Talismano (Tunisian Literature Series)
“Meddeb promises nothing short of an orgy. First, an orgy of the senses: at the outset of the novel, a city, Tunis, deploys its smells and shadows, like the fulfillment of an erotic desire. But also an orgy of sense, of meaning: reviving heresy and heathens, the novel culminates in the sacrificial slaughter of a bull.Talismanolays out an enigmatic mosaic . . . It took a foreigner, someone who is not what he seems, to unleash the French language and send it whirling.” (Gérard Dupuy - Libération)“Talismanohas that rare quality, one found among others in Antonin Artaud’sHéliogabale, in Céline’sJourney to the End of the Night, or in Burroughs’sThe Wild Boys, that is, a darkness both lively and aggressive.” (Malek Alloula)