Antoine et Isabelle par Vincent Borel (review)

journal of displaced identity and exile. Short chapters are devoted to thoughts and impressions catalyzed by fragments of events. Physical descriptions are sparse and uneven, sometimes to the frustration of the reader. African and New York landscapes are described minimally despite some intriguing details, whereas the crossing of the Atlantic is more developed and is consequently one of the novel’s more memorable moments. Each segment of Vincent’s narrative reveals how the landscape impacts the protagonist’s emotions and influences his meditations. The novel effectively demonstrates how Vincent’s attempts to erase the past result in a revelation of his true identity: a solitary man whose memories of Arthur ultimately make him a writer, “J’écris pour ce visage. J’écris de ce visage” (30). More than half of the novel’s experiences occur prior to the work’s present, transformed by Vincent into the novel via his travel notes. Through his writing, Vincent seeks to comprehend the place of his silence and solitude, thereby allowing him to come to terms with his past and understand who he is. By articulating the oppositions he encounters, Vincent derives strength for a perhaps painful future . Juxtaposed communal and individual images memorialize the personal while universalizing the intimate. The silence of white gravestone crosses, the de L’Étoile mansion, and Vincent’s own muteness combine with the violence of war, American industry, and the boisterous revelry of Paris’s bohemian Bal Bullier. Past and present merge as his narration in the past transitions to a present reality marked by his first sight of Raymond. Retour parmi les hommes is the second part of a coming of age story, where exile is the first step in the journey to self-understanding. The second step is returning home, only to learn that time waits for no one. Besson convincingly captures the movements of Vincent’s mind as he recognizes his intellectual and emotional needs. Particularly compelling is Besson’s eloquent ending. Vincent’s sentimental education is complete, and, when his world crumbles again, he possesses the inner strength to accept the past and stand on his own. Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Nathalie G. Cornelius BOREL, VINCENT. Antoine et Isabelle. Paris: Sabine Wespieser, 2010. ISBN 978-2-84805085 -0. Pp. 489. 24 a. Borel’s beautifully written novel is a study in heroism, the heroism of people who are simply too honorable, too outraged, or too frightened to bother wondering about the state of their intestinal fortitude as they deal with the vicissitudes of their lives. This is the story of some rather simple Spanish peasants who leave their villages in the early part of the twentieth century in search of an improved life in the city. Antonio and Isabel have no particular political opinions, and are really more focused on each other’s body and the life they can create together than the state of the world. Yet social injustice and the rise of Franco radicalizes them: “L’industrie est une guerre sans morts, mais avec des armes” (186). They take part in the Spanish Civil War, obviously on the losing side, only to find refuge in France, thus the slight change in their names, just in time to witness the Blitzkrieg. Antoine joins the Resistance, is seriously wounded, but continues the struggle right up to the Armistice. The war ends, but not the couple’s commitment to justice and decency. As Antoine lies dying in a hospital, images of Ayatollah Khomeiny’s funeral flash across the television screen: “Antonio fit un Reviews 779 bras d’honneur à l’écran, puis il mourut. Belle façon de saluer un siècle pour nous prémunir du suivant” (489). If this novel about the past is intended in part as a warning concerning the present and future, it is of the subtle variety. The oppression of the poor, however strikingly described, is in itself nothing new. Likewise the brutality of Hitler, Franco, and their cohorts is not really a revelation, and that is probably why Borel does not lose very much time with these matters. He concentrates instead on the complacent obtuseness of the allegedly non-political ruling industrial class, people who could go on junkets...