Les Mille-Vies by Delphine Coulin (review)

inter-human, but Cossé also writes at length about the deep love that humans have for the novels their fellows have written. Indeed, the book hints that human love and the love of reading great literature are profoundly related and even mutually reinforcing. The metamorphosis from high-speed detective novel to a more stately-paced reflection on human affections is by no means a bad trade-off. This reader, however , pined for some judicious pruning of the novel’s bulging mid-section (about 300 pages), and that in several areas. First, Cossé could have trimmed the overly scrupulous detail about bookselling (e.g., the finer points of selecting, ordering, and stocking books). Second, she could have thinned the herd of minor characters, many of whom have intriguing characterizations but are left by the wayside without further purpose in the plot. Lastly, she could have limited the namedropping : real novelists and their novels, but also the barely disguised names of Le Monde (“Le Ponte”), Le Figaro (“Le Bigaro”), Le Nouvel Observateur (“Le Vieil Obs”), and the FNAC (“VLAM”). Some of the name-dropping appears selfserving , perhaps none more so than the reference to Gallimard, the author’s own publisher. Other references appear to indulge the author’s need to settle scores in the unfinished culture wars (“elitist, moi?”). Discriminating readers will not find it difficult to argue with the driving thesis of the book, namely, that great literature and popular novels have we both, but very rarely the twain shall meet. Having made this grand claim over and again, however, the book makes itself particularly vulnerable to the idea that Au Bon Roman itself must belong to one camp or the other. Personally, I would choose some middle ground. A vous de choisir. Lawrence University (WI) Eilene Hoft-March COULIN, DELPHINE. Les Mille-Vies. Paris: Seuil, 2008. ISBN 978-2-02-098261-0. Pp. 157. 15 a. A critically acclaimed director and screenwriter, Delphine Coulin explores the familiar territory of cinema in her second novel, which describes twenty-four hours in the life of an aging actress as she plays her last scene in an unnamed film. Like Coulin’s 2004 novel, Les Traces, Les Mille-Vies contemplates the multiple facets of identity, explores the blurred lines between fiction and reality, and considers such grand themes as love and beauty. The novel begins with a chapter entitled, “Toutes les vies de Dorine M.”, in which the protagonist, Dorine Morel, wakes up, showers, and examines her image reflected ad infinitum in two facing mirrors. “Je m’interpose entre eux et deviens immédiatement plurielle” (9), she observes, a comment that could refer just as easily to the plurality of selves that the actress feels as she takes on each new role, which in turn has an effect on her identity: “Les films laissent des traces” (11). The question of whether she puts herself into each role or whether the role she plays becomes a part of her is paramount in Les Mille-Vies. It remains impossible at times to distinguish fiction from reality, and even as Dorine tries to explain to the actor who plays her young lover in the movie that she is filming that he is merely in love with her character, she simultaneously repeats her character’s actions, entering into a relationship with him in spite of herself. The result is that Dorine is unsure of who she is, or whether she has a core identity or is simply an assemblage of her roles. 192 FRENCH REVIEW 84.1 While the observation that one is constantly playing different roles is rather banal, the originality of Les Mille-Vies is to consider this from the perspective of an actress who literally takes on role after role in her life. She must strike a balance between fiction and reality, bringing some of her life experience to her roles in order to bring those roles to life, but this is a taxing task: “Difficulté de rester sur la brèche, suspendue entre fiction et réalité. Trop loin de moi-même, je ne peux pas jouer [...] Mais trop près de moi-même, je ne joue plus” (69). It is...