NEW
Library Project
Volume 3, Number 1 - Fall 2004
Dialogue
Stretches to French Prison in "Gens et Récits"
by Abderrahmane, André,
Fahmy, Gérard, Habib, Jean-Paul, Jean-Pierre, Jean-Yves, Philippe, René,
and Yves
translated from the
French by Katia Salomon
We are writing to you from building number D3 at the Fleury-Mérogis prison situated 20 miles south of Paris, France. Fleury is the biggest prison in Europe, with 4,000 inmates.
We come together every Monday afternoon for “Gens et Récits” (People and Stories) in our library. We are twelve to sixteen men, ages 25-68, from diverse backgrounds: French, Algerian, Egyptian, Congolese. The group changes as some are liberated, others transferred, others start courses toward a degree.
Katia Salomon, our coordinator, chooses short stories that we read out loud and then discuss. We have read authors from around the world—Cortázar, Márquez, Hemingway, Joyce, Kafka, Mahfouz, Maupassant.
We send you our individual thoughts about reading and the discussions during our “Gens et Récits” sessions.
Andre: I am getting to know a new world. We get acquainted with great authors. Reading gives us ideas for writing. The very fact that someone comes to read with us comforts us. We are reassured that we are not forgotten and this gives us another image of ourselves.
Fahmy:
This is a new experience for me—to read and discuss with others. It
opens up the mind; I am enriched by the ideas of others.
Habib: I had not read in twenty years. Now, the more I read, the more I imagine myself elsewhere because I slip easily into the characters.
Jean-Paul: This is my first session. I am really impressed how you react to a text! One participant captures a thought, articulates it, and then someone else reacts with another tidbit. It’s really great!
Abderrahmane: I can say, "l'appétit vient en mangeant!" (appetite grows as one eats). Reading opens a window onto the outside; the spirit can escape.
Jean-Pierre: Reading helps us imagine—now if we have an idea to do something we believe more that we could make it happen. Reading helps us act differently with other inmates and with the guards. It opens a path to communicate in a new way.
Gérard: Reading together improves communication, and that’s key for many things. After the discussion, when we understand the text, we think differently about ourselves, we acquire a new dimension. The words and texts enrich us. We always finish the discussion with a question. That is good—it nourishes!
Jean-Yves: Our readings and discussions help us think about what our role could be outside: a writer, a storyteller, a public scribe in a village.
Yves: Reading brings a moment of quiet and new ways to think.
René: You try to understand another person’s thinking through the text and then you try to make it your own.
Phillipe: Reading can be a path to go forward, even when one does not quite know where to go.
These
reading groups were created by the non-profit organization “Lire C’est
Vivre” (“Reading is Living”). We would like to hear from you. Send
e-mails in English, Spanish or French to gensetrecits@wanadoo.fr