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Victoire, a work associate with whom he has fallen in love. Contrary to typical accounts of conjugal life that end because of infidelity, this story, by focusing alternately on the characters’ feelings, portrays the manner in which Juliette and Olivier collaborate in order to save their marriage. For Olivier, the affair fulfills a need to feel valued. Juliette rejected him sexually after the birth of their second child, and then demoralized him further by saying: “Je ne suis pas sûre de vouloir vieillir avec toi” (117). She thereby voiced his biggest fear, namely that he did not measure up to his wife’s expectations for him as a husband and a father.Whereas Olivier considers Juliette to be ultra-critical of his behavior, he feels the complete approval of Victoire in “ses regards extasiés et [ses] manifestations bruyantes du plaisir qu’il lui donnait”(123).Although he professes his ongoing love for Juliette,Olivier is disinclined to end his affair withVictoire.Olivier’s honesty with Juliette spurs her into action to salvage their marriage. She readily accepts her share of responsibility for the impasse that they have reached. Couples’counseling and her own soul-searching lead her to understand that their communication styles diverge completely: “[L]es mots pour lui, pour elle[-même], n’avaient pas le même sens” (82). If she wants to discuss a problem until it is resolved, Olivier often prefers to ruminate in silence first. She therefore realizes that reaching Olivier emotionally must be on his terms, that is, sexually, in bed. She also comprehends that the breakup of her marriage with Olivier would signify the “triomphe de l’Autre” (254). The image of Victoire possibly tucking Juliette’s children into bed in the future strengthens the latter to fight even harder for Olivier. When Victoire infringes on her family’s physical safety, Juliette“se découvr[e] louve”(232), with a hatred that would enable her to kill her rival in order to protect her loved ones. More than a mere tally sheet of the couple’s matrimonial shortcomings and efforts to correct them when confronted with adultery, Moment d’un couple questions the extent to which one spouse will support the other even in the face of bodily and psychological harm. Additionally, the novel considers how the mœurs for twenty-first-century French marriages came about. Juliette reflects on the origins of feminism, Simone de Beauvoir’s place in the process, and the work of the modern wife and mother, for example. Olivier likewise compares the social behaviors he exhibited as a university student in the 1980s and the code of conduct for men and women two decades later, especially in the details of parenting. University of Texas, El Paso Jane E. Evans Alcoba, Laura. Le bleu des abeilles. Paris: Gallimard, 2013. ISBN 978-2-07-0142149 . Pp. 125. 15,90 a. Like her narrator, Alcoba left Argentina for France at age ten. She joined her mother in exile and corresponded weekly with her father, a political prisoner in their home country. Autobiographical though the book may be, this is a novel, and indeed it is much more than a recounting of a young girl’s move to a new country. What we 252 FRENCH REVIEW 88.1 Reviews 253 notice throughout is that this work bears witness to the process of learning a foreign language.We smile as the child tells of her preparation for departure and we empathize as she struggles with the French vowels that she has to pronounce “sous mon nez” (11). The challenges of learning French drive this novel and we who have had this experience will readily understand the phases of frustration and of joy, including that moment when, like the narrator, we heard the new language“pour de vrai”(19). Once in France, she knows that language sets her apart, but with great determination she goes to school, watches television, makes French friends and even borrows a book by Queneau from the library. Her desire to learn is strong and her passion for the language is palpable: “Que les voyelles sous le nez finissent par me révéler tous leurs secrets...

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