Memoir of an Amnesiac by Jan J. Dominique, Irline François

Abstract

break isdownrightpoetic. In fact,the small sections thatmake up the narra tivealign likeenjambedmeter. Apropos Opa can be read in a single afternoon, and its brevity? the seemingly effortlessway it so succinctly captures seventy years and three generations of a single family?is perhaps itsfinestachieve ment. Though trim,thenovel is fur therproof that even the grandchil dren of thewar generation have a story to tellabout it. Kyle Semmel Washington, D.C. PhilippeDjian. Impardonnables. Paris. Gallimard. 2008. 233 pages. 17.50. isbn978-2-07-077462-3 A prolific and successfulwriter since theearly 1980s,Philippe Djian isbest known for his 1985 novel, 37.20 le matin, which was adapted the follow ingyear intoamemorable film, Betty Blue. Prior to Impardonnables(Unfor givables), he had published over a three-year periodDoggy Bag,a lengthy novel divided into six "seasons" and inspiredby American television series.As is thecasewithmany ofhis books, Djian's latesteffortis a potent blend of melodrama, pessimism, nar cissism, and sudden plot twists, all told in a deceptively straightforward tone (hence the frequent references toHemingway) thatdoes not follow chronological or narrative linearity. In Impardonnables, nearly all thechar acters, including the narrator, have done something unforgivable,hence theplural in the title. Like theauthor, the narrator is a sixty-year-old novel istwho lives in southwestern France. Logically enough, thenarrator is try ing towrite a novel, but it is his life and thelivesof thoseclose tohim that are caughtup ina particularlyconvo lutedplot, throughout which he never ceases to remind us that everyone can be counted on toalways do the wrong thing. Having witnessed the fiery death of his first wife and one of their daughters, thenarrator is mainly obsessed by thefactthathiswife had just learned about hismarital infidel ity. His remainingdaughterwill con tinuallyblame him for thisbetrayal, andwill go througha period ofdrug addiction before becoming a famous actress.By stagingher own abduction inorder tostir up publicity,shewill in turnbetray her father, her husband, and ultimatelyher children.The nar rator is also betrayed by his second wife,who has an affair with a deeply troubled young man whom he had attempted to help. These and other events are related nonsequentially, through a series of temporal flash backs and fast-forwardsthatfunction as a sort of backdrop to the narrator's strivingto write hisnovel. Thewriting process ispresented as both passion ate and paltry.Since he has had some literarysuccess, thenarrator is fairly well known where he lives,which leads tominor characters tellinghim such things as: "C'est fascinant. Ecrire un roman doit etre fascinant. ?a me fascine" (That's fascinating. Itmust be faseinating to write a novel. It fascinates me). This sortof absurdly deadpan dialogue does not prevent the narrator from elsewhere point ingout the level of intensity required for the progression of his writing: "Rien n'etait plus dur que d'ecrire un roman" (Nothingwas harder than writing a novel). Overall, Philippe Djian generallymanages in Impardon nables to keep the reader's interest fromflagging. However, like thetele vision series thatseem to inspire the author,his novel provides little more thana mildly surprisingand quickly forgotten seriesof luridevents. EdwardOusselin Western WashingtonUniversity Jan J. Dominique. Memoir of an = Amnesiac. Irline Frangois, tr. Edwidge = Danticat, foreword. Coconut Creek, = Florida.Caribbean Studies. 2008. 305| pages. $19.50. isbn978-1-58432-473-7| Jan J.Dominique's firstpublished = literary text is an intimate memoir. = The main protagonist is a child/ = woman with a dual name, Lili,who = is also Paul. Memoir ofanAmnesiac is = the nonlinear account of a Haitian- E born girl who lived and became a E woman in Montreal, where Domi- E nique lived from 1970 to 1979. The E novel's historical context is generE ally unspecified in order to better = represent the consciousness of its = young protagonist. Although there = are letters,incompletely dated (e.g., E 197- inpart 2), there isan attempt to E dehistoricize the textby foregroundE ing the subjective realm ofmemory. E Since Jean Dominique, Jan's = father, was assassinated in 2000, it = is important to note?something E thepublication data doesn't, but the = useful interviewwith the author at E the end does?that the French text E was first published, not in 2004, but E inHaiti in 1984when her father,the = radio journalist, was in exile inNew E York...