L’oreille d’or par Élisabeth Barillé (review)

THE FRENCH REVIEW, Vol. 90, No. 3, March 2017 Printed in U.S.A. Creative Works edited by Jean-François Duclos 197 Barillé, Élisabeth. L’oreille d’or. Paris: Grasset, 2016. ISBN 978-2-246-85575-0. Pp. 126. 14 a. The author of several novels, narratives, and biographies, journalist Barillé recounts her partial deafness in this memoir drawing on her childhood and adult memories associated with hearing loss. Her poignant experiences alternate with more factual passages about the positive consequences of deafness for creative individuals, with whom she strongly identifies. For Barillé, partial deafness occurred at age six, after she took a medication prescribed to treat a respiratory virus; subsequently, the medication would be withdrawn as a treatment option for children. Marked physically and psychologically by her deafness, Barillé obeyed her parents’ orders to reveal nothing about her condition. Instead, she modified her behavior at school and when interacting with others by positioning herself so that her hearing, right ear was between her and her interlocutor.At the same time, however, Barillé’s lack of equilibrium and resulting clumsiness were misunderstood. Accused of imitating her arthritic grandfather’s offbalance gait, she sought refuge in solitary places and thought of herself as follows:“Je suis l’originale, la tarée” (33). Such statements reveal the author’s shame concerning her hearing loss. Nevertheless, she also compares the secrecy about her condition to that of Beethoven, whose undisclosed deafness was mistaken for creative absentmindedness . If her handicap exposes Barillé to misjudgment, disbelief, and mockery from other people, it also offers her the advantages of not hearing all sounds and of becoming completely absorbed in solitary activities requiring fine concentration. For example, she excels at catching and classifying butterflies from the French countryside. She also succeeds as a journalist responsible for conducting interviews and then transcribing them. Barillé relates her affinity for working alone to Thomas Edison, whose nearly complete deafness plunged him into the creative world of inventions. Besides Edison, the author expounds on composer Glenn Gould’s use of dissonance in music in order to demonstrate, once again, the extent to which a handicap can be a blessing. Discordant sounds were some of the few that he could still appreciate as his hearing declined. Similarly, Barillé mentions her own obsession with the rhythm of words,as she puts it:“J’entends des deux oreilles quand j’écris,”her“oreille manquante” serving to distinguish “les cailloux minuscules, les invisibles aspérités” in her French (42). Additionally, she elaborates on how her impaired left ear has saved her from overwhelming trauma, such as when she slept through most of a serious car accident involving her family, herself, and a friend. By sleeping on her good ear, she missed the squeals of bending metal that would have imprinted themselves traumatically on her memory. Insofar as L’oreille d’or emphasizes the positive aspects of Barillé’s deafness, it intimates her difficulties in relationships as well: her total, silent absorption in her work has been misinterpreted by her significant others as indifference. University of Texas, El Paso Jane E. Evans Bouyssi, Nicolas. Décembre. Paris: P.O.L, 2016. ISBN 978-2-8180-3901-4. Pp. 496. 22 a. Bouyssi’s latest novel continues the arc of his previous works, exploring questions of identity, social construct, corporate hegemony, and possible rebellion, while subtly alluding to places, entities, and characters found therein. Told in the first person, this novel takes place in a near future amid a dark atmosphere of uncertainty, dread, and longing. Large pockets of society regularly take drugs, including Cortothiamine—one of several allusions to Philip K. Dick, and a fine example of Bouyssi’s influences in this text. People rely on text messages and social media for nearly all interactions; exploiting big data, it is a hookup culture based on the GEHP (Grille des Expériences Humaines Primordiales) where individuals use a “mikado prodromique” to quickly determine if a mate is worth pursuing long-term. Like nearly all characters in the novel, the protagonist goes by his internet avatar’s name, Décembre, constructing an identity from truth and fiction, hiding behind a mask of anonymity ensconced in his...