the invisibility so well illustrated in Ellison‘s Invisible Man. She is ashamed of her parents – her father is a street cleaner – who speak French badly, dislikes her brother and struggles at school, not mixing in well with the other children and having difficulties with the teacher. Her reaction is to turn in on herself and tell us her story – of how she remains silent when the teacher questions her, of how her parents just don’t get it, of how she can build her own fantasies (often violent), of how she is prepared to be who she is, despite what others might say.

Publishing history

First published in French 1986 by Bernard Barrault
No English translation