I depart again the editorial line of this blog, I which would only talk about books by African authors (or Caribbean). Certainly, the French writer Marie Ndiaye, despite its name, has to Senegal his paternal ancestry and has no past, during his life, more than a few weeks in Africa. But, first, his last novel, Three powerful women (Gallimard), is to a large extent in Africa (Dakar, but never mentioned the names of neighborhoods, among others, have unambiguously) and on the other hand, the Prix Goncourt in 2009 - a prize well deserved as well say right away - well worth the "bend the rules." As its name suggests, Three powerful women tells the stories, so remote from each other and yet intersect in minute detail that the reader will enjoy discovering, three women "saying no" , writes the editor. They called Norah, Fanta and Khady and if they are "powerful" is primarily determined by their attitude than volunteers with life: encamped in their respective lives, while the world moves, collapses sometimes they appear as the immutable rock hazards of life and actions of those around them struggle to crumble. But start with the present.
Norah. Maybe the "powerful woman" who looks like as Marie Ndiaye. Having spent part of his childhood in Senegal, Norah followed his mother in France, where she grew up and succeeded - she became a lawyer, mother of a daughter and concubine of a funny German. At 40, now his father, remained in Dakar, and with whom she has little more than links, asked him to come without specifying why. She understood later that he comes to free his brother, Sony's prison where he languished Reubeuss for reasons he will unravel ... Norah is perhaps the weakest of these "powerful women . Sure of herself when she arrived, full of certainty about how to live his life and that of others, it will gradually face the terrible shadow of the father and his anxieties finally revealed, review its judgments , let doubt creep into it, agreeing not control everything.
Fanta. Fanta is a "powerful woman" by his omnipresence frozen, stuck in the mind of his companion, Rudy Descas. Besides, at no time does it as a character in flesh and bone in the novel. Marie Ndiaye focuses instead on the tormented Rudy seller of kitchens in the Gironde countryside. He and Fanta have known college in Dakar where they were professors. One incident led them to settle in France, for better or for worse ... since Fanta waiting in their house that their son comes home from school, while Rudy guilty, has languished, rehashing family history who brought them here and resigns himself, despite himself, to this life they have no real choice.
Khady. "Khady Demba", this name is its strength, it's all a. No family: his parents were educated by her grandmother, long dead. No husband, her man is dead after three years of marriage. No work: After the death of her husband, the owner of the bar where they worked was kicked out to install another couple. No children: her husband died before he could give her one, she was yet so desire. Now Khady lives a life erased from her parents, where she participated in the tasks of the household, that's all. Until one day they decide to send him to France, with a cousin: it will be one less mouth to feed and perhaps she can send money? Always passive Khady accepts the destiny that others draw for her, "Demba Khady. But one night, just embarked on a crowded boat, she took her life for the first time and jumped to the ground ...
Marie Ndiaye takes time to describe the moods that stir these characters. Long sentences, licked, we plunge into the spirit of Norah and Rudy Khady, at the option of tracking their thoughts, their judgments of trial and error, procrastination of their torment. The comparison may be daring but, personally, writing this reminded me Gracq . With a touch supernatural in addition, found also in other works of Marie Ndiaye (in this case I think the ghosts of a long season , 1994).
Ultimately, one realizes that this is the theme of the inability at the heart of this novel short on dialogue, and that "three powerful women" by Marie Ndiaye are high because than locked in their hearts. It finally also their weakness. Norah can not speak with his family and come to terms with its own history; Fanta do not know liberate decomplex love him that Rudy door Khady ignored others, ignores the fact just as much, she is focused on itself, "Demba Khady.
Three powerful women
Marie Ndiaye
Gallimard, 2009
317 p., 19 euros
Marie Ndiaye was born in 1967 in Pithiviers, Loiret, a Senegalese father and a French mother. Early author, she was spotted by Jerome Lindon , Editions de Minuit, who published his first novel, As for the rich future in 1985. Follow many novels (about one every two years) which Rosie Carpe (2001), which won the Prix Femina, and Three powerful women (2009), which brings the dedication with the Prix Goncourt. Marie Ndiaye is also the author of several plays. His brother, Pap Ndiaye, is a historian and author of Condition black. See also: Marie Ndiaye, René Maran: the "scandals" of the Goncourt prize
Read other chronic Three powerful women on blogs Biblioblog , Pages to pages, The Globe- Player and In Gangoueus .
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