Dieu n’a pas besoin de ce mensonge by Kemadjou Njanke, Marcel (review)

Fanny a enfreint l’interdit ultime. Sa relation avec Mario s’essouffle, il n’est qu’à en juger par le kimono bleu qui pend dans la salle de bains, que Fanny renifle, caresse, punit, aère, laisse à la vue de “l’autre”, étreint, donne puis récupère, lave à eau chaude d’où il ressort “froissé comme une guenille, rapetissé, déformé, décoloré, [...] l’ombre de lui-même” (248) avant d’être reniflé et caressé une dernière fois puis jeté à la poubelle. Dans ce troisième roman, Anne Gallois, collaboratrice à l’émission Strip-tease sur France 3, nous livre une réflexion nouvelle sur un poncif littéraire. Ses personnages sont attachants, l’intrigue bien menée. Retenons ce conseil: pour éviter de souffrir, cherchons en l’autre “ses défauts, ses côtés mesquins, ridicules. Il faut toujours avoir à sa disposition une image négative de l’être aimé” (44). Eastern Connecticut State University Michèle Bacholle-Boškovic KEMADJOU NJANKE, MARCEL. Dieu n’a pas besoin de ce mensonge. Yaoundé: Ifrikiya, 2009. ISBN 9956-473-19-7. Pp. 131. Kemadjou Njanke’s text consists of five narratives recounted in the first person that present an insightful and upbeat glimpse into middle class life in contemporary Cameroun. His protagonists are modern Africans for whom computers , cell phones and remote-control televisions are normal features of everyday life. Most of his narrators are women, and, even when they are married, they usually pursue their own professional careers in addition to their duties as wives and mothers. It is also a world where divorce is as common as in Western countries , and the possibility of divorce is a theme broached in three of the stories. The word used by the author to designate his tales is “racontages.” In a footnote on the first page, he defines this genre as a narrative based on reality but enhanced by fiction to attain a particular end. He goes on to say that a racontage derives its literary value from the evocative power that the telling of it imparts to the story. The narrative thus gains greater force from being narrated. He adds that the loose connection of events in a shorter tale is also a distinguishing feature. The first narrative has the same title as the whole volume and constitutes almost half the text. Unlike the univocal other four, there are three different narrators in this one. Their voices alternate in telling us about their lives and sentiments , creating an effect reminiscent of an epistolary novel. The story is about an unhappily married Muslim lady who falls in love with a recently divorced Christian schoolteacher. Their love develops and is carried on from afar as in a courtly romance, but their means of communication are the telephone and e-mail. The third speaker is the lady’s housekeeper, who provides a kind of chorus or voice of the common person. Religious differences eventually prove an insuperable barrier to their union, but the limited relationship the man and woman briefly enjoy makes possible a moral liberation for both from their families and pasts. The third and fourth tales are protests voiced by intelligent women against the violence, stupidity, and ineptness of the country’s government. Somehow people like the narrators succeed in preserving their inner freedom and dignity in the face of an inhuman political and social system presented with unvarnished realism. The most complex stories are the second and fifth. Both are recounted by married women whose marriages are tottering on the brink of divorce. One Reviews 201 woman knows about her husband’s office wife besides having a second rival in the computer before which he spends more of his time than he does with her. The other heroine has already begun divorce proceedings but is faced with a legal system that discourages divorce. In the end, both couples find redemption and a renewal of their love in a written text. The word thus comes to their rescue in a kind of Proustian epiphany. In the first story, the narratrice discovers a poem written by her husband years before, expressing his deep love for her. When she shows it...