On the Pillar of Salt

This is a remarkable novel (although I don’t know that I would call it a novel, it reads more like a memoir and many scholars argue that it is semi-autobiographical).

In short, Memmi’s character, Alexandre Benillouche, is a Tunisian Jew raised in poverty. Due to his academic excellence, he gained a scholarship to high school—something that few Jews and Arabs (or, in Memmi’s words, “Muslims”) had access to. As such, he was socialized into Western culture and, in many ways, middle class society. However, no matter how hard he tries, he is unable to shed his impoverished background. In trying to fit into Western society, Benillouche sheds his African and Jewish background, criticizing Jewish culture, religion, and society, as well as North African society. However, with the coming of World War II, France surrenders to Germany, the Vichy government is formed, and eventually Germans and Italians occupy Tunisia (this history is rather well known).

As a Jew, Benillouche is placed in a forced labor camp (after seeking aid from his French superiors and colleagues) and manages to escape with many others as the British and Americans fight the Germans and Italians outside of Tunis. Due to the brutality of the German and Vichy governments, Benillouche becomes disillusioned with the West, although he regains hope after the war ends in Tunisia (though it continues elsewhere). After attempting to enlist with the Free French, a military officer asks him to lie about his name because Vichy had been putting out propaganda that the entire Gaullist military was made up of the Jews. This turns Benillouche away from the West entirely.

Having shed his North African and Jewish background, and being rejected by the West, Benillouche finds that he fits nowhere in colonial society. His status at birth defined the trajectory of his life, no matter how hard he attempted to transcend it. In the end, he opts to migrate to Argentina with a friend.

The charm in this book is not necessarily the vignettes offered, although these are crucial to the narrative. Memmi rarely includes particularly tense moments, and instead aims to write about the mundane, but perhaps unique, aspects of Benillouche’s life. As a result, we readers do not see Benillouche as a simple hero fighting against the system, but as one normal man who may have done well, but is more an everyman than anything else. This is significant, because Memmi is trying to teach us about the broad psychological tolls of colonialism on native populations. This is something that he does astoundingly well, as the reader (in this case, me) develops the sense that Benillouche’s sentiments are widespread, not restricted to him alone.

The title of the book, The Pillar of Salt (or, in french, La Statue de sel), is a fascinating choice and it works well. Like Lot, Benillouche presses forward, but by the end of the story, he must ask if looking back at his life will metaphorically turn him to salt as well.

Highly recommend for anyone who wants to better understand colonialism as a lived experience. This book is not particularly exciting outside of that, so those looking for adventure should look elsewhere.