A review by who_created_god
Frère d'âme by David Diop

4.0

The story is incredibly compelling. I was expecting worse with regard to the gore and violence, but not only did I find it less horrific than a lot of war fiction, in a way, the brutality on the battlefield in the book is a shadow of the true horrors inflicted on colonized populations, and I think Diop is in fact alluding to this in the story. In that light, it's much easier to understand the violence as more than a device contributing to our questions about the mental state of the main character. There are many little pieces like this that have a double meaning, that make you want to re-read this book. The only reason I would take away a star is that I think the author is trying to get to a point about gender and the treatment of women as objects of fantasy (although not always desire), but it feels a little unfinished.