Review of `Celle qui ne parle pas` by Capucine Ruat

Chapman University
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Research
World Languages and Cultures
2007
Review of 'Celle qui ne parle pas' by Capucine Ruat
Véronique Olivier
Chapman University, [email protected]
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Part of the French and Francophone Literature Commons
Recommended Citation
Olivier, Véronique. “Review of 'Celle qui ne parle pas' by Capucine Ruat.” The French Review 80.6 (2007): 1420-1421. Print.
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Review of 'Celle qui ne parle pas' by Capucine Ruat
Comments
This review was originally published in The French Review, volume 80, issue 6, in 2007.
Copyright
American Association of Teachers of French
This book review is available at Chapman University Digital Commons: http://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/language_articles/6
1420 FRENCH REVIEW 80.6
was
2?which
Mary
under
plunged
fifteenpeople
between
two
adds
the elements
book.
After
at
construction
the Saint-Nazaire
naval
yard?and
to their deaths. To the transience of his seaports Rolin
of uncertainty,
and conflict. The
of friction
chronicle
danger,
an
union
factions
central
section
of the
occupies
overlong
amount
the requisite
of bluster
and maneuvering,
Bernard
Gouvart
labor
and his followers finally triumphed over the Sylvain Ravetta faction.Gouvart, it
is said,
clout to strike
gained
enough
this is about France,
after all. Winners
tition
that
enables
terror
and
Malcolm
progress.
into the hearts
losers,
McLean,
of top management?
in any case,
the compe
provide
with
credited
the invention
of
shipping containers, preferred large, slow ships that could not keep up with the
faster ships of
less voluminous
smaller,
modate
Rolin
occasionally
the Taiwanese
containers.
into memories
lapses
accom
which
could
Chang,
went
under
(187-90).
operations
or reflections
on his
of
family relations
"Chairman"
McLean's
own identity.Despite the prevailing objectivity of his
descriptions, there are
glimmers of a longing for a sense of solidarity with other nomadic souls. In the
final pages Rolin has headed south and is eating Indian food at a Seaman's
Center (English in the text) at a French Mediterranean port. The internationalism
Rolin admires is in fulldisplay. In the final paragraph he reportsmatter-of-factly
that foreign
sailors
seeking
meals
and
recreation
at the Seamen's
took
lit
Pp.
93.
femme
de
Center
tle notice that evening of the televised news of the terroristbombings inMadrid
(11March 2004). Rolin thus leaves us with a parting thought:what if the opposite
of conflict is not peace, but indifference?
University of South Carolina
Capucine.
.
Ruat,
Celle
11
son
Dans
trente ans
le reveiller,
femmes
de
commence
qui
ne
James T. Day
parle pas. Paris:
Stock,
roman
court et brut, Ruat met
premier
"mon
dont
le sang s'est arrete de couler:
2006.
ISBN:
2-234-05830-9.
en
scene
une
corps
s'est
jeune
endormi"
(7). Pour
l'histoire
des
et pour
tenter de comprendre,
dans
le texte replonge
sa famille parce
de femmes"
"le sang, c'est une histoire
(8). Tout
que
a onze
un
et
la douleur
decouvre
ans, la narratrice
quand,
jour d'ete,
le degout du sang qui jaillit pour la premiere fois. En effet, cette feminite est
une
comme
"fardeau",
par quelques
regression
symbolisee
ne faisais pas de folies;
de
pas de mar
pages
je n'achetais
"je
negations:
ne voulais
ne savais pas demander"
de ma mere"
(17).
(16);
ques,
"je
plus
je
on visite
ce roman ou l'on fait le tour de la famille comme
d'un
les pieces
Dans
"ni riche, ni pauvre",
de
banlieue
personnages
plusieurs
parisienne
appartement
"ma star de
se
La sceur d'abord,
feminins.
eblouissante,
principalement
degagent,
avec
une star
La
demeure
cinema"
(33). Mais
impossible.
qui communiquer
fragile
comme
a decide
un
a trente-neuf
si elle
mere
de ne plus se maquiller
ans,
jour,
qui,
a un
a un
cesse d'exister.
la grand-mere,
avait
"oursin",
Enfin,
comparee
deja
sans
murmures
ni
baisers"
de
levres
tendresse:
"des
(39), incapable
"pore-epic"
n'est pas
"la douceur
cette famille, conclue
la narratrice,
dans
(39). Ainsi,
toujours
un
comme
vecue
inondees
du
cote des
mieux,
Restent
des
que
alors
salons
ne se
les choses
de la famille,
(47). En dehors
guere
passent
aimer"
l'amie ou avec "cet homme
(81).
aimerai[t]
qu'[elle]
et
de vie, exces:
les livres, veritable
"je revenais
jaillissement
refuge
"venue
naturellement"
l'ecriture
livre les sacs pleins"
(69)
(67). Puis
a dire,
Car
celle qui ne parle pas a beaucoup
forcement
salvatrice.
femmes"
ce soit avec
du
et finalement,
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REVIEWS
1421
se
en encre:
Le sang
d'ecrire.
"l'ecriture
coule
Turgence
metamorphose
les veines,
et chaude,
et delie
douce
la parole
des femmes"
(80).
un recit a la
sous
C'est
la forme de confession,
mais
personne,
premiere
qui
montre
dans
evite Tepanchement. Le choix de Timparfait par exemple, tend a figer les habi
tudes, tandis que le style est a l'image des "grands coups de pinceau" (22) que
Tadolescente
utilise
scene
d'une
certaine
les cours
dans
font toute
de
L'economie
dessin.
recit comme
du
Tefficacite
"lorsque
je rentrais
avec un
Elle m'attendait
vide.
pain
Tappartement
sucre. Je sentais
sur sa peau
T odeur
du fauve en
detresse
ce roman
maternelle:
tient neanmoins
dans
Tart de
aux
portee
entiere
"universel"
cette
de
Chapman University (CA)
Francois.
ISBN:
Option Paradis.
.
270. 18
2-234-05796-5.
Pp.
Taillandier's
Option
As
Arre.
the eleven
par
suggeree
femme
jeune
qui
le jeu des
("je
roman
au
suis O
parle"
and
Louise
Herdoin,
of the novel
comme
Intrigue. Paris:
of
two
(Taillandier
a total of 55 to echo his own
the parents
of Nicolas
catch
and
Stock,
has
Vernery-sur
announced
five
age
at the
simultaneous
their
loveless
2005.
the story of
relating
cousins
who
have
be
to their native
unfold
we
et
par
Tat
Olivier
of five volumes
the return
negatif",
magnifique
lecteur. Liberee
devenir,
pour
et
regards
(93).
1: La Grande
Tome
follows
of eleven
each,
chapters
time of the last volume's
publication),
generations:
la negation
first in a series
chapters
volumes
sive
chocolat
une
qui
dans
je la trouvais
ou une brioche
au
Veronique
Paradis,
over
five generations,
family
come
Rubien
lovers, Nicolas
a
au
la selection
de voile
de
reussite
(23). La grande
cage"
souvent
la forme
qui prend
description
En
de
les quatre
image.
temoignent
photos
la narratrice
et sa sceur.
lesquelles
figurent
celle qui ne parle pas abandonne
l'ecriture,
testent les derniers mots
de son recit, "celle
Taillandier,
Tecole,
ce
de
donner,
sang
capable
une offrande
et cassant,
est finalement
incisif
deroutant,
de
vetements.
le sang
un
par
par
Symbolise
c'est-a-dire
47),
passage
la
sur
d'arrets
de cliches,
d'instantanes,
Noel
entre 1978 et 2004 et sur
prises
Leur
relation
et leur evolution
est toute
Tattention
de mots,
ce
dans
projected
succes
of
glimpses
Louise's
marriage,
con
ventional conjugal lifeand the events that lead to her divorce, Gabrielle Maudon,
common
the cousins'
gent
insistence
on
and
indifferent matriarch,
and her intransi
a few. The series of
to name
propriety,
only
family
of a
to either
unrelated
by the voice
philosopher,
of the
act and herald
of
tandem,
prophet
unique
grandmother
provincial
is
portraits
only
interrupted
side of the Maudron-Herdoin
Paradise.
fore
liberated
from
to his
has recently
the era of
theory, mankind
inaugurated
that has radically
broken with
the past and
is there
the necessary
He
the
locates
"before/now."
binary
beginning
According
time:"
"self-resorbing
time
of thisnew era roughly in the 1950s, a thesis he bases on the historical confluence
of events such as the invention of birth control and global deterritorialization.
Mankind has experienced Purgatory and Hell?the
philosopher insists that they
be mentioned
tion?and
in that order,
to
ready
is now
with post-Dante
breaking
literary
to irrelevance
and
the
Past
and
History
consciously
relegate
rience theheavenly fruitof its labor.
This
ever,
never meant
theory was
a context within
provide
family novel
crystallize.
The
to be
which
negation
a serious
thesis.
philosophical
the thematics
of Taillandier's
of
the before/now
It does,
continuity
tradi
expe
how
fragmentary
is clearly
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions