Penthouse F. Los Angeles by Richard Kalich

Abstract

HHHH short listfor thePrixGoncourt and hasbeenawardedthePrixRenaudot . Apocalypse Bébéis the storyof twowomenwho arehiredto find Valentine, theteenagedaughter of a novelist, who has disappeared. LucieToledo,an insecurewoman offorty, whois afraidtoordertea ina baras itmaycreate an impression of weakness,is in striking contrast tohercompanion, a forthright , powerfulfigureknownas theHyena,a lesbianwho whistles at girlson thestreet, deals drugs, andiswilling touseviolence toget information. Valentine, thebébé ofthetitle, isthevictim ofa father whoignores her, as hetries toimprove hisliteraryreputation (evenwriting anonymous ,glowing reviews ofhiswork ontheInternet), andofa mother of North African origin wholeft when shewas a baby.Valentine is often drunk,on drugs,and extremely sexuallypromiscuous. She sleeps withall the membersof a rock band,who humiliate herbut still refuse to givehera pass fortheir concerts.Aftermeetinga young terrorist, shebecomes easypreyfor anextreme left-wing group. Despentes'sstoryis fast-moving , marked bywitty dialoguefilled withslang.She writesalternating chapters inthevoiceofLucie,who neverquite understands what is happening. Other chapters aretold from theperspective oftheHyena, Valentine, herfather, hermother, and her stepmother. The varying pointsofview skillfully createan ambiguous atmosphere. WhenValentinegoes to Barcelonato find her mother, we see the mother's explanation (sheisafraid totellher richhusbandaboutherdaughter), thenValentine's (whorealizesthat hermother has no interest inher), thentheHyena's,whoseesthefull tragedy ofthemother's coldness. Despentesportrays contemporary French society withirony. Literature has becomean "industry." There isnocommunication between ethnic groups. Valentine's mother's bourgeoisacquaintances can only talktoherabouttajines (claypots), while"on theleftit'sworse,they worrythatwe are forgetting our roots."Men are violent;women areinterested onlyinappearances. Valentine's mother dislikesBarcelonabecause "youcan'tgeta good manicure." Hergrandmother relies on Botox.Her father and his wife need sadomasochistictechniques to keep theirsex lifegoing.The onlypraiseworthy sex is lesbian, since"heterosexuality is as natural as electric fences toenclosecattle." Valentine'sfinal act, insertinga bombintohervaginabefore attending a literary ceremony at thebastionofFrench culture - the Palais Royal - leads to censorship, the disappearanceof the Hyena, Lucie's escape fromFrance,and, ironically, risingsales of Valentine 'sfather's books. AdeleKing Paris RichardKalich.Penthouse F.Los Angeles . Green Integer. 2010. 220 pages. $20. ISBN 978-1-55713-413-4 The protagonist ofthisnovel,one "RichardKalich,"is a manofletters whose interestin literature has waned.Twenty-five yearsago, he triedto writea novel,entitled Transfiguration of theCommonplace, but foundhimself unequal to the task.Sincethat time, hehaslivedin an increasingly vegetative state,a staterelieved onlywhena boyand a girl,fictional characters in that aborted novel,moveintohisapartment . Sucha deliciously metaleptic moment cannotlast,of course.A double suicidepunctuates it,and "Kalich"standsaccusedofhaving pushedtheyoungcoupleto their deaths,eitherliterally or figuratively . Thetextis structured as an interrogation, a topos so broadly exploitedin contemporary literature , from KafkatoVolodine,that itis now ripeforparody.Readers willquickly recognize, too,a meditationon the relationsof fiction and reality, whereinthe boundaries separating those regimes are deliberately and consistently blurred.Has fiction come to life here,or has lifecome to fiction? Indeed,do thosequestionsmake anysenseat all,in a worldwhere thosetwo ways of being are so closely reciprocal? Whereas "Richard Kalich,"the author ofPenthouse F,is cannyand wily, "Richard Kalich"thecharacter is farmorenaïve,and thatironic tension is thesourceofa gooddeal of funhere.The former playsthe latter ina metafictional gamewhose stakeis thenovelitself. Itis a game wherein"everything is stillvery muchopentointerpretation," a hall ofmirrors inwhich we readers constantly confront carnivalized images ofourown readerly inferences, as ifeachinterpretive pathwe might be tempted toblazehad beenvery largely anticipated andturned back uponitself. Ghosts hauntthisbook from first page tolast:Dostoevsky, Mallarmé,Kafka,Mann, Camus, Pessoa,Gombrowicz - and,oh yes, mostperniciously of all, "Kalich." Forheisa manwhotortures himself bothwiththenovelsthathe has written and withthosethathe has not.Letus forgive himevenifhe willnotforgive himself, recognizing as we do theone truth ofthistale thatseemstobe beyonddoubt:"It was all in hishead likeeverything elseabouthim." Warren Motte University ofColorado Daniel Kehlmann. Fame: A Novel in Nine Episodes. Carol Brown Janeway, tr. New York. Pantheon. 2010. 175 pages. $24. isbn 978-0-307-37871-2 The successfulGerman-Austrian author DanielKehlmann, whose Measuring theWorld (2005;see WLT, Jan. 2008,63) was translated intosome forty languages withsalesfigures of 62 1WorldLiterature Today ...