Summer in Algiers Summary and Analysis

Algiers is a city which offers beauty to those who love this life and who love the present, but is a source of grief for those who wish to escape their own humanity out of some hope in the eternal or God. The beach is the center of social organization in Algiers and it is where the young find themselves during any season of the year, but especially during the summer. In Algiers, unlike any other city in thousands of years, the residents are remarkably comfortable with nudity and it is not at all uncommon for young men and women to walk around the beaches totally nude. This represents an acknowledgment of one's desires which is so simple compared to the complicating codes of Christians and others who want to repress and hide the desires of the...