Samouraï par Fabrice Caro

Abstract

Reviewed by: Samouraï par Fabrice Caro Jane E. Evans Caro, Fabrice. Samouraï. Gallimard, 2022. ISBN 978-2-07-298811-0. Pp. 224. In the typical chagrin d'amour, the protagonist grieves a former lover to ultimately adopt a new perspective on their loss. In Samouraï, however, author Fabrice Caro depicts protagonist and writer Alan as expressing the comic in his life following the demise of his intimate relationship with Lisa. What makes Caro's novel so refreshing are his techniques for eliciting laughter and his creation of a main character whose thinking and behavior resonate with the reader. Protagonist Alan daydreams about alternative endings for his former relationship with Lisa, who recently inquired of him, "Tu peux pas écrire un roman sérieux?" (32). In his imagination he envisions her admiring his subsequent writings. He fantasizes publishing the bestseller, Sol y sangre, about his paternal grandparents' flight from Spain to France during Franco's rule; however, he never advances past the title. Instead, he composes the récit of his blind dates arranged by friends. The women, in his opinion, display major flaws, each more outrageous than the last: Mylène adores the theater, whereas Alan abhors it; Chloé loudly discusses intestinal dysfunction and caesarean births while dining out with him; and Louise's social awkwardness exceeds his own. In response to author Caro's accumulation and timing of comic details, the reader must laugh. Besides the amusement produced by Alan's encounters, Caro's choice of experiences for his protagonist enhances the ludic dimension of his work. Asked to house-sit for friends and keep the swimming pool clean during their absence, Alan considers his limited responsibilities and change of setting to be conducive to daily writing, in his words, "m'installer là tous les jours pour y écrire mon roman" (13). Despite his good intentions, mishaps occur: the pool water turns cloudy; a population of swimming "notonectes" (54) booms; and just before his friends' return, a human body further pollutes the murkiness. Consequently, Alan faces the pool store employee's disdain over his chlorine-related ignorance. The "notonectes" divert him from his writing as he studies the first one and calls it "Octave" because of the "sonorités jumelles en ct. Octave la notonecte" (78). His comments about phonetics add a linguistic element to Samouraï. When Alan runs into Lisa and her new boyfriend, a poetry professor, he silently dubs the latter "Ronsard" (206). And when he hears the professor calling Lisa "Lili," he immediately imagines the couple as "Lili et Ronron" (207), a childish expression at odds with the protagonist's adulthood as well as the professor's gentility, but witty all the same. Along with the progressively absurd situations in which the main character finds himself and his comic manipulation of language, Alan includes memories that make the reader chuckle while empathizing with him. One such incident involves his lengthy bathroom visit at the home of Lisa's parents and his ensuing embarrassment. This experience strikes a familiar chord in most people, who have wanted to impress someone, failed miserably, and then tried to make things better, nevertheless. [End Page 226] Jane E. Evans University of Texas, El Paso Copyright © 2023 American Association of Teachers of French