Eating Well, Reading Well: Maryse Condé and the Ethics of Interpretation by Nicole Simek (review)

Abstract

1 54Women in French Studies undergraduates as well. Mothers ofInvention is a groundbreaking work and will provide new paths for future scholars ofFrench and Québécois feminist writers. Juliette M. RogersUniversity of New Hampshire Simek, Nicole. Eating Well, Reading Well: Maryse Condé and the Ethics of Interpretation. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2008. Pp 235. ISBN: 978-90-420-23277 . Paperback. €47. Eating Well, Reading Well: Maryse Condé and the Ethics ofInterpretation by Nicole Simek proposes a critical, ethical approach to the creative writings of Maryse Condé while simultaneously refusing the paradigm of literature as moral code. Specifically, the book examines the way in which the global reader responds to and consumes each text while keeping in mind the problematic of exemplarity. One ofthe greatest strengths ofthe book is the variety and diversity of the subjects addressed within each chapter. Focusing on four main themes including history and globalization, intertextuality and reader reception, trauma and subjectivity, as well as community and ethics, this beautifully executed and meticulous study provides a detailed analysis of eight of Condé's well-known literary works spanning three decades. Maryse Condé is unique in that she writes from the perspective of the privileged bourgeoisie while other Francophone Caribbean writers tend to represent the socio-political plight of the lower classes. Condé is also exceptional for her refusal to subscribe to the literary movements Négritude, Créolité, Antillanité that have largely defined twentieth-century Francophone Caribbean literature. Furthermore, Condé is known for denouncing the notion that literary works possess the power to change the world. Her literary characters thus, do not typically represent models or archetypes of social excellence. The trademark of Condé's texts is their ability to weave intricate mosaics of language and cultural references that reach across geographic boundaries. Condé's numerous literary works thus create an artistic space that privileges the intersection of race, class, gender, and the unique position of Guadeloupean literature within a postcolonial context. Given the island's complex relationship to the Hexagon in the postcolonial era, Condé speaks ofthe artificiality ofGuadeloupe since the island's original inhabitants were exterminated centuries ago. Simek's informed investigation of both the production and reception of Condé's works is enhanced by the book's unique pairing of the author's creative works. The chapters are organized in such a way as to provide a platform for unprecedented comparison and scrutiny of the trajectory of Condé's rich literary career. In the introduction, Simek seamlessly outlines the role of exemplarity, literary texts, and the role of the reader/consumer ofthose texts as well as the way in which Condé has artistically and theoretically participated in such dialogues during the span of her career. Simek successfully demonstrates how, through her Book Reviews155 writing, Condé engages and agitates the reader and the reading process, thus prolonging and enhancing the consumption ofthe postcolonial text. Maryse Condé is known for her rich intertextuality as well as her re-staging of works that belong to the traditional European canon. Simek very successfully shows how this practice represents a way for the author to employ parody and irony to ruse with her readers. It is equally through her re-writing of well-known texts such as Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, that Condé destabilizes, consumes, and re-invents Western canonical texts. The arguments of this study are convincing, ground breaking, and extremely well-crafted. This book will no doubt serve as a springboard for further investigation and critical analysis of Maryse Condé's writings. Best suited for graduate work or scholarly research, this book makes a fundamental contribution to Condé studies and the field of Francophone Caribbean literature. Sarah E. MosherUniversity of North Dakota Staël, Madame de. Oeuvres critiques, tome 1 : Lettres sur Rousseau ; De l'influence des passions et autres essais moraux. Oeuvres complètes, série I. Ed. Florence Lotterie. Paris : Honoré Champion, 2008. Pp 423. ISBN 978-27453 -1642-4. €77 (Hardcover). In his general preface, Michel Delon sketches the publication history of Staël's Oeuvres complètes, beginning with its first appearance following her death, as a written monument to the combined works of Jacques Necker and Germaine...