Somewhere in the middle of the novel the narrator reported that A and Franck had both finished reading this African novel that they’d been discussing for sometime. Robbe-Grillet, via his narrator, made a commentary on the nature of our “readings” of texts–on how we focus not on “the novel’s value” but on its “reality,” and so we blame the characters for certain acts, or we comment on the implausibility of some events, and we even suggest alternative outcomes, although we know that in the end, nothing could be changed, the “reality stays the same.” But I would like to underscore the tendency of interpretations as mentioned by Robbe-Grillet: “They seem to enjoy multiplying these choices, exchanging smiles, carried away by their enthusiasm, probably a little intoxicated by this proliferation… .” Intoxication by proliferation. This is the ecstasy of reading, the apex of interpretation. To multiply meanings–to be more than what the text probably is or was just intended to be.
*
The narrator/husband refers to himself as the “third person”–in front of A and Franck’s, and unlike these two, he does not read the African novel they are so enthusiastic about.
*
To the jealous every moment becomes present, again and again; he reviews the same scenes, hears the same words–from the same angle, from the same distance, although with a different focus.
*
“A novel whose action takes place in Africa” was lent by Franck’s to A–and it gave connection to the two of them; yet the novel turns out to be a symbol of the narrator’s disconnection from his wife, the unknown, what couldn’t be fully shared with him, what he could only half-guess. The novel connected Franck and A even if, paradoxically, it provided them with different, and sometimes opposing, understandings.
*
When the narrator had to describe the novel toward the end, based on what he could get from the conversations, he summed it up as, “Psychological complications aside, it is a standard narrative of colonial life in Africa, with a description of a tornado, a native revolt, and incidents at the club.” In other words: Not unlike Jealousy (or Robbe-Grillet’s narration of it), he wants to strip the novel of “psychological complications” and so everything is seen from the outside–toward the physicality of things; and also, that there’s really nothing special with the novel at hand: it is a “standard narrative”–and with the label comes the expectations of its contents.
Filed under: 1001 Lists & Beyond Tagged: 1001 Books You Must Read, Alain Robbe-Grillet
