Laurens, Rolin

I read a short, easy read of a novel called Port-Soudan by Olivier Rolin. I thought it was a bit ordinary, a reminiscence about a past death and the difficulties of life in the Sudan in the thirties. I suppose the theme really was anomie. That theme always makes me yawn. Camille Lauren's novel Dans ces bras-la was excellent, about womanhood. It has an episodic, non-linear structure which I usually dislike but that I found added to the experience of discovering womanhood as events unfolded in the narrator's life. There were a few pages which were daring: one which describes (in non-pornographic terms) a sexual fantasy that is politically incorrect; another in which the author talks about why she never mentions her stillborn son now when asked how many children she has, because people don't understand, and yet finds that silence a violence to his memory. I liked it very much, it was full of truth and the author's talent and departures from convention served the novel well.