Fiction Now: The French Novel in the Twenty-First Century by Warren Motte

Abstract

MLR, 105.3, 20!0 881 the following chapter, 'The Discovery of History, Tidd shows how the Second World War prompted Beauvoir to become involved politically; how, rather than suppressing theOther, shewas going to discover theOthers of her contemporary society. Beauvoir, as everybody knows, was to denounce in Le Deuxieme Sexe the oppression of women in patriarchy, but also, which is less well known, she was to expose in La Vieillesse the ways elderly people are badly treated in a society geared towards productivity and youth. Tidd also narrates Beauvoir's involvement with her significant Others, mainly Sartre and Nelson Algren, but also Claude Lanzmann, and Sylvie Le Bon. She relies, of course, on Beauvoir's autobiographies, but also on more recently published letters and diaries, as well as critical studies. Tidd discusses all of Beauvoir's major works and even some of her lectures, such as those she gave in Japan, summarizing the argument or the plot and highlighting themain ideas. She signals too what kind of reception some of the essays and novels had. Beauvoir emerges as a formidable figure, perhaps more of a philoso pher than a fiction writer, since Tidd puts the accent on her ideas. Tidd obviously respects Beauvoir, and this is reflected in the tactful handling of some of themore controversial aspects of her life. This is an excellent introduction to Beauvoir's work, life,and myth. Swansea University Catherine Rodgers Fiction Now: The French Novel in theTwenty-First Century. ByWarren Motte. Champaign, IL, and London: Dalkey Archive Press. 2008. 237 pp. $29.95. ISBN 978-1-56478-503-9. Although byWarren Motte's own avowal this accessible volume isnot intended to provide a comprehensive survey of the extreme contemporain, it defies perennial pronouncements of the terminal crisis of the French novel. Concentrating on the Metropolitan French novel that is his area of expertise, and by taking a series of what he describes as 'soundings' (p. 10), Motte seeks to put the range and diversity of the French contemporary critical novel on display' (p. 33). While the descriptor critical' remains somewhat opaque, the opening chapter identifies a personal preference forwriters who situate themselves questioningly in relation to literary tradition and to the cultural and political challenges of the turn of the twenty-firstcentury. With their self-reflexivemetaliterary strategies and a concern for certain kinds ofmarginality (though questions of gender and sexuality tend to be elided), forMotte, 'they share a crucial will tomake French fiction new' (pp. 13-14). The fictions featured (together with a helpful list of authors who were also candidates for inclusion) are for themost part published by Minuit and P.O.L. Each chapter operates discretely as a comprehensive introduction to recentworks by eightwriters: JeanEchenoz, Christian Gailly, Gerard Gavarry, Patrick Lapeyre, Helene Lenoir, Christine Montalbetti, Marie Redonnet, and Lydie Salvayre. Ar ranged from best to least known, this ordering arguably risks the occlusion of the 882 Reviews less familiar writers bymore established figures (Echenoz, Gailly, Redonnet, and Salvayre). Single works of fiction are situated in the context of the author's oeuvre and, to a lesser extent, the field of cultural production, although the chapter on Salvayre surveys the author's output since 1990. Each chapter is a lively and artful mix of description and analysis, which gives the reader a clear sense of narratives at once in terms of form, content, and the relationship between the two, though unfortunately, and no doubt due to editorial pressures, quotations are given only inEnglish. Accessibly, if sometimes fleetingly,Motte draws on critical perspectives includ ing those ofMarc Auge, Michel de Certeau, Roland Barthes, Maurice Blanchot, Guy Debord, Jacques Derrida, Gerard Genette, and Emmanuel Levinas (plus be yond this francophone frame of reference, Gerald Prince, Edward Said, Tvzetan Todorov, and several contemporary critics of recent French fiction). There is, for example, productive reference to Derrida on hospitality as a way of discussing Marie Redonnet's Diego (Paris: Minuit, 2005), though amore predictable recourse toAuge undercuts the claims for originality ofGerard Gavarry's Hop-Id! Un deux trois (Paris: P.O.L., 2001). None the less,Motte's account of Gavarry's inventive metalinguistic perspectives on life in the banlieue otherwise lives up to his...