L'étrange affaire Tiburce Petitpas by Gérard Netter

Abstract

Reviewed by: L'étrange affaire Tiburce Petitpas by Gérard Netter Alain Ranwez Netter, Gérard. L'étrange affaire Tiburce Petitpas. L'Harmattan, 2019. ISBN 978-2-343-16667-4. Pp. 199. Thematically the concept of the double has been treated a number of times throughout literary history, but Netter adds an interesting and existentialist twist to his intriguing plot. The protagonist Petitpas awakens after a night of nightmares evoking surrealistic fears of a loss of identity. The nightmares also inform him that existentially one cannot be objectively determined by others' definition, that one must continuously move on in the process of discovery of the self without assurances of achieving the final goal of that determined self. Therefore, Tiburce decides to act in a different manner. Since his wife has just left him, he chooses to explore new adventurous ways. This new search most unfortunately does not last long. As he meanders in his neigh borhood that very morning he is assaulted by a gang, resembling one on Kubrick's cinematic A Clockwork Orange. He is sent to a hospital with serious head and leg injuries, loses his smartphone, his bank card, and official information required for any financial transaction which would be used by Tiburce personally according to official agencies. It is at this early point in the novel that the story evolves and deepens within the intricate plot of this "étrange affaire." A journalist named Oscar Leroux recounts odd and divergent details in the local newspaper Sombre époque about the attack, which Leroux himself ironically witnessed, but his professional reporting is neither a factual description of what occurred nor a true description of those responsible. Furthermore, the reporter, who stubbornly claims to be Tiburce's intimate friend, continues to publish articles not only distorting the truth but leading the newspaper's readers to wild assumptions and theoretical propositions. Other characters with bizarre and opinionated views humorously appear, such as the inspector Confus-Lenormand in charge of the Petitpas case, the concierge Madame Jacasse, and Margaret Lovato who in a most motherly manner informs Tiburce about classical literature involving the theme of the double. There are also others who evoke various and divergent opinions on both Petitpas and his immediate threatening world. Due to the details gathered by the police, Tiburce quickly comes to understand that his identity has been usurped by another or a double, and this loss leads him into a world of extreme anxiety, depression, and anguish. He becomes haunted by this intimate double [End Page 207] of his existence, whether real or imagined, and must now descend into his own hellish voyage of self-discovery in order to find his authentic inner self: "La question, c'est de savoir qui je suis, puisque je sais ce que je ne suis plus" (18). This is an intriguing novel, deserving to be read especially for the description of the characters, the well-thoughtout plot, and Netter's cultural and philosophical introspections. Alain Ranwez Metropolitan State University of Denver, emeritus Copyright © 2020 American Association of Teachers of French