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Lydie Salvayre: La Puissance des mouches (The Power of Flies)
We open in the middle of a court case. The unnamed narrator is seemingly on trial though, initially, we do not know what for. He seems to be haranguing the judge, not so much defending himself as explaining himself and his life. We know the judge is intervening because our narrator comments on the judge’s interventions. Mixed with his discussions with the judge are discussions with a lawyer and a psychiatrist and a prison guard. All of these enable us to more or less put together the story of his life. We soon become aware that he is in prison for murder but this is not awhodunnit (he did) but a whowasitdunto, in other words who was the person murdered. We gradually learn who the possible contenders are, including three main suspects but there are various other possibilities, not least of which could be a random stranger as he is clearly having severe mental health issues which get worse during the course of the book.
Like most of the characters in this book, he is not named. His mother is Catalan. We first meet her, aged sixteen, at the end of the Spanish Civil War. The Republic has lost and Franco is pursuing the survivors. Along with many others she manages to get to the Argeles concentration camp in France. There she is befriended and then raped by another Spaniard. They will eventually marry. He is a construction worker. They have two children – our narrator and his sister.
The father is a brutal man. He regularly bullies, brutalises and beats his wife. He adores his daughter till she starts dating. He brutalises his son. He hates his son-law. He adores Stalin. The mother takes it all, defending her husband. Papa sees the whole world to be his personal enemy.
Eventually the mother dies and our narrator has no doubt who is to blame. Indeed my mother was dead before I was even born; she died the day she met my father in the Argeles camp where I was conceived, and her entire life with him was nothing but one long, endless agony. As far as he is concerned his father murdered his mother.
However, he may criticise his mother but he is not much different and he is aware of this. I’m overwhelmed by the feeling that I’m just like my father. Could I have inherited his malice? He too abuses his wife, Nevertheless he has sworn never to be like his father.
Our narrator has a job. He is a tour guide at a museum devoted to the French philosopher Blaise Pascal. He has become a great admirer of Pascal, has studied and can quote him extensively and claims to be inspired by his writings. Indeed there seem to be only two people he admires – his mother and Pascal. Indeed, he conflates the two, saying they even look alike.
While he takes his job seriously he is happy to mock his fellow staff and the management at the museum and the visitors. The Germans, he says , are the worst as they have no culture whatever. Whatever the circumstance, they are proud of their stupidity and of the ignorance in which they wallow. He makes the mistake of then mocking the Spanish (this is in his harangue to the judge) and finds that the judge is of Spanish origin. However when a French dignitary visits (and shows his ignorance) our narrator is happy to quote Pascal to him: you are essentially nothing but the kings of greed. In other words, whores. It gets worse. He criticises Molinier, his boss – a poor jerk. A loser. A run-of-the-mill manager, the civil service is full of his type. When a group of schoolchildren come he quotes Pascal who favoured a very strict upbringing for children. The teachers complain. He argues Pascal, whom he has read extensively, with Molinier . His favourite quote from Pascal is The power of flies; they win battles, hinder our soul from acting, consume our body, which, he admits, is somewhat arcane.
He even justifies his crime – But ever since that act, which certain people have called a crime, but which I personally look upon as an act of pure logic.
But it is his father who bears the brunt of his hatred. He thinks of various ways of killing him. The favourite is with a raygun. I hate my father beyond all measure; no onecan imagine how much I hate him.
However every time we think that it is his father who will be his murder victim, he turns his ire to someone else – his wife, his neighbour, Molinier, his colleagues, the visitors to the museum. No-one is immune. Your nastiness will be your ruin, prophesises my wife.
Towards the end of the book his mental health issues get worse and worse as he heads down the slippery slope towards insanity.
Salvayre paints a wonderful picture of two men – father and son – who are both brutal and insane. However most of the other characters, particularly the men come out badly – the pompous Moliner, the other two sexist guides, the nasty neighbour . The only man who comes out reasonably well is Pascal and even he does not do too well with his self-flagellation, wearing a famous nail-studded belt ro remind him of the weakness of the flesh. The only two women who play any significant role – his wife and mother – are seen as victims of male brutality.
This book is both unpleasant and humorous at the same time. We cannot help but wonder at the behaviour of the various men. Indeed anyone from Mars reading this book would conclude that French men are a thoroughly reprehensible bunch and French women their victims. However if you are not French you should find this book entertaining if at times disturbing.
Publishing history
First published in 1995 by Julliard
First published in English in 2007 by Dalkey Archive Press
Translated by Jane Kuntz