La consolante by Anna Gavalda

Abstract

w I > I z I w H ^ I p I < H I H H D I I ^ o I he can become part of a culture of cruelty. Each chapter of the novel is a self-contained story thatbuilds toward an eerie or absurd climax. What holds the stories together is the reflective consciousness of the child. At the end ofmany of these episodes, the realist trappings fall away; what remains is the boy's urge to run, to get away and be somewhere else. East Central Europe is more divided today, its societies more politicized, than ever before.Yet The White King was acclaimed in both Hungary and Romania, and ithas been a major critical success in the West. Perhaps the main reason for this is that the novel's depiction of personal and communal experienc es touches depths thatno political speech or newspaper article can ever hope to reach. Ivan Sanders Columbia University Anna Gavalda. La consolante. Paris. Dilettante. 2008. 637 pages. 24.50. isbn978-2-84263-152-9 Since thepublication in 1999 of her collection of well-crafted short sto ries, Je voudrais que quelqu'un mat tende quelque part, Anna Gavalda's fictionalworks have been getting lengthier, culminating in La conso lante, a novel that seems even longer than its 637 pages. Unfortunately, this is not the sort of narrative that one reads avidly, hoping itwould never end. In fact, it feels like two separate narratives, with the reader left wondering why the noticeable emotional closure that occurs rough ly at themidpoint of the book is followed by a new and apparently unrelated storyline. The author's repeated attempts to intertwine the two remain unconvincing, lead ing to the question ofwhether she should have produced two separate novels. The main character of La conso lante, Charles Balanda, is a success fulmiddle-aged architectwho feels increasingly frustrated in both his professional and private lives. His full-blown midlife crisis is set off by a letter announcing the death of Anouk, themother of a former childhood friend, Alexis. Anouk had once been a rolemodel forCharles as well as an unrequited love inter est. Long flashbacks take the reader back to Charles's early formative years and to the ways in which he gradually lost the enthusiasm of his youth, just as he lost both the friendship ofAlexis and theuncon ventionally nurturing influence of Anouk. Determined to find out what happened to thewoman who had been so important during his youth, Charles seeks out the long lostAlexis, distancing himself in the process from his career and from his family, consisting of his live-in girlfriendand her daughter. Finding Alexis, and discovering the truth about how Anouk died, do not lead to a cathartic conclusion. Instead, Charles meets a woman who is very different from his elegant Parisian girlfriend, who in fact embodies some of theeccentricqualities of the deceased Anouk, and whose impact on Charles's life will occupy the sec ond half of thenovel. Gavalda draws out her tale of transformation and reconciliation through a combination of digres sions and long-omitted plot details. Previously known forher sparsely written, surprisingly emotional sto rylines, in La consolante she accu mulates stylistic flourishes and redundancies. What is presum ably intended as a reflectionof the main character's anguish and con fusion quickly becomes gimmicky and annoying: the accumulation of descriptive sentences lacking a sub jectpronoun and simply beginning with a verb. Such sentences some times coalesce into one protracted narrative monologue made up of fragments linked together by com mas (see pp. 121-23). This sort ?f longwinded writerly experimenta tion is less thangroundbreaking and hardly felicitous. Anna Gavalda is a refreshinglyoriginal voice in the world of French letters. What she demonstrates in La consolante is that her talent as a storyteller lies in shorter pieces of work. EdwardOusselin WesternWashington University Karl lagnemma. The Expeditions. New York. Dial. 2008. 322 pages. $24. isbn 978-0-385-33595-9 A research scientist in themechanical engineering department atMIT and a winner of theParis Review Plimp ton Prize, Karl lagnemma has drawn on his scientificknowledge to create a stunning first novel about sixteen year-old Elisha Stone's passionate journey of discovery. "He toldMr. Brush about the empty shelves in his boyhood bedroom, his desire to see them filledwith every species in theworld." This great desire of Eli sha's draws him away fromthe 1844 world of Newell, Massachusetts? and hismartinet minister fatherand dying mother?to the frontiertown ofDetroit and eventually to thewil derness of Michigan's upper pen insula. His traveling companions, and mentors, are two sharply etched characters, Silas Brush, an unethical soldier of fortune, and George Tif fin, a professor out to prove at any cost that all humans are descended from one source and are therefore brothers. Add to thisElisha's grief stricken father,Reverend William I.IIIIIIIIIII.Illlllllllllllllll.Illllllllllllll.I.IIIIIIIII.Mill.Illllllllllll.I.Illlllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.lllllllillillllllllllllllllllllllllll^^H 66 i WorldLiterature Today ^^^H ...