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- Today, “The Flowers of the Shadow” by Tatiana de Rosnay appeared on March 12, 2020 at Éditions Robert Laffont - Héloïse d'Ormesson.
Marceline Bodier, contributor to the reading group "20 Minutes Books", recommends Les Fleurs de l'ombres by Tatiana de Rosnay, published March 12, 2020 by Robert Laffont - Héloïse d'Ormesson.
His favorite quote:
She would write, she knew it. She would write, to dispel her share of darkness.
Why this book?
- Because it is a dystopia (a fictional tale that describes a dark utopian world), but of a terribly close and realistic kind. Tatiana de Rosnay gives all the elements so that we understand that the story takes place in 2034. Four generations rub shoulders, born between 1936 and 2020. And alas, is it really fiction to imagine that the teens of 2034 will tell us "I would have loved to know the world before. That of your youth. That of bees, birds, flowers. The one who hardly exists anymore "?
- Because to write a column on this book is to deploy treasures of imagination to talk about the subject without saying what it is about. Admittedly, the themes were explored in a much more extensive way by Stanley Kubrik or Antoine Bello; but Tatiana de Rosnay places them in a very restrictive framework which pushes Clarissa Katsef to her last entrenchments, forcing her to question important parts of her life and to reconnect with her painful history. A very sharp framework, but a human and intimate history ...
- Because the back cover announces a story that raises the question of heroin paranoia. Yes. Okay. But it is also something else: the possible paranoia of Clarissa does not take any direction. Like the crystal to which Freud compares the psychic apparatus, it breaks along the invisible and powerful cleavage lines determined by the structure of the traumatic events that have marked his life. But precisely, and if the real problem was this predictability of Clarissa's intimate reactions?
- Because it is a pull-out book: Clarissa Katsef, bilingual, is a writer. She is the author, in particular, of Géomètre de l'Intime , a book on the importance of places. She has a special affinity with Virginia Woolf and Romain Gary, who provided her with her pseudonym. In short, it is the double of Tatiana de Rosnay ... Therefore, is it Clarissa or Tatiana who tells a privileged reader the visit of the places of life of her two favorite authors and the way in which they are permeated by their lives and also, by their death? In any case, I, too, felt privileged to read ...
- Because it's a book about writing: the books Clarissa writes are like those that Tatiana could write; the stories Clarissa tells are written by Tatiana; the characters who inspire Clarissa inspired Tatiana. All in all, couldn't the novel Clarissa writes be called The Flowers of the Shadow ? And finally, who is it: "She (…) cast a spell [to her readers], calmly and gently, so that at the beginning, they did not suspect that they had been bewitched, and followed her, docile. But gradually, she forced them to think ... "
The essential in 2 minutes
The intrigue. 1988. Clarissa Katsev is not yet called Clarissa Katsev, and she has to face a dramatic event. 2000s. She began to publish successful novels. 2034 ... well, the pitch that I am sketching does not resemble that of the back cover? However, the common thread is there ...
Characters. Four generations: the grandfather, the mother, the daughter, the granddaughter. Peripheral characters accompany or amplify their dramas. And Mrs Dalloway ... by the way, why does the very polite Clarissa Katsev allow herself to throw him with impunity "Shut up, Mrs Dalloway!" "?
Places. Like its author, the book alternates between the French and the English-speaking world. And in the CASA residence, where Clarissa finds refuge, Mrs Dalloway is as close as possible to her inner geography. Is this the solution, or the problem?
The time. The book takes place in a year 2034 traumatized by the attacks of 2024. Believe me, we are not really looking forward to it ... but are the developments described by Tatiana de Rosnay really preventable?
The author. Tatiana de Rosnay is a writer: her books speak best of her. However, Les Fleurs de l'ombres capture the fragrance of the times, of our times. To paraphrase Pierre Bayard, provided that we did not tell ourselves, in 2034, that she had "plagiarized in advance" this year 14 years before ...
This book has been read with the hope that seeing our fears written in a book will never make it happen.
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