This month’s novel was a puzzle – a very short book which raised more questions than answers. It was written by the French Nobel Laureate, Patrick Modiano, who received the prize in 2014. Our chosen book was published in 1986 but only translated into English in 2017.
Modiano was born in 1943 (or 1945?) and is well known in France as a writer of autofiction, a ‘blend of autobiography and historical fiction’ (Wikipedia).
He is a much-awarded writer of more than 40 books. However, he is a new writer for us and of course we read him via a translation. One member is hoping to re-read the novel in French hoping that will help her understand it better.
This book is classified by some critics as a crime novel as the story revolves around a young couple who possess a stolen and very valuable large diamond. The story has only a few characters – a narrator whose name is barely mentioned, Jean, and his girlfriend Sylvia, who is the person who steals the diamond. The other main character is a Frenchman called Villecourt. The setting is Nice on the French Riviera. For a short section, the River Marne is also important in the story. The book is not chronological but jumps backwards and forwards and the details are given very sparingly so that the reader is left to ponder ‘what is it all about’. Use of words such as space, dreams, ghosts, shadows and colours populate the book. A feeling of imminent danger is also present.
There is also a trick in the story which confuses and deflects your train of thought.
First impressions:
- This book was the most forgettable book I have read recently, so I am looking forward to hearing what the group thinks.
- This novel reminded me of Albert Camus’ novels, particularly The Outsider, and ideas around French existentialism, of everything being in the narrator’s head. The narrator is someone outside of the general run of people and activities – an observer.
- The author seems to be playing with ideas of mystery and memory and how things get revealed in different ways. It was a novel which didn’t ‘grab me’ but it was ‘alright’.
- It was intriguing and mysterious.
- I read it a while ago and I agree with the others – difficult book to define and remember. I read some reviews but I was still no wiser. I read it once and then started rereading it and changed my mind to thoroughly enjoying it. It was a revelation. I just wish I had had time to re-read it all again. Many of the comments of reviewers rang true for me especially about the idea of Modiano’s fiction being like a ‘slow moving river’. (Comment in the New York Times Book review by Alan Riding).
- I found the English translation a bit clunky at times and would prefer to see the original text as I read French. I thought the 2 main characters were idiots and fell into the trap far too easily. I took the story literally and maybe I missed the point.
- I found the book mysterious. I was mesmerised by the hero and how he was experiencing his life before and after his time spent with Sylvia. We were only getting his perspective on the plot so it is hard to understand. I read another novelette by Modiano to gain some idea of this writer’s style and motifs. I read The little jewel which is similar in many aspects. (This novel is also about the interior life of the mind, like Camus’ novels.) I am glad to have read it.
- I couldn’t get the rationale of the novel – characteristics of murder mystery and crime and I didn’t feel I understood it. Camus presents a blank slate and the responses to those events so his books are similar in that way.
- I read it spasmodically and couldn’t understand it but upon a second read and taking notes I had a much clearer idea of the plot but I am still curious about the main themes.
One reader just read about a third of it and she is intrigued and will definitely finish it now that she has heard us talk about it.
Late comment from absent member: Adored reading this book, and how it set up a situation at the beginning, then slowly, drip by drip, through flashbacks and foreshadowings, through emotive imagery, and through shapeshifting people, places and things, revealed what had happened, to the narrator’s mind at least. What had actually happened, in actuality, we can never fully know. It seemed to be all about shadows and uncertainties, faulty memory, loss of innocence, along with the emptiness that comes with an unexplained loss.
General discussion
Modiano had a very difficult and unstable childhood with an actress mother and a father who was largely absent. There are also allegations that his father had dealings with the Germans during the Second World War. This period in his life has greatly influenced his writings and most of his stories are ‘writings with similar themes – the past, identity and loss’. (Wikipedia).
Modiano is also famous for writing about Vichy France during WW2 and memories kept and not kept. He is well known too, for talking about lost souls. Another popular theme for him are lives which become dislocated and how to make relationships work and what makes them successful.
Members talked a little about how Sylvia and Jean and how we don’t know what happened to her. It is all rather vague. Some members thought that Jean and Sylvia were not thinking rationally when they thought they would try and sell the diamond in an unsuitable place and they didn’t seem to need the money either. We wondered if the French have a different way of thinking.
We wondered about the mother-son relationship between Villecourt and his mother too. (Another possible link to a book by Camus).
We pondered about Sylvia and her reactions to the mouldy apartment that Jean locates. (The descriptive writing around that is very atmospheric.) Was Sylvia using Jean – is that a valid reading? Could she have been in on the plot to get away from Jean? (But considering he was her lover for a while what was the point?) All too vague we decided.
Jean is a grim character who is supposedly a photographer in black and white and copies another photographer’s idea of taking photos of beaches in black and white. We thought it was fascinating that Errol Flynn (a very famous Australian actor ) in black and white films, was mentioned twice in the novel.
Villecourt was not liked by the members and for good reasons.
The so-called Neals were also strange. They seemed dishevelled and ‘adrift’. They were definitely involved in the intrigue.
We also asked why did Sylvia get together with Jean so quickly as she was supposed to be the common law wife of Villecourt? Were they bound in some way by the diamond? Was it a metaphor for their lives living in post war France. The time is never defined but we presumed it was the 1950s.
We imagined that Sylvia was very good looking and we were impressed that Jean felt comfortable with her and with the world and adrift at other times?
Maybe the diamond was a hope for change? Clutching onto something that is real is re-assuring as they seemed to be somewhat desperate.
This novel succeeds as ‘mystery noir’ crime fiction.
Is this book an idea for a film as Modiano was involved with films in the 1970s?
Modiano writes a lot about Paris and although he doesn’t include Paris in this novel he includes details about the River Marne and the geography is important. It is a very different landscape the 2 main characters escape from to travel to Nice. (The River Marne is an eastern tributary of the Seine and flows towards Reims and then Paris.)
The idea of a river and flow is also a metaphor for Jean and Sylvia’s feelings about their contact with the ‘Neals’ and to some extent with Villecourt too.
The constant ringing by Villecourt to Jean at the beginning of the novel makes Jean ‘uneasy’ and so by holding the phone and not answering Villecourt, Jean is trying to frighten him.
‘I’d enjoy giving him the same feeling of empty space that I feel myself’. (page 19, Kindle version)
One reader suggested that a reader needs an explanation at the beginning of the book to help with the complexities of the plot and characters.
Just as an addendum – a bourride which is mentioned is a fish stew basically and a traditional speciality of Provence and Languedoc – fish, seafood, vegetables, aioli and olive oil. It is often thickened with egg yolks and strongly flavoured garlic.
This novel is one which probably needs a second or even a third read to understand its nuance and subtleties – a good test for one’s concentration too.
Members present : 8
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