Où j'ai laissé mon âme by Jérôme Ferrari (review)

black-and-white photograph of several men in uniform observing two shiny-new Citroën DS pass in an obviously Parisian street, establishes the historical context of the novel. This 1960s scene depicts the climactic moment of the novel and portends the tragedy that is to mark both of the protagonists. The cover also hints at the nostalgia for the past and the author’s relentless attempt to change our understanding of it, which permeate the novel. The almost exclusive use of the imparfait , a tense that emphasizes the continuity and repetitiveness of past events, creates a sense of contemporaneity. Ferney emphasizes the fact that the events, although behind us, nonetheless weigh on the present. The author switches to the passé simple, used to describe remote events in the past, at the end of the novel, when the tragic fate of the colonel becomes clear, conceding that the ultimate outcome of history cannot be changed. In addition to using the imparfait to suggest the possibility of an alternative history, Ferney provides details, typically overlooked, which give the protagonists , especially the anti-heroic colonel, depth and an empathetic quality. The author explains in her prologue that students of history often ignore personal detail : “Il est plus aisé de consigner la guerre en général que la guerre d’un soldat” (10). Instead of falling into that trap, Ferney writes about the personal struggle of one man, in effect illuminating not only his existence, but shedding light on the historic events in which he played a part. The author makes no secret of her intentions , or of her leanings. Throughout the novel, she favors the colonel and attempts to rehabilitate his memory at the expense of the general, to whom history has been more kind. What is less clear is the line between fact and fiction. In the prologue, where she sets out her goal of lifting the silence surrounding the historical episode that pitted the two protagonists against one another, she implies that her version will contend with official history: “C’est de cet épisode qu’il convient de faire la chronique, sans laquelle le temps pourrait le disputer à la mémoire” (10). Such a presumptuous statement signals bias and passion, but promises a moving narrative, which Ferney delivers. Her novel also stands as an example of postmodern fiction. In Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, (Durhham : Duke UP, 1991) Frederic Jameson writes, “the sense people have of themselves and their own moment of history may ultimately have nothing whatsoever to do with its reality” (281). Ferney proves this point by injecting new personal perspectives into an already known moment in history, and by doing so, challenges the notions of historical objectiveness and legitimacy and blurs the line between reality and fiction. East Carolina University Marylaura Papalas FERRARI, JÉRÔME. Où j’ai laissé mon âme. Arles: Actes Sud, 2010. ISBN 978-2-7427-9320-4. Pp. 154. 17 a. Ce quatrième roman de l’auteur peut se lire à divers niveaux, tous ici habilement imbriqués (sociologique, historique, philosophique et esthétique). Composé au total de sept parties, dont trois sont les journées du 27, 28 et 29 mars 1957, elles-mêmes chacune subdivisée en deux sous-parties et précédées d’une “introduction ”, le texte fait alterner deux voix apparemment très différentes. La premi ère est celle du lieutenant Horace Andreani qui ouvre et clôture le texte, et donc semble dominer. Des années après ces trois journées, Andreani s’adresse à Reviews 397 son supérieur hiérarchique, André Degorce, dans une sorte de monologue int érieur, stylisé et rythmé par des “mon capitaine.” Andreani raconte qu’alors qu’il faisait, lui, son travail de soldat loyalement (dans ce cas: il torturait), et qu’il est maintenant toujours sans remords, d’autres soldats, hypocrites, comme le capitaine, font leur devoir en montrant leur mauvaise conscience, attirant ainsi la honte sur tous leurs camarades. À travers divers extraits disséminés dans le texte, on apprend pourtant que, faits prisonniers ensemble lors de la bataille de Dien Bien Phu en 1954, le jeune Andreani admirait et s...