Utterly distinct in form and tone, these braided stories demand a certain vigilance from the reader, an alertness to echo and intuition ... If the Heudeber chapters are more formally direct and immediate, the deserter sections feature the rich, densely poetic language that readers of Énard may recall from previous works like “Zone” and “Compass,” a kind of neo-modernism replete with bits of interior monologue and adventurous indentation. (Credit the translator Charlotte Mandell, adept in both registers) ... In this artful and sad novel, forbearance is courage.
Rich, unsettling ... Maja, too, is a compelling character ... This is a moving, elegant and frequently uncomfortable novel about the emotional stakes of difficult choices made amid the most unbearable situations.
The chapters about the deserter are visceral, full of sensory detail. Refreshingly, the story considers the treatment of women in war. The prose is deconstructed, with poetic line breaks and intermittent capitalisation and punctuation, as if war decomposes language itself. Unlike Énard’s usual first-person, however, it’s told mostly in a close-third, with sometimes shifting points of view. Its parabalistic quality, intended perhaps to make us consider all wars, somewhat mitigates the reader’s emotional engagement ... The bulk of clunkiness— mid-sentence tense changes, for example—accurately reflects Énard’s choices, equally awkward in French, rather than Mandell’s translation ... Irina’s first-person account, intermingled with letters, would seem to be more personal, but here too we are kept at arm’s length by her academic tone and reference to her parents by their first names ... While containing thematic echoes, the two strands of the book run in parallel without ever intersecting. Although not in itself a problem—we don’t need things to be tied neatly in a bow—their stylistic differences break the narrative flow ... With his consistent representation of war in his fiction, Énard reminds us to shed our rose-tinted glasses.
A powerfully elusive meditation by one of Europe’s most challenging authors ... While Irina’s recollections have the immediacy and directness of a diary, the novel’s alternating narrative is told in a kind of purgatorial stream-of-consciousness poetry ... Draws eerie meaning from the odd particularities of the natural world ... Ultimately, the book is haunted by the endless cycle of war and cruelty.
Brilliant ... With an unflinching depiction of civilization’s decline and its dystopic aftermath, Énard builds a great work of art from 'the remains, the traces, and the great mourning of the future.' It’s a masterpiece.
