Les voyages de Merry Sisal par Gisèle Pineau (review)

Reviews 223 treizième roman de la “Reine du silence”, qui se lit comme on contemple la Joconde. De l’impasse et de la filiation, la plage confondra les secrets. Pacific University (OR) Jeanne-Sarah de Larquier Pineau, Gisèle. Les voyages de Merry Sisal. Paris: Mercure de France, 2015. ISBN 9782 -71-523425-3. Pp. 264. 18,50 a. Merry Sisal survived the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti but now subsists with vivid images of the cadavers she crossed, her own body violated then rendered in order to survive in its wake. Abandoned previously by the father of her children, François-Jean, whom she hoped would return from France one day, she left school to devotedly raise Tommy, six years old, and Florabelle, four. Following the disaster, she embarks on a harrowing clandestine crossing to the French Caribbean island of Bonne-Terre. There, she is led by a compatriot, Bettina, to employment in the home of a French couple, Anna and Raymond Legris who, with friends, had established homes facing the sea. Here the novel opens, then tosses and turns, alternating between dusky memory and the reality of this encounter. Anna’s story unravels as their relationship develops; having lost a child, grossly deformed and taken from her at birth, she sympathizes deeply with the victims she sees through the media, and feels better when taking care of Merry. Eventually, they discover commonalities, such as the suicides of their mothers, African heritage, and prejudice endured. Though Merry begins to interact with Anna as a daughter, darkness haunts her. Fred, the gardener, tells her she is wanted for homicide in Haiti, which she cannot remember. Meanwhile, she acquiesces to Anna’s encouragement to pose nude, as she did when young for her husband ’s artistic magazine photos, to give her confidence and a chance at stardom. She is likewise covered partially, in her case by flowers. Fragile yet audacious,“vulnérable et impudente”(107), Merry finally leaves their home one night, and stands up to menacing hoodlums on motorcycles, replying,“‘Tu sais, j’ai vu l’Apocalypse et ses ravages’, cracha-t-elle, l’index pointé vers le ciel. ‘J’ai peur de rien. Je vis avec les morts. Tu les vois pas? [...] Mais moi aussi, je suis une morte [...] Vous voulez coucher avec une Morte?’” (208–09). Pineau, a psychiatric nurse due to attend a literary event in Haiti the day after the earthquake, allows the reader to perceive the world through Merry’s distressed vision, while also providing sufficient exterior description to depict her as absent to others. In the end, Merry embarks on one of the most profound interior trips imaginable back to the present as she is ultimately confronted with an unbearable past, “une souffrance incandescente” (119). Even the most sterile and satisfied of the diverse support group which emerges in this crisis is ultimately challenged to shed judgments and imagine new interpretations. Readers familiar with Philippe Claudel’s La petite fille de Monsieur Linh (2005), also about an immigrant, though his trauma is induced by war, may be less surprised by the denouement, though appreciative of its probing toward integration. Regional distinctiveness and local color also pervade. Overall, this timely novel deals sensitively and deftly with the effects of natural disaster and loss, as well as nurturing, accepting relationships, on the human psyche. Rockhurst University (MO) M. Kathleen Madigan Redonnet, Marie. La femme au Colt 45. Paris: Tripode, 2015. ISBN 978-2-37055075 -0. Pp. 112. 15 a. A fiftyish woman, having left her career as the star actress of the“Magic Théâtre,” having become separated from her husband and her son during an insurrection in her native country, having traversed a dense and apparently endless forest, finds herself alone, perched on the edge of a tall cliff, with an old Colt 45 pistol in her hand. Clearly, the time for decision has come. Thus begins Redonnet’s new novel, her first since Diego (2005). Its heroine is “Lora Sander,” who has made her way out of a war-torn “Azirie” in order to seek refuge in “Santarie.” Sometimes we hear her own account of events, sometimes her speech is framed by that...