In the early 1980s from within the immigrant community a political movement enjoyed a particular moment in France. A literary movement of sorts accompanied
the political, as a substantial number of young people, often referred
to as Beurs, produced autobiographical novels about growing up in the banlieues of France's major cities. Ahmed Kalouaz emerged as a writer at this moment, but unlike most of the others, he has sustained a career as an amazingly creative, sensitive
and insightful writer. The bulk of his work is not autobiographical but rather is focused on the hatred, humiliation, racism and injustice that have so much been a part of the lived experience of persons of Algerian descent living in France. This essay examines Kalouaz's two early novels, Point kilometrique 190 and L'Encre d'un fait divers, and one of his most recent works, an intense monologue written for the theatre and titled Geronimo, dans ma poitrine un nuage s'endort. These three passionate
works reveal the rich and inventive diversity af Kalouaz's mind. Further, they manifest his deep and sustained commitment as an engaged intellectual to contest the often difficult predicament, discrimination and injustice experienced by the community in which he grew up.
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