Lusitania: le grand roman d’un mystérieux naufrage par Claude Mossé (review)

Reviews 271 Le roman abonde en références à la littérature et à la culture cubaines. Le métis porte en lui le double héritage de l’Afrique et celui des indigènes Taïno des Îles.Ce personnage, absent du texte du roman, l’est aussi à lui-même, privé par l’histoire de ses deux héritages. Independent scholar Suzanne Gasster-Carrierre Mossé, Claude. Lusitania: le grand roman d’un mystérieux naufrage. Paris: Fayard, 2015. ISBN 978-2-213-68627-1. Pp. 368. 19 a. Mossé skillfully combines facts with hypotheses in this retelling of the sinking of the Lusitania, the British cruise liner that met a disastrous end not far from its intended destination of Cobh, Ireland, on 7 May 1915. By using the death of the 128 American passengers on board the luxury ship as his point of departure, Mossé demonstrates the motivations of the key figures in the drama: Sir Asquith, British Prime Minister; Winston Churchill, First Lord of the British Admiralty; Lord Inverclyde, head of the Cunard Ship Company of which the Lusitania was the star cruiser; Woodrow Wilson, American President; and Kaiser Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany. Sir Asquith’s weak leadership skills make him reliant on Churchill once war has been declared in Europe. With Great Britain’s reputation for strength on the seas rather than in the trenches, Asquith urges Churchill to involve the Royal Navy in the conflict. Churchill, however, refuses to react precipitously to this request. Instead, he displays his calculating side as he contemplates how American soldiers can be drawn into the war to fight with the Allies against the German ground forces even though President Wilson has insisted on American neutrality in the face of “une guerre qui ne les concerne pas” (104). Churchill, or“Le Bouledogue”as his associates refer to him because of his perseverance when confronted with obstacles (120), designs his own plan of action, according to author Mossé. Through strategic contacts in Great Britain and abroad, Churchill pursues the suggestion made by a friend, namely that the Americans be tricked into joining the war on the Allies’side, in his words,“par la ruse!”(136). Because the author can neither completely validate nor refute his plausible hypotheses regarding the British naval officer’s self-serving duplicity, suspense in the novel builds as the events pitting the Lusitania against German U-boats reach a climax. The reader, keen to know the outcome of Mossé’s research and the conditions leading to the luxury liner’s demise, is carried away by the swiftly-moving plot. References to Kaiser Wilhelm’s desire to engage in a correctly fought war, meaning one in which civilian lives are not lost gratuitously, ennoble the military events portrayed. Similarly, the novel describes the horror felt by the German U-boat officers over the unexpected, rapid sinking of the Lusitania, although they had fired a small torpedo intended to cause only minimal damage to the liner’s prow, as instructed. Questions about what really happened persist, even today. The characters’ nationalities and political differences notwithstanding, their shared sorrow over the tragic loss of so many innocent lives at sea serves to unite them. University of Texas, El Paso Jane E. Evans N’Dongo, M. Mahmoud. Kraft: fictions et épisodes. Paris: Gallimard, 2015. ISBN 9782 -07-014904-9. Pp. 144. 15 a. Sans faire entorse à la créativité et au réalisme fictionnel dont il embaume son lecteur, ce livre est un recueil unique de nouvelles. Fictions et épisodes s’y composent et se définissent au pluriel. Deux nouvelles courtes juxtaposées mais sans rapport de fond nous amènent d’abord au bout du voyage d’un vieillard déprimé vers un suicide avorté par la grâce de sosies de Marilyn et d’un parfum chargé de mémoire, le N° 5 de Chanel. Puis à travers la figure légendaire du trompettiste Moses Malone, la seconde nouvelle plonge les lecteurs dans l’Amérique des années soixante où la condition du Noir—ou du “trop Noir”—dans le monde du Jazz ressuscite l’injuste destin qui fut celui des talents afro-américains victimes de leur...