contradictions that make him (to some readers) so compelling. I appreciate more Grossman’s attention to small details. For instance, a reference to “Hugue(o)nots” living in the Channel islands demonstrates Hugo’s habit of slyly alluding to himself through coincidences of sound; as Grossman asks,“What better way to signal his status as a (political) protestant?” (47). These clever close readings make The Later Novels of Victor Hugo memorable and fun. Arcadia University (PA) Kate M. Bonin Harrington, Katharine N. Writing the Nomadic Experience in Contemporary Francophone Literature. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2012. ISBN 978-0-7391-75712 . Pp. 147. $60. The introduction, which explores the changing significance over time of such terms as nomadism, diaspora, and exile, sets the stage for a thought-provoking discussion of several well-known contemporary Francophone writers and the narrative conceptualizations of place and identity in their respective oeuvres.As Harrington posits, a primary aim of the volume is to “widen the scope of the study of nomadism in contemporary French and Francophone literature” (12) through her selection of four authors with complex bicultural and/or bilingual backgrounds who “envision writing as a way to anchor themselves in their uncertain position between nations, cultures, languages, and even between the past and the present” (134). Each of the book’s four chapters provides biographical information on the authors, references to significant theoretical texts, and a critical analysis of the literary works that best exemplify the evolution of the concept of nomadism in a particular writer’s work. In her first chapter, for example, Harrington examines the “nomadic tendency” (19) in the work of Nobel laureate J.M.G. Le Clézio, who was raised in France but has close family ties to Mauritius and has lived in several other countries. Following an analysis of Le procès-verbal, she explores what she terms Le Clézio’s Latin American phase, wherein he“advocates for a‘nomadic’state of mind, one which is not bound to a single social or cultural model” (37). Ultimately, however, Harrington suggests that Le Clézio’s narrative strategy of privileging nomadic protagonists may have become too “predictable” (45). Chapter 2 centers on Nancy Huston, who was born in Alberta but has lived in France since the 1970s, focusing primarily on Huston’s conception of herself as a“fausse exilée”(54), as she has chosen to live in exile, and a“faux bilingue” (60), as she grew up speaking English and only learned French later in life. In fact, Harrington suggests, it is Huston’s “ambiguous status as a ‘faux bilingue’ which has allowed her to take chances with her writing, in regard to both style and content”(60). Her own situation between cultures and languages is a topic that Huston explored extensively in the non-fictional Nord perdu. In her final chapters, Harrington looks at how Nina Bouraoui and Régine Robin have struggled to come to terms with identitarian 222 FRENCH REVIEW 88.2 Reviews 223 issues. The Franco-Algerian Bouraoui has made manifest that writing now serves as her homeland, especially as she has not returned to Algeria since she was young. Robin, born in France to Jewish parents from Poland and currently living in Montreal, attempted to “transcribe the immigrant experience in Quebec” (117) in her postmodern novel La Québécoite. Harrington’s conclusion, which underscores both the commonalities and the uniqueness of the works by Le Clézio, Huston, Bouraoui, and Robin, acknowledges the fact that many more authors exhibit the nomadic tendencies under consideration in this volume, and the author points especially to the Internet, with its ever-expanding communicative potential, as a promising space for future “nomadic exploration”(137). This useful study should be of great interest to scholars of Francophone literature and culture. University of Nebraska, Omaha Patrice J. Proulx Houppermans, Sjef, et al., éd. Marcel Proust Aujourd’hui 9.Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2012. ISBN 978-90-420-3602-4. Pp. 212. $63. The Dutch Proust Society has done an impressive job in its most recent Annual Bilingual Review. The editors’choice of articles and their overall presentation are done with knowledge and style. In the first article, “Un témoignage...