The French Review

Reviews 271 seamlessly and gracefully guides the reader into sharing the Haitian earthquake tragedy and understanding that life will continue and will remain stronger than everything: “La même politesse profonde, respectueuse pour qui vient là et se soucie d’eux. Il a tout retrouvé. Il n’était pas retourné dans ces quartiers depuis si longtemps [...] Haïti est là. Le sourire d’Haïti”(30).It is in helping the reader to feel the true depths of the suffering of the Haitian people that Gaudé achieves literary success. While his lyrical writing does focus on the runaway pace of life, it also emphasizes the significance of kinship everywhere, always, among all people, whether in the pleasure of friendship or in the frantic search of rubble. Canisius College (NY) Eileen M. Angelini Houdart, Célia. Gil. Paris: P.O.L., 2015. ISBN 978-2-8180-2124-8. Pp. 236. 12,50 a. This novel follows the evolution of a young opera singer’s career from his early training as a gifted pianist, through a difficult redirection to vocal music, and finally into the gradual building of an international reputation as a singer with unusual talent. The author has eschewed almost all opportunities to make her story dramatic: her central character, Gil, is quiet, meditative, and reactive—very unlike favorite stereotypes of opera divas and divos. Additionally, despite elements that might lend themselves to interesting plot points or narrative twists (a mother suffering from surges of psychosis and living in an asylum; Gil’s single uneven performance; the savaging of his reputation by a hostile press; even Gil’s love life), the author uses them merely as coloring or décor for a life focused on music. Indeed, there are many more passages that reflect the unglamorous but hard work of becoming a musician, and particularly a vocalist: the countless hours of practice, the focused attention on body and breath, the intense work on a few measures or a single vocal gesture. Tellingly, the longest spoken passages in the novel represent sessions with singing coaches giving their encouragements and corrections, insisting on precision, and striving for a quality attainable by Gil’s voice.Although seeded throughout with many references to a lively European musical scene from the eighties and to a rich piano and operatic repertoire, the novel, as the curious reader will discover, drops names and reputations that are pure invention, as are the musical works these characters perform. This nongrounding in history and in music adds to the light, elusive quality of the story, one that is reflected in the gentle simplicity of the book’s prose. By not being heavilyplotted or highly dramatic—exactly opposite of the manner of operas, one might note—the novel respects the unspoken, the innuendo underscored by utter silence, and those moments of epiphany when something shifts without an obvious impetus. In short, this understated narrative evokes the ways in which Gil’s life is mediated not by a defining celebrity but by the very qualities of music itself. Gil, a little like its protagonist, is an unpretentiously beautiful book, one attuned to the emotional possibilities of the exquisitely-trained human voice. Lawrence University (WI) Eilene Hoft-March Huston, Nancy. Bad Girl. Paris: Actes Sud, 2014. ISBN 978-2-330-03718-5. Pp. 264. 20 a. For those who have already read Huston’s works the literary rigor, analytical character development, and cross-cultural perspectives of this book will come as no surprise. Not only are the characters realistic; they are real. Real people.And into what genre can we place Bad Girl? Is it an autobiography or a narrative? A soliloquy? A monologue? Or is it an exorcism? Perhaps Bad Girl, with its discreet subtitle Classes de littérature, is all of the above. Let us call it a récit, a broken chronological recounting of the author’s life told to her foetal self, the not-yet-born Nancy Huston, whom she names “Dorrit”. Through the insightful reading of her own trajectory and with narrative expertise which comes from much practice, Huston allows us to see how she became who she is today: a voracious reader, a prolific writer, a bilingual...