Rue des voleurs by Mathias Énard (review)

Reviews 271 like Le Palace, Mother Earth’s, and the Centre Pompidou. For readers of a certain age fortunate to have lived in Paris between 1968 and 1980, À nous deux, Paris! commemorates a nocturnal City of Lights that captivated and disappointed its adoring young inhabitants, both native and foreign. Jérôme endears himself to the reader through his bravado and naiveté. He believes that a well-established musician will ‘discover’ him for what he really is: a pianist with unequalled talents, even though he is only mediocre. He therefore commits himself to frequenting night clubs in the hopes of encountering his future benefactor.The jobs that he lands,however,are far from ideal: for instance, he works as a secretary-accompanist for Mina, an aging, temperamental rock singer struggling to keep her career afloat, and he provides the background music for two Cuban brothers cutting their enormously successful first record, but receives no royalties. Nevertheless, Jérôme is elated for having found work in “le monde du spectacle” (71), his chosen future milieu; and although unpaid for his piano accompaniment to the record, he henceforth considers himself “un musicien professionnel” (220). As much as one admires Jérôme’s optimism, one becomes equally frustrated over his excessive trust in musicians who exploit his availability and good nature. Besides his overblown self-confidence and trust, Jérôme faces the typical concerns of a young person in charge of his own budget for the first time. His strives to stretch a limited income to cover necessities: stylish clothing, food, cigarettes, alcohol, and later on, drugs. The reader now wonders if Jérôme will be able to control his substance abuse, as his circle of friends relies heavily on chemical stimulation. This first indication of Jérôme’s physical vulnerability while “finding himself” occurs at about the midpoint of the story. Subsequently, the theme of possible danger for the protagonist continues to the end of the novel. Instead of providing the reader with a definite conclusion to his bildungsroman, however, Benoît Duteurtre gives one a choice of endings in two épilogues: one culminates in Jérôme’s untimely death, whereas the second offers a developmental view of the main character’s future. In a third épilogue, the author says that the protagonist “[lui] ressemble comme un frère” (324). At this point the reader fully understands that Duteurtre lived many of Jérôme’s experiences and that his love for the French capital motivated his coming to writing. Not only did his respect for Paris inspire him to convey historical and current events from 1980 accurately, it impelled him to include chronological information on the French capital as a center for aspiring musicians as well. University of Texas, El Paso Jane E. Evans Énard, Mathias. Rue des voleurs. Arles: Actes Sud, 2012. ISBN 978-2-330-01267-0. Pp. 256. 21,50 a. Ce roman raconte les tribulations d’un jeune Marocain de dix-sept ans, qui rêve d’aller de l’autre côté de la mer pour tenter sa chance en Europe. Il se compose de trois parties de longueur inégale—Détroits, Barzakh et la Rue des voleurs. Le héros, Lakhdar, mène une vie tranquille entre la cousine Meriem qui hante ses phantasmes, et les belles touristes européennes qu’il dévore des yeux. Le texte commence ainsi:“Les hommes sont des chiens, ils se frottent les uns aux autres dans la misère, ils se roulent dans la crasse sans pouvoir en sortir, se lèchent le poil et le sexe” (11). Comme les chiens sans colliers, Lakhdar erre dans sa ville, tente de noyer son oisiveté et ses frustrations sexuelles dans la lecture de polars. Tout va basculer pour lui le jour où son père le trouve en train de goûter aux fleurs du mal avec Meriem. Pour laver l’honneur de ce péché mortel, le père chasse son fils de la maison et le force à errer dans les rues. La narration alternera entre le printemps de Tunisie, les révoltes arabes et les Indignés d’Espagne. Au bord...