Tu choisiras la vie by Delphine Renard (review)

Reviews 243 retrouvé en décalage à son retour du Mali et ne parvient pas à s’insérer dans le monde du travail.Ces difficultés n’empêchent pas les évolutions positives telles que la naissance d’associations pour accompagner les chômeurs et créateurs d’entreprises et la réussite de plusieurs témoins. Si certains sont tentés par le repli communautaire et la religion, la croyance aux valeurs universelles reste forte,comme en témoignent l’échec de l’implantation de fast-foods musulmans et le succès d’une entreprise turque ayant graduellement abandonné son côté ethnique pour devenir “une PME française globale” (209). On retrouve ce constat dans les autres chapitres.Le livre foisonne d’informations et contient de bonnes références bibliographiques en notes (l’absence des documentaires 9/3 et Le plafond de verre, de Yamina Benguigui, surprend toutefois, car ils portent aussi sur la Seine-Saint-Denis et sont préalables à l’enquête).Un index des interlocuteurs permettrait de reconstituer l’intégralité de leurs témoignages,qui sont disséminés dans les différents chapitres. Cette étude a le grand mérite de dédramatiser la situation des banlieues, exagérée dans les médias, tout en soulevant des questions sur l’avenir commun de ces territoires et de la République qui les englobe. University of North Carolina, Charlotte Michèle Bissière Renard, Delphine. Tu choisiras la vie. Paris: Grasset, 2013. ISBN 978-2-246-80370-6. Pp. 335. 17,90 a. In her memoir, psychologist and psychoanalyst Delphine Renard shares her personal and political reasons for recounting her tragic childhood and lifelong adaptations. The mistaken victim in 1962 of the bomb that the Organisation de l’armée secrète (OAS) intended for André Malraux, then Ministre de la Culture and living upstairs in her family’s house, four-year-old Delphine lost her left eye and the hearing in her left ear, faced years of reconstructive facial surgery, and redefined her career several times as a result of her definitive blindness by age thirty. Despite such terrible events, the author avoided self-pity in her daily activities. She instead redoubled her efforts of being cheerful to the people around her, especially her parents, about whom she says,“Je les savais ou les croyais fragiles, et voulais à tout prix éviter tout ce qui aurait pu les blesser [...] ils auraient tant fait pour moi à la suite de l’attentat!” (104). Even at school, the teacher scolded Delphine for “jouer la comédie” (105) when, in fact, the timid little girl was answering the former’s questions extrapolitely . When her vision deteriorated to the point of blindness, then art critic Delphine entered psychoanalysis and later chose that profession for her future; after years of study, she achieved success in her new career of mental-health therapist. The narrator refers to her memoir as the catharsis for her own personal therapy. She makes peace with her father in its pages, in which she acknowledges his fascination for Malraux even after she nearly died from the explosion meant to take Malraux’s life. She explains that her father chose the Minister to be a “père idéal” (84); from her descriptions of the megalomaniac, nervous, and overbearing Monsieur Renard, the reader surmises that he figured as an un-ideal tyrannical force seconded by his wife in Delphine’s life. And yet, the narrator downplays the injurious effect of her parents’ character traits. Rather, she opts for highlighting her own accomplishments, such as embracing her paternal grandfather’s Judaism in order to feel more connected to her heritage as well as to a community. Encouraged by a new Jewish friend, Delphine surpasses her longtime dream of becoming a singer by performing a lead role in the Mariage de Figaro opera. Aside from its personal aspect, Tu choisiras la vie conveys a political message: Renard’s commemoration of the nine fatalities at the Charonne métro station the day after her own tragedy. Thousands had gathered to protest the Algerian War and OAS tactics of silencing those favoring Algerian independence. As the narrator explains, those nine...