Zimmer by Olivier Benyahya (review)

found him lying on the road. Their sobering observations give us insights into the marvel of the exception, the one individual who can survive not only the devastation of such an accident to his body and his brain but to do so twice. Bruno articulately recollects the vague sights and sounds of being rescued by others while he saw as if through gauze and heard as if in a tunnel scattered bits of events and conversations. Although bothered by the amnesia that accompanied his head injury, he reconstructs his near-death experience with such precision that the reader wonders how Bruno ever survived. Bruno also gives his own meaning to the nausea of existence in his re-birth from being comatose. His nausea is a literal one that embarrasses him and yet marks the apparent reluctance of the body to return quickly to its former need for food. His memory of the coma recalls an experience of being buried alive that still haunts him. Meanwhile, the trauma of his fall also induces hypothermia such that Bruno constantly fears he will freeze to death. One ear has been battered to such an extent that he contemplates losing his hearing while bearing inner noises and pain unknown prior to his traumatic injuries. He remembers a study of the composer Robert Schumann whose madness near the end of his life led him to appreciate music as never before and even inspired him to compose. By contrast Bruno has a writing block—“même écrire est impossible” (30)—induced by his obsession with his hearing loss and the madness it might induce. Bruno’s anguish about his unstable physical well-being is grounded in a perspective where “tout est horizontal” (119). He recalls constantly crying, being upset by his physical , emotional, and mnemonic losses: “Je pleure [...] sur le vide intense de ma mémoire” (29). Would these be short or long-term losses? Such extreme tenuousness of life requires dependence upon others. Bruno remembers those responsible for his extraordinary recovery. He needed their generosity to overcome being terrorized by the quotidian proximity of death. Unlike in his first accident, Bruno cannot be soothed by his father who has now passed on. The coma is so overwhelming that Bruno struggles with comprehending how the accident could have happened. He contrasts this event to his first near-death experience on a cycle. This time the bicycle tire hit a pebble or a stone and slipped out under him. The physical challenges of geography for a cyclist also return to remind him of how vulnerable he was because of the cycle’s extreme speed descending Tourmalet: “cette vitesse folle me condamnait [...] à mourir inévitablement” (116). Yet he survived not only to talk but also to write about his brush with death a second time. His testimony thus becomes an odyssey into the existential angst of the extreme sport of cycling. Trinity University (TX) Roland A. Champagne BENYAHYA, OLIVIER. Zimmer. Paris: Allia, 2010. ISBN 978-2-84485-354-7. Pp. 70. 6,10 a. Il y a soixante ans, Bernard Zimmer revenait de “son escapade polonaise” à Auschwitz où son statut de Juif français pendant l’occupation allemande l’avait précipité. Zimmer a connu l’enfer, mais n’a jamais été plus “apaisé” qu’après son retour de Pologne: “S’appeler Zimmer et habiter Paris après avoir été déporté, c’était quelque chose dont on ne mesure plus la portée” (7). Sa vie a repris son cours et même mieux: elle lui a apporté la réussite professionnelle dans le textile, l’argent, les vacances à Courchevel, la résidence secondaire à Deauville, les casinos, Reviews 387 “beaucoup de bon temps” (50). Même son mariage a été un succès. À la veille de ses 82 ans, dans son grand appartement parisien, malgré l’horreur des camps de concentration, Zimmer a réussi sa vie et semble tout avoir pour terminer paisiblement ses jours. Mais si Zimmer a survécu à Auschwitz, il y a abandonné sa sensibilit é et toute illusion sur l’espèce humaine. Les pauvres? Ils sont “là pour crever” (10). Les Palestiniens? Qu’ils “aillent crever” (11). Et les Israéliens...