THE WAR IN ALGERIA

Possibly the fact that this testament of faith by Jules Roy, son of a settler in Algeria, a man who has devoted his life to the Army of France, is a runaway best seller in France will help achieve the goal he has stated- the end of the war in Algeria. For the thing about this book that makes its success phenomenal, is that he is unequivocally on the side of the Arabs, who demand recognition of nationalism in Algeria and a right to be considered people rather than cattle, to throw off the trammels of colonialism. Their cause is the cause of freedom everywhere. Jules Roy was raised in Algeria; his family live there; but he does not hesitate to accuse the French in Algeria of blindness, intolerance, bigotry. He returns to Algeria-feeling it incumbent upon him to carry the standard of his friend Camus and tell the truth as he finds it. He describes the violence, the destruction, the terror- with an anguish that inform its every line. Beautifully and poetically written, this is a literary work as well as documentary evidence of a futile war.