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With Love and Memory: A Profile of Andrei Makine |
| Section: BOOK WORLD / WRITERS AND WRITING |
| Author: Shusha Guppy |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 1/1/2000 |
| Size: 2,950 Words, 17,441 Characters |
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In 1995 a novel written in French by an unknown Russian swept up literary Paris in a gust of enthusiasm. Hailed by the critics and the public alike, Andrei Makine's Le Testament Franais went on to win three prestigious prizes: the coveted Goncourt, the Medicis, and the Goncourt des Lycéens--an unprecedented triple honor. Since then it has been translated into thirty languages and sold a million copies in France alone.
Le Testament Franais tells the story of a young Russian growing up in a village on the edge of the steppe in Siberia. At its heart is Charlotte Lemonnier, the narrator's grandmother. Born in 1903, she is living in Russia with her parents, her idealistic father working as a doctor among the poor. When the Revolution breaks out she is unable to escape; she ends up marrying a Russian and spending the rest of her life there.
Through Charlotte the life of ordinary Russians during the communist era--"a myriad little gulags"--is vividly described. All that remains of her past is a small suitcase containing a few photographs and mementos. They enable her to reminisce about Paris during the Belle ƒpoque--the ease and elegance of life, the gardens and cafés, the Pre-Lachaise Cemetery, where so many famous artists and writers are buried--until a whole city is conjured out of the steppe, "like a misty Atlantis emerging from the sea."
"La vrai vie est ailleurs" (the real life is elsewhere), wrote Rimbaud, and the young narrator (clearly Makine himself) dreams of one day living in France. He lands in Paris in 1987--alone, penniless--at one point forced to sleep in the Pre-Lachaise. This grim reality turns into fairy tale when his first book is accepted by a publisher, and he becomes a French writer.
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...literature and art can show people the best in themselves and find some meaning in life beside material things. But it has to be done by individuals. Nothing can be done by 'the masses.' It is the job of writers and poets and intellectuals to uphold the right values, encourage people to think. Dostoevsky said 'Beauty will save the world.' It is everywhere, but you have to stop and look at it."
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
comprehensive academic resource that encompasses a broad range of
articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
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