Ombres confuses du temps par Najib Redouane

Abstract

more at ease in her attempts to master this sport. And although the couple experiences moments of real happiness, especially in climbing expeditions, the reader senses that Marion, in the depths of her soul, is uncertain if not fearful not only regarding her choice of a husband but also regarding her own needs and feelings. Often wavering about her decision to marry, she cannot rest, and tends to torment herself with doubts concerning her marital plans: “Bien sûr, j’ai une chance folle d’avoir cet homme pour moi toute seule, qui me couve comme si j’étais un objet précieux. C’est bien ça qui me met mal à l’aise, justement” (26). What Marion truly seems to enjoy is to be alone with her books and, above all, to be able to contemplate the beauty of nature in solitude. However, her consciousness is grounded in the disappointing awareness that marriage might put an end to her preferred ways of existence: “Quand on a tellement aimé ça, être seule dans le désert, quand ça a tellement correspondu à ce que l’on est, est-ce qu’on n’a pas quelque chose à préserver? Et si plus tard je regrettais?” (52). One night, looking at the full moon and its reflections on the mountainside, she asks herself which way she should follow: “C’est où, la voie Marion?” (54). Moreover, Marion seems to want to live according to some absolute ideal. Indeed, she and Pierre, instead of really communicating, tiptoe around their problems. Marion tends to be vexed by small things and to suppress her anger while Pierre is often puzzled by her reactions. Their dialogue, lacking richness, is superficial. After their marriage, the couple’s problems, mostly hidden during their courtship, surface . Their relationship becomes increasingly strained: Pierre is often away on excursions , leaving Marion feeling abandoned and hurt. When Marion is unable to conceive a child, their relationship reaches a standstill. One day, the corpse of Pierre’s father, who had vanished years ago in the mountains, reappears at the bottom of a melting glacier. Marion, upon seeing the face of her father-in-law, comes to the stark realization that she is seeing the face of a man who closely resembles that of her husband in the joyous days of their early courtship. This is the face in which she believed but unlike that of her father-in-law, her husband’s face has become hard and distant. She now understands that her marriage is over. Soon after, Marion’s frozen body is found in the high altitudes of eternal snows. Marion has found her “way.” Mégnin has maintained the reader’s interest throughout this novel by his skillful use of narrative suspense. Furthermore, some of the reasons for Marion’s suicide have both complexity and mystery. Lastly, Mégnin’s writing contains clarity as well as poetically suggestive quality; words are few and chosen with discipline. Mégnin leaves much to the reader’s imagination. His first novel is worth reading. University of Southern Maine Lucia A. DiBenedetto REDOUANE, NAJIB. Ombres confuses du temps. Montréal: Marais, 2010. ISBN 978-2923721 -17-0. Pp. 71. $18 Can. Vertiginous exile and encounters with shadows of the past take center stage in this latest collection from Najib Redouane, a writer of Moroccan origin who explores the intense suffering felt upon discovering radically different social and affective landscapes in his adopted homelands of Canada and the United States, described somewhat generally as a deceptive “Nouveau Monde” (32) that obliges the outsider first to remain wary and then, with time, to come to terms with Reviews 793 memory and forgetting of difficult moments and “[s]’unir / de nouveau avec [s]on intérieur” (61). Ombres confuses du temps features a narrative thread, a certain urgency and musicality, and a focus on healing through words, depicted as “[h]urlements sans âge” (71) torn from the soul and thrown to the sea. Epigraphs regarding false promises and a disdained Other set the tone for a pervasive “[n]octurne et colossal désespoir” (9) caused by “[d]es jours monotones” amid “un peuple / trahi et meurtri / qui vend ses r...