Mingus Mood by William Memlouk

Abstract

their own way, liberated from the morass of self-doubt, conformism, and low self-esteem that have held them back until they put on Mitterrand’s seemingly magical hat. Daniel Mercier, who finds the hat in the brasserie after sitting at the table next to that of the presidential party, overcomes his timidity at work, becomes more outspoken at meetings of his company, and soon gets a major promotion . He is also the first of the hat’s beneficiaries to lose it when he no longer really needs it, but he spends the rest of the novel tracking it down. In the end, he generously, and patriotically, returns it to its rightful owner, whom he gets to meet again in person. The second individual to find the hat is Fanny Marquand, who serendipitously shares the same initials as the President of France, which are embossed in gold on the headband. This portentous coincidence gives Fanny the courage to break off her longtime liaison with a married man who keeps finding excuses not to leave his wife. She makes her literary aspirations her new focus and becomes a successful short story writer when she publishes a story based on her love life. With the money she earns from her publications, she buys a book store in Cabourg (shades of Proust), where she also finds a partner more worthy of her. While en route to his weekly visit to his psychiatrist, Pierre Aslan picks up the hat on a bench in the Parc Monceau where Fanny has left it. Pierre is a master nose, a creator of perfumes who, now in his fifties, has become a kind of hasbeen . The smell of Mitterrand’s hat left on a radiator after getting wet in the rain, combined with the colognes of the different people who have worn it, inspires him to create a new scent that re-launches his career and earns him a fortune. The hat’s final passing owner is Bernard Lavallière, a wealthy businessman who has always been a political conservative. Wearing Mitterrand’s fedora turns him into an enthusiastic partisan of the socialist president and a collector of contemporary art, much to the dismay of his wife and friends. The form of this novel is as entertaining as the plot. It is written for the most part in the third person, but it becomes an epistolary novel in the middle when the first three people through whose hands the hat passes exchange letters concerning its whereabouts. As a result of this correspondence, Daniel and his wife become admirers of Fanny’s short stories. In the epilogue, we discover that the president’s security agents have been monitoring the hat’s movements from day one. Mitterrand had rejected a direct intervention, preferring to enjoy the spectacle of the ways it has impacted the lives it has crossed. This almost godlike posture is reinforced in the final words of the novel where a line is quoted from Mitterrand’s final speech to the people of France: “‘Je crois aux forces de l’esprit et je ne vous quitterai pas.’” One is reminded of Jesus assuring the Apostles just before His Ascension that He will be with them all days. University of Denver James P. Gilroy MEMLOUK, WILLIAM. Mingus Mood. Paris: Julliard, 2010. ISBN 978-2-260-01955-8. Pp. 244. 18 a. Ce premier roman de Memlouk qui, né en 1977, est journaliste spécialisé en littérature et musique, s’apparente aux biographies fictionnelles de figures du jazz, genre encore marginal voici une décennie mais qui tend à devenir de plus en plus répandu. Nous en voulons pour preuve les nombreux “romans” d’Alain 794 FRENCH REVIEW 86.4 Gerber (Louie (2002), Chet (2003), Charlie (2005), Lady Day (2005), Miles (2007), Frankie, le sultan des pâmoisons (2008)—tous parus chez Fayard), et aussi des ouvrages de plus jeunes auteurs, comme le beau Pannonica de Pauline Guéna (2007). Comme il est fréquent pour une telle entreprise, le récit s’inspire des épisodes connus de la vie de Charles Mingus, le grand contrebassiste de jazz. Mingus a écrit son autobiographie, Beneath the Underdog (1971), et les...