J’ai sauvé la vie d’une star d’Hollywood par Laurent Bénégui (review)

Reviews 207 death of his sister. Visiting the staff of the clinic where she died, he looks into her former room where he finds a man, eyes filled with hate, who appears transfixed by the narrator’s ring, yet is unable to utter a word. It is this mysterious scene and its aftermath that ultimately propels Aventin to examine “le puzzle incohérant de [sa] vie” (70). Who is this unknown man? Why is he so interested in the ring? Is he the author of an unsettling letter Aventin receives with only the number 6 inscribed on it? And what does that number mean? Is he the author of an anonymous book, Personne ne saura jamais, whose plot seems to intersect precisely with Aventin’s own existence? As in many of Belletto’s novels, the protagonist falls into a world of funhouse mirrors where nothing is sure: “Était-ce ma vie tout entière que je rêvais, était-ce moi qui me dictais le songe que j’aspirais à coucher sur papier, l’un de ces jours proches?” (218). Is the protagonist dying or living?“[M]ais un peu de ma vie égalait toute ma vie, peut- être étais-je mort, me disais-je encore et encore” he writes (266). Countless elements underscore this specularity: he drives a Dodge Reborn; he wrote and starred in a film called Le retour, a still from which offers “[u]ne sorte de preuve de mon existence ou de mon inexistence”(51),and meets people with surnames such as Trévie and Doublier. He does not face these mysteries alone, however. Two beautiful women offer the chance of salvation. One may be carrying his child; the other, to whom he gives a vintage pen handmade by Miguel Padilla, assiduously keeps a journal and encourages the narrator to write. Will either of these possibilities bear fruit? This seems to be the question at the center of all of Belletto’s works. Toward the end the narrator notes: “[L]aissons là les souvenirs, ou plutôt comparons-les aux mille ébauches d’un peintre, dont il espère qu’elles ont écarté assez de voiles pour que l’exécution de l’œuvre dernière les écarte tous, et [...] le mal et la souffrance de la vie” (277). Is this Belletto’s final work? In any case, it is gripping, perplexing, and highly enjoyable. Bradley University (IL) Alexander Hertich Bénégui, Laurent. J’ai sauvé la vie d’une star d’Hollywood. Paris: Julliard, 2014. ISBN 978-2-260-02095-0. Pp. 352. 20 a. It is a bad mistake to get caught feeling up an intern on the set of the hit television series that you write for, especially when your wife has created and supervises the show. Like other protagonists named Laurent in other novels by Bénégui, Laurent Labarrère is his own worst enemy. That is saying a lot, since his enemies include not only the woman about to become his ex-wife but two Russian Mafiosi involved in international meat trafficking. Part farce, part family drama, this novel reflects the kind of television designed to amuse one at the end of a hard day. Laurent gradually finds himself in increasingly hotter water, not just with his estranged wife but also with his two daughters, aged nine and thirteen, who love him but often want things he cannot provide. Money is a problem because his anger costs him his job, and when he does get money he promptly spends it to appease his children. His other problems include driving recklessly on his scooter, overindulging in potent cocktails, and writer’s block. This is not to say that Boris, the main gangster, does not have his own problems. In fact, his are considerably greater, beginning with a nearly fatal heart attack on the estate of the title’s unnamed Hollywood star, who seems to be Angelina Jolie, and including his irresponsible brother and their demanding gangland superior. Boris wants to get out of a life of crime, which is obviously bad for his health, by hiring Laurent to collaborate on a screenplay for an action film providing a leading role for...