Review of A Dream For Peace

AdyNorah · Post by **AdyNorah** » 22 Jul 2022, 10:33

[Following is a volunteer review of "A Dream For Peace" by Dr. Ghoulem Berrah.]

4 out of 4 stars

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The book: A Dream for Peace , is an interesting read indeed and against my disinterest in reading revolutionary nonfiction, I did find this book surprisingly intriguing. All thanks to the author for a work well done.

This book is written by Dr. Ghoulem Berrah and is narrated from the first-person point of view, so this book relates events concerning the Author's very life itself, and I would not be wrong to say this story is a true-life account of the author. An autobiography to be precise.
Our main character and author of this book, Ghoulem Berrah was born a Muslim and brought up in Aïn Beïda, a small town in northeastern Algeria. Raised in a family guided by strong moral, traditional, and religious principles, Ghoulem developed quite an impressive routine and portrayed great excellence in his academics. Then an incident occurred: Ghoulem now in his final year in primary school, sat in class with other French kids, being the only Arab in class that day. Now, all students had been warned never to put logs into the stove during recess, but that day a French girl by name of Spiteri, tossed a log into the stove right before the end of recess. When the principal, Mr. Millet came, he claimed it was an Arab deed, but Ghoulem couldn't let this slide, so he retorted to Mr. Millet that it wasn't an Arab deed but instead, a French deed, This audacity of his angered the principal thereby earning him a three-day-suspension. Little did young Ghoulem know this his distaste for racism was just the beginning of his Anti-Colonialist Journey against colonialism for the people of Algeria.
This journey, which started as a dream, grew into a struggle. With all the life trials and hardships he encountered, how did he cope? Was he able to succeed in his quest, or did he give up altogether when his Mother died?
Find out for yourself by reading this book.

I enjoyed reading this book; the author did a thorough work in describing the tradition of the Algerian people, giving the reader first-hand knowledge of the lifestyle of his people. I was made to understand and appreciate the significance the Algerians placed on marriage and family.
I also was intrigued by an incident that portrayed a sharp contrast to our real-life experience; Ghoulem recounted his experience at the university in the book and how he decided to ride a bike against his mother's sound warnings against him not to do so before he left for the university, and he did sustain a good deal of an injury, but the interesting part is the fact his mother sensed it back home much to his surprise. As a reader, I would say, I was impressed by this account because I believe that mothers have a bond with their kids and feel even their greatest fear.

The Negative Aspects of this book are so slim, that they are close to nothing at all, except that this book is indeed lengthy, I spent close to four weeks finishing up this book amidst my busy work schedule.

I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars because the author did good work in both book structure and language use, his sense of description, narration and details is commendable, and he tried his very best to bring several aspects of humanity as extra ingredients in making even the lowliest reader see something fit to relate with.

I recommend this book to the gender audience. History lovers would also find this book a delightful read. But there are no restrictions whatsoever to any particular audience.

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A Dream For Peace
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