J.M.G. Le Clézio: écrivain de l’incertitude by Isabelle Roussel-Gillet (review)

each has had to struggle within and against identities to discover an authorial voice (xiii). Recognizing the limitations set upon Beur literature and ‘banlieue writers’ from the outset, Reeck carefully articulates her inclusion of authors of mixedrace , mixed-heritage, and second-generation ethnic minorities (13). For example, Sebbar’s identity is markedly different from the other authors addressed, but her character Shérazade struggles to express her Beur identity and finds herself writing her way through it (85). Following the common thread of journey in the Shérazade trilogy, Reeck shows that “the value of the quest replaces that of arriving at the final destination” so that the “adventure in the self” becomes the most relevant part of the “cosmopolitan conversation” (95). In turn, Reeck’s reading of Sebbar in a cosmopolitan and autofictional framework underscores travel writing ’s potential for articulating identity. In the following chapter, Reeck similarly analyzes Mohamed’s La honte sur nous and autofictional errancy as a journey to selfdiscovery and authorial voice. Further connecting Sebbar and Mohamed, Reeck shows the authors’ blog writing to feed their literary projects, thereby confirming the reciprocal relationship between writing and identity. Diverse as they may be, the selected authors demonstrate fascinating intersections of engagement, making Writerly Identities all the more vibrant. One of the strengths in Reeck’s work is her ability to culturally contextualize while avoiding any hint of cliché. Aside from a few liberal translations, tiny structural hiccups, and nearly negligible typographical errors, the book is superbly written and edited, and it is, above all, enjoyable to read. Reeck strikes a balance between textual analysis and theory as she incorporates relevant literary criticism into her strategic framework. Such a clear and well-argued text will be of use to scholars interested in post-1985 French literature, minority identities, postcolonial literature and theory. Given France’s identity struggles during Sarkozy’s presidency , Reeck has written a valuable work for understanding how these complex cosmopolitan identities are being articulated and worked out in writing today. University of Queensland and Kansas State University Amy L. Hubbell ROUSSEL-GILLET, ISABELLE. J.M.G. Le Clézio: écrivain de l’incertitude. Paris: Ellipses, 2011. ISBN 978-2-7298-6228-2. Pp. 184. 14,70 a. Roussel-Gillet quotes the 2008 Nobel laureate Le Clézio as saying that he writes “en laissant les choses se faire d’elles-mêmes” (133), and that statement comes close to describing what she herself seems to have done in preparing this work by choosing, as she says, figuratively to “mettre les concepts entre parenth èses” (30). This approach may help create the force of much of Le Clézio’s fiction , but it serves the critic less well, since in criticism one hopes—or at least those whom the French call Anglo-Saxons hope—to find logical progression and interpretation rather than exuberant accounts of feelings. This flou is exacerbated by erratic documentation: Roussel-Gillet’s above citation of Le Clézio, like many others in this book, is entirely undocumented, while still others have only partial documentation. There is no comprehensive bibliography of works cited, and footnotes are used rather than endnotes; as a result, some quotes are cumbersome to identify because the complete reference appears only in a previous footnote. Equally frustrating is the author’s tendency to be allusive rather than informative, as if Reviews 1041 she assumes that her readers have read and remembered all of Le Clézio’s dozen or so major works and are deeply familiar with Barthes, Lévinas, Bachelard, and Éliade, among others writing “sociocritique, mythocritique ou psycho-historique” criticism (8). She also spends several pages on the artist Ray Johnson’s incorporation of portraits of Le Clézio in three of his collages. This is not, then, a work for those encountering Le Clézio for the first time. This approach is all the more surprising , given the fact that Ellipses specializes in texts for students and that Roussel-Gillet previously published a book with Ellipses to guide science students in reading Le chercheur d’or. Despite these caveats, the book presents Le Clézio’s writing with gusto and a certain charm. Its central...