Madman Bovary by Claro: read Flaubert instead
Madman Bovary by Claro. 2008.
When I entered a book store and asked for Madman Bovary, the clerk looked down on me and replied “You mean Madame Bovary” and it wasn’t even a question. She didn’t say “of course” but I heard it. So my voice was slightly irritated when I confirmed that I really wanted Madman Bovary by Claro, published by Babel.
It’s the story of a man who’s been dumped by his lover Estée. He decides to stay in bed and drown his sorrow in re-reading Madame Bovary. The blurb was intriguing, I wondered what he did with that pitch.
Then I lost myself in a sort of incoherent stream of consciousness in a style full of affectation. I hate sentences as “Naturellement virgule par nonchalence virgule il en vint à se délier de toutes les résolutions qu’il s’était faites.”. (“Naturally comma out of nonchalance comma then again he came to free himself of all the resolutions he had taken”.) I wonder why it’s not written full stop at the end. Claro should read Jean-Bernard Pouy to learn how to play with the language without sounding pedantic. You can’t take yourself too seriously when you want to twist grammar and vocabulary.
I didn’t survive past page 47, too mad for me. I left the guy where he was, thinking I should re-read Flaubert instead.
Book Around the Corner 
From the excerpt you give, I shudder to think what Flaubert would have made of this writer’s prose style!
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I know what tou mean. What is this style called? Post-modernism?
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I must confess, when I read the title, IIwas thinking I would be surprised if it had been any good. The pun is too heavy.
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It could have been good. 1280 Âmes was excellent.
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*chuckle*
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Lisa, I love your comment. 🙂
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I know that I’d dislike that too. I dislike those sort of gimmicks.
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I can’t see you enjoying this one.
Let’s see the sunny side of it: this time, you’re not frustrated that it’s not translated into English!
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It sounds rather like the highbrow equivalent of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Piggybacking off another work to sell something that perhaps couldn’t sell on its own.
But I’ve not (couldn’t since I don’t read French) read it, so I could be wrong. A year from now I may be hailing the translation as brilliant. I’ve been wrong to that degree before in prejudging something.
47 pages and out. Gosh. How’s it getting treated in the wider French review press? Does it have fans?
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The publisher is a good one. The writer is praised, he translates Pynchon in French btw.
Another French blogger managed to read it until p74. better than me.
So perhaps it’s just me and not the book. I can’t stand pretentious highbrow style with affected literary tricks.
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