“What attracted him to the house was its nature: this house was a paradox, both rustic and elegant. It was designed to be functional, but emotionally functional. Because deep down, who needs a fitted fireplace? The huge hearth was clearly inefficient. It was worth by its beauty alone, just as the experience of living is worth for what it is.”
A former production assistant in the world of cinema, Dana Spiotta greatly intrigued us a few years ago with a very ambitious novel in the field of cinema.
In his new novel translated into France, it is the world of fine arts that is painted with this portrait of a fifty-year-old, Samantha Raymond – known as Sam – who works part-time as a guide in a museum dedicated to a historical figure, doctor and feminist but controversial figure.
One day after scouring online real estate listings, she goes to visit a dilapidated Arts and Crafts-style villa in a working-class area. She falls in love with it and the same day makes an offer at the asking price and decides to dump her husband and his bourgeois life.
« The decision to leave her husband – the act of truly leaving him – took shape the moment she made an offer for the house. Saying yes to this version of his life meant saying no to another. »
Indocile, courageous novel or when literature is interested in the often taboo characters of the menopausal woman with relevance and a lot of humor.
The author wonders and questions us about the upheavals caused by the pre-menopause of her central character as well as the upheavals and collapse of her country.
Because at the beginning of the story, we are in 2017, a year after Trump’s election. And the questioning, deep, what Sam is going through is the inverted mirror of what his country is going through (social networks, police violence, sectarianism and verbal violence on the networks, the me too movement, etc.).
Certainly, the echo between intimate introspection and societal reflections is carried out here with great intelligence.
“Indocile”, translated from English by Yoann Gentric was published last February by Actes sud.
The upheavals of America under the pen of Dana Spiotta in “Indocile”, at @ActesSud When literature is interested in the often taboo characters of the menopausal woman here with great relevance and a lot of humor pic.twitter.com/jSFw2Cc6ie
— Baz’art (@blog_bazart) April 17, 2023
2023-04-24 14:15:31
#Indocile #upheavals #America #pen #Dana #Spiotta #Bazart #Films #books..
