Longtime readers may recognize this work, which I read and reviewed back in 2018. I highlighted "Outside" and "Criminal" at the time as my favorite pieces and those were once again among my top choices; I also added "Achoura" and "Penciled Notes" after this rereading. I've included brief comments about these chapters in my book notes alongside the usual list of insights and observations.
The Oblivion Seekers by Isabelle Eberhardt (December 2019)
The theme in this short collection - to the extent that these loosely connected vignettes can be said to have such a focus - is a meditation on justice. Eberhardt examines this idea in the context of organizing society by right, suggesting for example that bread should belong first to the hungry, but she also sees the issue from a human perspective, pointing out the pain of having to ask for or claim the things we feel are due to us; once again, her note that the illiterate are still expected to follow written law comes to mind (1). There are also occasional complaints in The Oblivion Seekers about the injustice of the general human condition, such as how a disease of old age means the cure offers no relief to the patient - again, I felt the sense of deep resignation at being forced into accepting the outsized punishment for living beyond one's allotted time and space.
My sense is that the overwhelming injustice in the world can have a debilitating effect on certain types of people because it puts them in the position of being able to do little more than offer feeble acknowledgements of the situation. Gradually, the future starts to look a lot like the past, and the promise of life fades into indifference. Eberhardt's legacy reads something like a tragic struggle against this destiny (posthumously, she is viewed as an advocate of decolonization) and it suggests an optimistic interpretation of a work like The Oblivion Seekers - those feeble acknowledgements, if made with authenticity and regularity from the roots of the soul, have the potential to change the world.
Footnotes
1) Readers curious about why I returned so quickly to this book may wish to return to this post, where I described the process that led me to include The Oblivion Seekers on my rereading list last December. For those interested, the story I misremembered as being in The Prophet was "Criminal".
