This Strange Eventful History

Denise is in law school in Algiers. Although she should be studying, she’s preoccupied with an upcoming dance, the first she’ll attend without either her parents or her brother, François. Her mother and Tata Jeanne help her make a dress, though they decide to purchase the lace rather than tat it themselves. Denise never particularly enjoyed school, but now as a law student she seems to have found her place. The material makes sense to her in a way that the various subjects of primary and secondary school never did.

Despite her success, however, she misses her brother. Her mother’s headaches persist, her father has been under particular stress, and Tata Jeanne, though a kind presence in the home, isn’t healthy and spends a lot of time in bed. Denise misses François, her childhood defender and protector, and writes to him often. She knows that he would be interested in the rise of nationalism and communism among the students (especially the Muslim men) at her school, but today she instead writes to him about the upcoming ball, which interests her more than her classmates’ political machinations. She also writes about a strange incident that occurred that week. While walking with two of her friends, she was hit by a car. It came up behind her and struck her on purpose. She thought she saw one of her classmates, a Berber girl named Zohra, in the passenger’s seat, but she omits that detail. She wonders if the incident has to do with the same political rumblings she chooses not to tell François but gives it little thought. (Years later, Zohra is responsible for several bombings during the troubles. Even then, when it became clear that the car hitting Denise was an act of political violence, she wouldn’t share with her family that she saw Zohra in the vehicle as it drove away.)

Gaston wakes at dawn to the muezzin’s call. He’s now employed as the managing director of an oil company, and he’s visiting one of their far-flung outposts. Many oil production issues have occurred lately, and Gaston is under tremendous stress. France is in the midst of a postwar attempt to rebuild, and Gaston is proud to be involved. Oil has become a big business in North Africa, though the industry is dominated by English-speaking companies, and Gaston is often treated like an outcast because he’s French. He’s no stranger to workplace mistreatment, however. During the war, he felt subtle disdain from many who objected to his not joining the fighting immediately. He nevertheless held his head high and worked to help France. He was appointed to a post in naval intelligence and managed clandestine information-gathering missions. He served his country in several other key posts and is proud of his efforts. During the postwar years, he worked in several business jobs, each difficult and not entirely successful. Although he still feels committed to France and is happy to be part of its reconstruction, he senses that his career is floundering, and he travels far too frequently for his liking. He misses his wife. He would much rather be home with his family, but he’s their sole provider and must do what he can for them.

Barbara and her mother prepare to take lunch to Barbara’s father at the hospital. Barbara is married to François, though the two lived in Europe when her father fell ill, and Barbara returned home to Canada (temporarily) without François. Barbara and François met in Oxford during the summer of 1955 and fell quickly in love. They married against the wish of her parents, who objected to his French heritage, his Catholicism, and his having grown up in Africa. They questioned his whiteness, disapproved of the fact that at 25 he was still a student, and had no qualms expressing their disapproval to Barbara.

At the hospital, Barbara’s father eats the soup they brought and, unlike on previous days, doesn’t immediately vomit. The treatment he’s undergoing makes him nauseated, and he has lost a lot of weight. The three chat amiably, and after they leave, Barbara and her mother express hope that the treatment is working. He has scleroderma, an autoimmune disease that is notoriously difficult to diagnose and treat. She has been back in Canada for some time, and the distance from François is increasingly difficult. He’s in Geneva obtaining a business degree, fully paid for by the aluminum company he worked for after abandoning his graduate studies. Barbara went home because of her father’ illness, but François accused her of “malingering” in Canada. In truth, she was happy to be home, but it didn’t go well when she tried to explain that to him. She told him that as someone who had never truly had a home, he wouldn’t understand. He responded that of course he had a home; the concept just meant something different to him. She wonders now if her parents might have been right: She knew other people, forced to emigrate by war, who never fully seemed normal to her. A divide existed between people who, like herself, grew up in one place (and were “from” that country) and people like François or her Jewish schoolmate (who were from a country that wasn’t truly theirs, after all).

Denise will be 30 in six months and lives in Buenos Aires. She moved there in 1959 to join her parents after her father abruptly left his job in Morocco for a new position as the director of a porcelain factory in Argentina. At the time, she was living in Paris, and François and his wife had just left for the US. He planned to pursue a doctorate in Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard. She was ambivalent about leaving France but was pleasantly surprised by the large French community in Buenos Aires. She quickly made friends with girls who, like her, were French but had grown up abroad. They were both French and Argentine just as she was both French and Algerian. Nevertheless, she struggled with the idea that she was French. After Algerian independence, the family left the region, and she experienced discrimination as a pied-noir, an ethnically French person who lived entirely in North Africa. Even as she and François finished law school together in Paris, she felt stigmatized and looked down upon.

After François and his wife left for the US, Denise attempted death by suicide. She recovered at a nearby hospital and then immigrated to Buenos Aires. In addition to her French friends, Denise befriends Fraulein Lili, who owns a bookstore at which Denise begins working. The woman is old enough to be her mother, but they share a passion for reading, and Denise is glad to have met her. Things go awry, however, when Lili invites her to dinner and then suggests that Denise might be a lesbian. Denise insists that she isn’t and shortly thereafter quits her position. She finds a new job through a friend.

François visits Barbara and her family in Canada for the holidays. Shortly after he returns to Geneva, Barbara sends him a telegram announcing her father’s death. He’s saddened by the news. Barbara’s father was nicer to him than her mother, and he knew that despite their differences, the man respected his love for Barbara. He’s disappointed to learn that Barbara plans to stay in Canada to help her mother for a few more weeks. She won’t set a return date. François struggles in his MBA program. He was always more interested in philosophy and turned to business only because he and Barbara needed an income. However, the program is uninteresting and seems to cater to an intelligence he doesn’t have. He hopes to stand out in the eyes of some of the more prominent faculty but fails to do so. The only bright spot is his friend Larry Riley. Larry and François strike up an easy friendship that lasts their entire lives. In many ways, François realizes, Larry is his best (and perhaps only) true friend.