Et rester vivant by Jean-Philippe Blondel (review)

du père, en renonçant à une carrière artistique, s’étant “depuis longtemps engouffré dans son processus d’échec” (52). Il est clair que le passé empêche les jumeaux d’être heureux et de forger des relations durables. En fait, l’isolement d’Odd est un parallèle au mariage raté de Paul qui n’a duré que sept mois: “Je manque d’imagination pour aimer Hélène, continuer à l’aimer matin après matin” (30). D’une certaine manière, la lettre d’Odd est un véritable appel au secours, le dernier effort pour fuir une vie remplie d’échecs. C’est en détruisant “la maison des Norvégiens” (42), endroit où chacun se retrouve et se perd, que réside le seul espoir de sauver Odd. Tout en offrant un récit plutôt court, Véronique Bizot ne déçoit pas ses lecteurs avec une écriture qui abonde de riches détails, de situations absurdes et d’étrangeté, créant ainsi une parfaite alchimie entre désastre et drôlerie. Elle sait analyser avec finesse toutes les contradictions du lien familial, à la fois distendu et vital. Se souvenant de l’enfance dysfonctionnelle qui abritait l’échec, la violence et la honte, chaque personnage éprouve à la fois le besoin d’être avec son frère et de le fuir. Si la fin paraît tout à fait inattendue, elle se révèle toutefois optimiste, prônant la nécessité de détruire un passé trop lourd à porter afin de se donner la possibilité d’un avenir. Siena College (NY) Nathalie Degroult BLONDEL, JEAN-PHILIPPE. Et rester vivant. Paris: Libella, 2011. ISBN 978-2-283-02518-5. Pp. 245. 14,50 a. This novel is a fictionalized reminiscence of the author’s past. Intertextuality is a major element in its structure. Blondel tells us how he was encouraged to write it by fellow novelist Laurent Sagalovitch, and in the course of his narrative he gets to meet Jean Echenoz, whose works he has admired since his adolescence. He often makes references to movies, books, and songs, particularly one titled “Rich” by English singer Lloyd Cole. In fact his obsession with Morro Bay, a place in California mentioned in the song, inspired the events that make up the story. His odyssey in the American West is also inspired by his reading of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. The first-person narrator writes about his life experiences at the age of twentytwo . He has just lost his father in an automobile accident, after having lost his mother and older brother in the same way a few years before in a car driven by his father. The young man suddenly finds himself free of all family ties and able to do whatever he likes with his life and the money he has inherited. As he puts it, he has become a tabula rasa who must find on his own a meaning for his life. He decides to exercise his new-found independence by taking a trip to America to find Morro Bay. He invites two other young people to accompany him, at his expense, his former partner Laure and his best friend Samuel who has now become Laure’s lover. In the course of their excursion the hero occasionally resumes his relationship with Laure, and this leads to ever-changing sleeping arrangements at the hotels where they stay. Along the way they explore California and other states in the American Southwest and also spend some time in Mexico. The narrator describes their adventures and the local people they meet in these different places. One of the more interesting encounters the hero makes is a platonic relationship he develops with Rose, an older woman who runs a motel in the Mojave Desert. She is about his mother’s age, and he that of her son with whom she has 596 FRENCH REVIEW 86.3 lost contact. Ironically, it is only at the end of the journey that the narrator gets to behold Morro Bay. The narrative of his American journey is interspersed with recollections of his lost family and his attempts to define his relationships with the...