The other side of life on the French Riviera, as seen with
understated compassion and intensity in this previously
untranslated 1982 collection of thematically related-and
brilliantly written-stories. French New Wave veteran Le Clezio is
best known for such knotty postmodern texts as his prizewinning
first novel, The Interrogation (1960)-and insufficiently recognized
for his more conventionally realistic fiction, of which these 11
tales are memorable examples. They illuminate a world of the
underprivileged and outcast, where teenaged girls combat boredom by
joining motorcycle gangs (in the title story), or become victims of
their impulses toward adventure ("Ariadne"); or, in the ironically
titled "The Great Life," embark on a spree of petty crime while
pursuing dreams of escape from moribund housing projects and
soul-numbing jobs ("It was as if they were on the other side of the
world . . . [or] lost thousands of miles away, deep in outer
space." Other vagrant protagonists include an escaped prisoner
lulled into carelessness by the pristine beauty of a "mountain
wilderness" ("The Escape"); a bereft lover who "haunts" the scene
of his girlfriend's death in a car accident ("Anne's Game"); and a
nine-year-old schoolboy ("David"), whose failed attempt to run away
from home like his older brother before him suggests that we're
watching the birth of an adult criminal. The disparity between a
shimmering landscape's romantic promise and the grim realities of
ordinary lives is powerfully etched in a little girl's fearful
observation of a demolition crew at work ("Yondaland") and an adult
observer's bitter memories of a wealthy neighbor's lavish "Villa
Aurora" as it was during his youth and as it is under the pressure
of urban renewal and inevitable change. And in the chilling little
masterpiece "Moloch," poverty is unsparingly incarnated in the
figures of a despairing pregnant woman and a silent, menacing
"wolf"-like dog. A fascinating tour of the wild side, conducted by
a writer who has been surprising us for over forty years. (Kirkus
Reviews)
Set largely in locations near the French Riviera, these eleven
short stories depict the harsh realities of life for the
less-privileged inhabitants of this very privileged region.
Distinguished French writer J. M. G. Le Clezio lends his voice to
the dispossessed and explores his familiar themes of alienation,
immigration, poverty, violence, indifference, the loss of beauty,
and the betrayal of innocence.
In one story an adolescent girl encounters the violence of a
gang of masked bikers in a hostile and desolate housing project. In
others a man stands by helplessly as a place of great beauty and
deep childhood memory is slowly consumed and destroyed by a quickly
developing city, an illegal immigrant desperate for work finds
himself the prisoner of a ring trafficking in human beings, and two
girls risk everything by running away from home and their dead-end
factory jobs in search of a more meaningful life. At once tragic
and evocative, these engrossing and beautifully crafted stories
touch upon the loss of human values in a rapidly changing
world.
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