Jeune vieillard assis sur une pierre en bois par G.-O. Châteaureynaud (review)

Reviews 249 which she will consider training the new boss to march to her cadences. L’euphorie des places de marché is a well-constructed divertissement, a Gallic Much Ado about Nothing which succeeds not for the story it tells, but for the way of telling it. Florida State University William Cloonan Châteaureynaud, G.-O. Jeune vieillard assis sur une pierre en bois. Paris: Grasset, 2013. ISBN 978-2-246-80780-3. Pp. 237. 17 a. This collection of eight charming nouvelles provides elegant entertainment as well as thought-provoking insights about human nature. Some of the stories are recounted in the first person, others in the third person. All have in common an element of the fantastique, reminiscent of E.T.A. Hoffmann.We read about the—at first—seemingly ordinary lives of ordinary individuals, but in them there will be interventions of the supernatural. These occurrences take place at moments of intense feeling for the protagonists, in limit-situations of their existence. In “Les amants sous verre,” two young antique dealers meet at an antiques fair somewhere in Alsace and decide to spend the night together. The only room available is in the home of a spooky old couple. During the night, the latter take over the bodies of the younger couple to enjoy a reprise of their early married years. In“Les intermittences d’Icare,”the hero/narrator tells of his sudden capacity to levitate at three key moments in his life. In each instance, he experiences a sense of liberation from the weight and pressures of everyday life. For a few precious minutes, human existence takes on a significance it usually lacks. The hero of this story looks back on his life from the vantage point of his late years. Some of the other tales also have this theme of a whole life being summed up and defined by a supernatural occurrence. In“Diorama,”a lonely old man who makes lead figurines starts meeting dead acquaintances from his past while walking in the street. When he decides it is time for him to die, he joins them all on an abandoned merrygo -round which takes off for the sky. In the eponymous seventh story, the narrator feels increasingly alienated from his wife and children after recovering from major surgery. He eventually cuts himself off from his old life and creates a new one for himself, symbolized by his purchase of a new apartment and the furnishing of it with objects bought from the same second-hand dealers at the Marché aux Puces. The last story will appeal to academics. A man who makes his living giving lectures about ancient Greece goes to a town to address a group of seniors. He encounters an unexpected problem when he is followed around by two lionesses who have escaped from an itinerant carnival. Another problem is that his little suitcase becomes increasingly heavy. Despite everything, his lecture is an immense triumph. He realizes that this evening represents a summing-up of his whole life, determining whether it has been a success or a failure. It seems to be the former. But as he leaves the hall to return to his hotel,he finds himself completely alone in total darkness with the only illumination provided by the eyes of the lionesses. Incidentally, the subject of his discourse was the lion gate over the entrance to Mycenae. University of Denver James P. Gilroy Chauveau, Sophie. Noces de charbon. Paris: Gallimard, 2013. ISBN 978-2-07-0138258 . Pp. 395. 20 a. Auteur de biographies d’hommes célèbres, Chauveau présente dans ce roman la saga de sa propre famille, dont l’arbre généalogique, composé d’une cinquantaine de membres, aide le lecteur à suivre son évolution. Désignées par le “Côté Simenon” (en hommage à l’auteur belge qui dépeint l’existence des petites gens) et le “Côté Proust”(en hommage à l’auteur français du monde aristocrate), les deux branches de la famille sont unies par l’exploitation du charbon de 1880 à 1968. Côté mineurs, les Larivière ont une progéniture digne de Germinal: onze enfants, dont seulement deux garçons.Ang...