La Grande Arche by Laurence Cossé (review)

ce roman, qui constituerait un candidat évident pour le prix Goncourt—si Paule Constant ne l’avait pas obtenu pour Confidence pour confidence (Gallimard, 1998). Western Washington University Edward Ousselin Cossé, Laurence. La Grande Arche. Paris: Gallimard, 2015. ISBN 978-2-07-014204-0. Pp. 355. 21 a. This novel, far more documentary that fictional, follows the long tale of la Grande Arche de la Défense from inception to repair schedule, that is, from an infeasible but enchanting design to its modified realization by engineers, and further to its current status as half office building, half empty monument. The novel’s structure would be better described as a saga with many overlapping narratives about the principal players, including François Mitterrand, Johan von Spreckelsen, and a substantial cast of other characters. From the outset of his administration, Mitterrand wielded his presidential power to leave a monumental mark on every corner of Paris, including the TêteD éfense esplanade. An international competition yielded hundreds of entries, from which Mitterrand selected a conceptual design of breathtakingly pure simplicity: a white, cubed, marble arch. Spreckelsen, the architect, was a dark horse, a Danish professor of Copenhagen’s Beaux Arts with only four churches in his portfolio of public structures. As the Arche concept was worked up into blueprints, Spreckelsen appealed to the French president at every crucial decision point to choose esthetic principle over long-standing engineering practice. Spreckelsen was viewed by his French architectural team as a puzzling outsider with an uncomplicated, even unsophisticated lifestyle.At the same time, Spreckelsen’s view of the team quickly soured; he saw them as quixotic and unreliable, willing to cut corners, sell out to business interests, and generally compromise his artistic vision. Some of this misunderstanding is represented as a French-Danish culture clash, some as the collision of ideal against hard reality. Spreckelsen resigned from the project not too long after ground was broken. Cossé interprets: “Plutôt abandonner que cautionner l’altération de l’œuvre de l’esprit” (283). In the meantime, a team charged with implementing the project attempted to keep the Arche as close to the original design as possible in spite of the political redirection of 1986 (remember la cohabitation?) and the economic challenges of renting to private enterprises those spaces originally intended for governmental entities. The novel is studded with sidebars of related information (the narrator’s bootless visit to interview Spreckelsen’s widow; a poetic reflection on the meanings of arc, ark, and arch; etc.). There are, however, moments when the narrative loses forward momentum, such as the chapter on the life of Karen Blixen, Danish author and sister of Thomas Dinesen, whose connection to the Arche is that he (Dinesen) happens to be buried close to its architect, Spreckelsen, in the Hørsholm cemetery. This surfeit of peripheral information, no matter the elegant prose, at times diminishes a powerful 200 FRENCH REVIEW 90.3 Reviews 201 story of art, ambition, and sacrifice. On balance, readers who persist to this saga’s end will see the great white edifice of La Défense in an entirely new light. Lawrence University (WI) Eilene Hoft-March Coudrier, Isabelle. Babybatch. Paris: Seuil, 2016. ISBN 978-2-02-124034-4. Pp. 395. 21 a. This novel explores the influence of social media as the center of an adolescent’s existence, as the infatuation of a girl with the famous actor Benedict Cumberbatch takes on exceptional proportions. The many accomplishments of the British actor, whose nickname is Babybatch, are tracked carefully by his fans, culminating in his nomination by Queen Elizabeth for Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2015. He becomes the center of existence for people like Dominique, who seek the comfort of the Internet through someone else’s existence instead of a life of their own. The fifteen-year-old main character starts the school year at the lycée of Stève in the suburbs of Seine-et-Marne. She hopes to reconnect with her childhood friend Muriel as she returns to class in the lingering summery weather. Dominique is bored by the quiet and simple life of her suburban town. She is a dreamer...