Le démon de la vie by Patrick Grainville (review)

Reviews 209 psychological, terror of his earliest novels which kept the reader thinking about them well after the last page was turned. Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Nathalie G. Cornelius Grainville, Patrick. Le démon de la vie. Paris: Seuil, 2016. ISBN 978-2-02-1291285 . Pp. 275. 19 a. There is a period in life that many of us have gone through during our teenage years but never quite clearly remember, and perhaps never as poetically nor sensually described as the one in Grainville’s enjoyable twenty-fourth novel. It is a hot summer in a town juxtaposing the coastal edge of the Massif des Maures in southern France, and at the moment it is replete with British tourists. Two young adolescents, Louise and Luc, living in the full Mediterranean light of hope, are madly in love not only with each other but with nature, youth, and freedom as well. They have, however, been brutally confronted by adult reality and most specifically with the fact that Louise’s father Gilles and Luc’s mother Jeanne are having a most passionate and seemingly wellknown illicit affair. The teens, however, escape the dire menaces by frequenting the forest, the beaches, and an eccentric older man, Paul Duchâteau, who owns a large estate full of exotic animals and a majestically noble tiger named Nabucco. Then suddenly, Nabucco escapes the confines of Duchâteau’s vast property and the entire region begins to panic. The army, the police, and the Parisian paparazzi descend upon this idyllic Mediterranean realm. Peripheral to the central plot, there is a certain young Hélène who holds a mysterious relationship to Paul Duchâteau. She is suspected of having released the tiger for she was disappointed with the seemingly inauthenticity of Nabucco as a true wild beast. She quickly leaves for Asia in search of the last authentic tigers, and sends amusing if not belligerent letters back to Duchâteau and others. Furthermore, a certain John Corbett, reputed to be a descendant of the famous Jim Corbett,“chasseur de tigres mangeurs d’hommes!”(157) comes into play; he has been invited to hunt down Nabucco. Interestingly, as he manoeuvers through the dense forest he meets up with a long admired exuberant blond and aging star who, now living in St. Tropez, has devoted her life and fortune to the protection of animals; this is to include the wild Nabucco as she writes personally to the President of the French Republic. Louise and Luc remain on the peripheral silently but still on the side of the liberated tiger. The tiger plays a pivotal and symbolic role in this tale of lost innocence in that he becomes admired and even protected by those who attempt to hold on to the beliefs of freedom, rebellion, and authenticity. And yet, a certain reality must be confronted “parce que si on devenait beaux comme le ciel, la forêt, on aurait plus envie de rien ni de vivre” (269). This novel is bound to please many readers fond of remembering their first love, and time of initiation into adulthood confronting les démons de la vie. Metropolitan State University of Denver, emeritus Alain Ranwez Greene, Mark. 45 tours. Paris: Rivages, 2016. ISBN 978-2-74-363590-9. Pp. 215. 18 a. L’entrée en matière est immédiate. Dès le premier paragraphe, le narrateur se présente et se place au centre du récit. Les contradictions dans son autoportrait laissent clairement apparaître un être fébrile, torturé, mal dans sa peau. Elles reflètent également son incapacité de communication et sa relation conflictuelle avec la musique qu’il a fortuitement créée. L’abondance de négatifs et le basculement des verbes entre présent, imparfait, plus-que-parfait et conditionnel passé donnent le ton de l’exercice de mémoire qui suivra: un aller-retour continuel dans le temps et l’espace, parsemé de pénétrantes observations et de poignants contrastes entre le présent et le passé, Paris et la province, la jeunesse et la vieillesse, la vie et la mort, l’amitié et la solitude. Le roman en forme de sablier suit le...