The Book Censor's Library

The Book Censor's Library / Bothayna Al-Essa
trans. from the Arabic by Ranya Abdelrahman & Sawad Hussain
Read by Cindy Kay
Old Saybrook, CT: Tantor Media, 2024, c2019.

I listened to this one; it's a fever dream of a book in which a man in an unnamed dictatorship finds a job as a book censor. But his own young daughter is full of imagination and stories, causing him no end of trouble and angst. Imagination and whimsy is forbidden in this unnamed dictatorship. Only sensible (ie: government approved) information and behaviour is permitted. 

Another novel in an unintended streak of magical realist stories, this one was good but turned in a direction I was really not expecting. Our main character is a government employee who is placed in a book censor position. He must read books, searching out unwanted examples of imagination and other elements that the government thinks will distract citizens from daily reality (or give them ideas...). All history of the 'past world' is to be erased, denied and rewritten. Books that might place readers in the context of a past are considered unhealthy and need to be censored.  

The first job that our book censor is assigned is to read a new edition of Zorba the Greek and make his recommendation for censoring or not. This is considered an easy assignment, after all, many previous editions have already been banned. But our censor discovers through this book that he is after all a reader; the emotions and actions of Zorba inspire him and he can't stop reading. 

The story incorporates other novels, each with their own motifs and meanings that shape the book censor. Alice in Wonderland, The Little Prince, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, even Pinocchio -- many books are read and dissected by this character, even though this is a relatively short novel. The storyline does follow the outlines of 1984 -- if you've read it you may recognize some similar themes and stylistic choices. But it's a bit stranger, for me -- for example there are rabbits everywhere, even in the censorship building, and they seem to have a purpose. Our character finds an underground resistance movement, which even includes a vast subterranean library. But then his young daughter is taken away for reeducation, and everything spirals out of control.

The ending was a bit unexpected, and throws a new light on everything that came before. But the story brought up so many issues of freedom of expression, the power of reading, how a healthy society must include the freedom of the mind, and so on. And of course a book that discusses so many other books is always something I will find interesting. While I found it a little uneven, and a little strange that all the literature discussed is by men, it was still an intriguing read. Written by a Kuwaiti bookseller with experiences of her own of governmental censorship, it feels real, and communicates her love of books very strongly.