SO VAST THE PRISON

So Vast The Prison ($24.95; Nov.; 320 pp.;1-58322-009-7): An affecting tale from a successful Algerian-born novelist, educator, and filmmaker in which an Arabic woman’s escape—from both a brutal husband and the traditional domestic role assigned her by the culture—leads to her liberation. Despite Djebar’s tendency toward flat rhetorical questions and importunate summary statements, she succeeds admirably in weaving together a portrayal of her courageous protagonist Isma’s self-made career as a documentary filmmaker (she records peasant women’s lives) with Isma’s memories of her own girlhood and of stories inherited from her ancestors. A moving if schematic celebration of female empowerment and endurance.