Essential Encounters by Thérèse Kuoh-Moukoury (review)

1 38Women in French Studies with the novel from 1879 on, and has been reproduced in this edition as well. It stresses the morality of the story, which could be expected coming from the author oíThe ExperimentalNovel who considered novelists as "moralistes expérimentateurs." Christopher Rivers' translation is superb: the text is easy to read, agreeable , captivating, and, at times, amusing. As he notes, he has tried to keep the theatrical tone ofthe original French and the page-turning nature ofthe novel. Therefore he has made it his priority to render its freshness and liveliness to the detriment of some stylistic anachronism or contemporary flair. As a result , his translation is different from previous ones as it is more modern. Besides the one published in Chicago by Laird and Lee in 1891, which he cites, another anonymous but less literal English translation does exist (Mdlle. Giraud, My Wife, by Adolphe Belot, London, Privately Printed for the Trade, n.d. - probably 1900-1909). A concise introduction by Christopher Rivers precedes the novel. It gives background information on the author's life, work and literary relationship with Zola. Rivers shows how the novel follows, but also differentiates itself from, the existing French literary tradition of representing lesbian love. He interprets the novel as less about homo-erotic love and more about the husband's discovery that his wife is lesbian, and shows how ironically the male/male intense but safe friendship prevails as embodying heterosexuality vis-à-vis a lesbian threat. It would be interesting, however, also to consider the ways in which power functions within the female/female relation. Finally, he explains the sociopolitical debate concerning religious versus secular education for young girls that took place when the novel first appeared. This re-edition and translation is most welcome. It can be used in courses focusing on 19th century history, and especially social history as Belot was known as a literary speculator who gave the public exactly what it wanted. Rivers' introduction gives the necessary and general background that will please any reader and its bibliography will satisfy the more erudite. Thérèse De RaedtUniversity of Utah Thérèse Kuoh-Moukoury. Essential Encounters. Trans, and Introd., Cheryl Toman. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2002. Pp. 60 and 58. ISBN: 0-87352-794-1 and 0-87352-793-3. $6.95 for each volume. Recently published in the Modem Language Association's Texts and Translations Series, Thérèse Kuoh-Moukoury's Rencontres essentielles and its translation in English, Essential Encounters, offers an interesting perspective on a woman's struggle with her role in life. Published in 1969 and set mainly in Cameroon, this ground-breaking novel tells of Flo's infertility, failed marriage , desire for love and approach to questions ofpolygamy. Kuoh-Moukoury's short novel, the first published by a woman from sub-Saharan francophone Africa, and translated here in English for the first time, has influenced a Book Reviews139 myriad ofCameroonian women writers. The author wrote the text to "inspire other women to write." Next to Calixthe Beyala's highly provocative C 'est Ie Soleil qui m 'a brûlée, published nearly twenty years after Kuoh-Moukoury's text, this novel pales in its social agenda. Nevertheless, its main character embodies an important transitional moment in the metamorphosis of the modem-day Cameroonian woman. Furthermore, remembering that Rencontres essentielles inspired Beyala's controversial text -to list one novel in a long list ofinfluences - attests to a profound evolution in the attitudes ofCameroonian women writers as espoused in their writings throughout three short decades. Kuoh-Moukoury's novel thus plays an important pioneering role. The beginning of the novel presents Flo's childhood, courting, marriage and the fateful day when she discovers she is infertile. The bliss ofher marriage quickly dissipates and Flo turns to a sorcerer and a herbal specialist to help her reproduce. When this does not yield the result she seeks, Flo stops considering a child as a solution to her marital woes. Once she asks her husband about his indifference towards her, he recognizes their troubles and proposes divorce. Flo is no less than overjoyed when a childhood friend reconnects...