Journal d’un SDF by Marc Augé (review)

someone so young, Andrewes brings a mature and well-timed new voice to the Quebec novel. University of Wisconsin, Madison Ritt Deitz AUGÉ, MARC. Journal d’un SDF. Paris: Seuil, 2011. ISBN 978-2-02-097828-6. Pp. 132. 13 a. Renowned anthropologist Marc Augé, author of Non-lieux: introduction à une anthropologie de la surmodernité (1992), pens his first work of fiction with Journal d’un SDF, which, he notes, is more precisely an “ethnofiction,” which he defines as “[u]n récit qui évoque un fait social à travers la subjectivité d’un individu particulier ” but is not an “autobiography” or a “confession” (8). He includes Candide and Montesquieu’s Persian as characters of ethnofiction, but whereas they look at the world “pour s’en étonner,” today’s ethnofictional character “découvre la folie du monde” (11). Augé clarifies that anthropologists, unlike novelists, take recourse to fiction so they can tell a whole story, moving beyond objective ethnography through the deployment of imagination to round out the picture of how an individual lives certain social experiences. Also unlike the novelist, the author of ethnofiction writes from the point of view of a hero with whom the reader is not meant to identify, but learn something from, about a world he or she does not or cannot otherwise know. Augé’s hero is a middle-class Parisian, a tax inspector who has just retired. The problem is, with alimony payments to one ex-wife, and another who will no longer be sharing the rent, his retirement income is insufficient for him to stay in his apartment, or in any other apartment in Paris for that matter. Moreover, he has always dreamed of flight, of not being beholden to anyone, and if he is ever going to realize his dream, the moment seems perfect for trying it out. An antiques dealer offers him a pittance for his furnishings. With that money, plus the security deposit that will be returned to him at the end of the month, what remains in his checking and savings accounts, and what he gets when he liquidates his retirement fund (about sixteen thousand Euros altogether), he should be able to manage for a while, living out of his old Mercedes. In fact, he starts to practice sleeping in the Mercedes before he has to leave his apartment and discovers it is comfortable enough. With no family left and no real friends, he does not have much explaining to do. His greatest concern is where to park his car at night so as to not be disturbed by the police. But this provides him with what seems a welcome opportunity to get to know his neighborhood. There is also the question of personal hygiene, which would be the telltale sign of his homelessness. What follows in the journal are the details of how he manages this day-to-day living while keeping up appearances as he becomes a regular at a neighborhood restaurant and bar. He is conscious of the fact that, for the time being, he is “un SDF de luxe” (33). Also, the weather is on his side as spring has just begun. He relishes the discoveries he makes each day, the street characters he comes to know, the surprising architecture , the loveliness of the local park. Even various women are attracted to him, mostly artist types, including one who knows he is living out of his car. Readers will be curious to find out what happens to Augé’s hero. Whether or not Augé’s distinction between enthnofiction and fiction holds, what remains most important Reviews 1191 for this reader is whether or not the story is good. Augé’s story is good, if not always plausible, and he writes beautifully. Ethnofiction or not, however, it probably needed to be about one hundred pages longer to constitute a fully-developed, convincing work. Union College (NY) Michelle Chilcoat AZZEDDINE, SAPHIA. La Mecque-Phuket. Paris: Léo Scheer, 2010. ISBN 9-782756-10263-4. Pp. 202. 17 a. Dans son troisième ouvrage, la romancière remet en question la religion musulmane, signale les difficultés d’intégration et termine par une évasion émancipatoire . La plupart...