L'Enfant noir by Camara Laye (review)

Book Reviews153 focus, Katharine Conley examines Brassard's use ofspatial poetics and the hologram as figures ofcreative potential in the quest to depict the feminine body and desire in writing. In "Our Last Chance for Silence," Catherine Campbell gives a nuanced reading of the tension between language and silence in Mauve Desert and Baroque at Dawn. The hologram returns in Susan Knutson's welcome comparison of Brassard's and Donna Haraway's interest in women's relationship with science, a comparison motivated by the fact that "they have both responded critically but without denial to the scientific and technological revolution that has changed what we as human beings are" (174). The final three articles bring together several of Brossard's works to illuminate specific themes. Susan Holbrook uses Kristeva's delirium to approach the trope oftranslation central to Brossard's aesthetics since the mideighties . Godard's recent translation of Journal intime provides the springboard for her sweeping look at Brossard's "Life (in) Writing," from Un livre (1970) to Elle serait la première phrase de mon prochain roman (1998). Finally , Lynette Hunter examines the fascination and exigencies of writing the inédit, underscoring the moral action and agency that such a project implies. In any collection ofthis nature, some essays are more descriptive than analytical , more reverent than revealing. This is not unexpected in a volume that seeks to pay homage to a writer ofBrossard's exceptional and challenging caliber . What is missing here is a greater sense ofher vocation and profile as a poet, since most of the essays focus on prose. This is another reason why Dupré's contribution is so important, for her analysis points most clearly to Brossard's incomparable poetic oeuvre, which critics have yet to honorwith such an anthology . One can only hope that this useful volume for undergraduate and graduate programs alike will be joined by a companion collection that illuminates Brossard's poetic trajectory equally as well. Miléna SanteroGeorgetown University Laye, Cámara. L'Enfant noir. Myrna Bell Rochester and Natalie Schorr, eds. Newburyport, Massachusetts: Focus Pub./R. Pullins and Co., 2005. Pp 232. ISBN 1-58510-153-2. $14.95. This new student edition of Cámara Laye's L'Enfant noir, prepared by Myrna Bell Rochester and Natalie Schorr, is a welcome addition to the sorely limited selection of full-length texts in French published with materials for use in the second-language classroom. The autobiographical L 'Enfant noir is particularly well suited to high school and college age learners of French, as it deals with such topics as family, school, and choosing a career—topics which are ofhigh interest at this point in students' lives, and which they have the vocabulary in French to discuss. I often teach literary texts in intermediate-level French courses, as they not only build reading skills but also give students a taste ofwhat it means to study 1 54Women in French Studies literature in French. I recently taught L 'Enfant noir in a fourth-semester college French course. Although I initially feared the text would prove too difficult, in fact, the students rose to the task and the novel worked remarkably well—due, in large part, to the pedagogical apparatus provided in this new edition. The edition includes a detailed introduction with information on the author and the text, the Guiñean context, the négritude movement, and stylistic elements. Glosses and notes (in French) appear throughout the text, and a series ofmultiple-choice and open-ended questions accompany each chapter. The editors have also provided topics for discussions and essays, a bibliography, and suggestions for other books, films, and musical recordings to complement L 'Enfant noir. Finally, there is a lengthy vocabulary list to facilitate discussions of literature. These pedagogical aids are tremendously helpful; the one complaint I heard from students was that the glossed words were not as useful as they could have been, because the most relevant words were not always glossed, and the definitions sometimes seemed too roundabout. As an instructor, I appreciated the fact that definitions were given in French rather than English. In L'Enfant noir, the narrator tells ofhis experiences growing up as the...