Kim Lefèvre’s Retour à la saison des pluies: Rediscovering the Landscapes of Childhood

Kim Lefevre’s Retour a la saison des pluies: Rediscovering the Landscapes of Childhood Jack Yeager T HE PUBLICATION of Kim Lefevre’s autobiographical “ récit,” Métisse blanche in 1989 sparked the curiosity of a wide sector of France’s reading public.1Bernard Pivot invited the writer to appear on a broadcast of “ Apostrophes” shortly after the appearance of the book,2an event which in effect ensured the renown of both Lefèvre and her work. Métisse blanche nearly made the best-seller lists, appreciated as it was by readers as diverse as students of women’s writing to the regular audience of such magazines as Elle.3 Numerous favorable reviews also bear witness to the popularity of Métisse blanche. This autobiographical narration that the writer herself has called a novel4traces the childhood and adolescence of a Eurasian child born in colonial Viet Nam. As the title indicates, the first person narrator places the presence of her Eurasian “ corps métis” at the center of her text, establishing this pivotal fact from the very first words of the book: “ Je suis née, paraît-il, à Hanoi un jour de printemps, peu avant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, de l’union éphémère entre une jeune Annamite et un Français” (17). Like her literary antecedent, Ly Thu H o,5Kim Lefèvre sets up a precise political, social, and cultural backdrop for her narra­ tion. Contrary to the well-defined decor and specific historical moment, the narrator is never settled in one place but always on the move, unstable, ephemeral, impossible to pin down and define. Whatever the stated reasons for this instability, everything leads back to the presence of the body that incarnates the mixing of French and Vietnamese blood. In this lengthy narration, Kim Lefèvre tells in detail of her humiliation and exclusion as a “ métisse” in colonial Viet Nam as well as of her edu­ cation in French schools and eventual departure for France. Métisse blanche traces the progressive separation of the narrator from her home­ land and family. Retour à la saison des pluies (1990) is in some sense a sequel to Métisse blanche. In Retour the narrator refers often to the first book, the episodes recounted in it, its reception and impact on her life. She tells her story in two parts. In “ Le Passé Ressurgi” she relates the events that lead to her decision to return to Viet Nam. In this section memories and the VOL. XXXIII, No. 2 47 L ’E s pr it C r éa teu r narrator’s “ present” intertwine, culminating with two imagined returns to Southeast Asia, one awkward, the other idyllic. In Part II, “ Le Retour,” the narrator recounts the trip to Viet Nam, the multiple encounters with her family and the rediscovery of the landscapes of her childhood. The first person narration in Retour, as in Métisse blanche, evokes the personal “ history” of its narrator; but at the same time Lefèvre blurs even more the imaginary lines between fiction and history, between novel and autobiography. As readers, we too remember some of the moments recounted in this text: Lefèvre’s appearance on the “ Apostrophes” pro­ gram that focused on the topic of humiliation, for example (16-17), or the reception of Métisse blanche itself. The narrator writes: “ Tout changea avec la parution du livre. En l’écrivant j ’avais mis en marche, sans en avoir conscience, la machine à remonter le temps. Et les annéeslumi ère que j ’avais voulu jeter entre le Viêt-nam et moi, entre mon enfance et moi, comme un grand espace d’oubli, se retrouvèrent tout à coup abolies” (18). It would seem that in Retour à la saison des pluies Kim Lefèvre attempts to move decisively away from fiction toward what we would understand as autobiography. That would seem simple enough were it not for the lack of consensus among critics as to the differences between autobiography and fiction.6Kim Lefèvre’s texts stand as exam­ ples of this ambiguity.7 Métisse blanche and Retour not only share this ambiguity but also a common goal: the narrator...