MEMORY, by Philippe Grimbert, translated from the French by Polly McLean, Simon and Schuster, 153 pages, $19.95
Originally published in the U.K. last year under the title "Secret," this entrancing, spare novella is written by Philippe Grimbert, a psychoanalyst who lives in Paris. The book, titled "Memory" in the U.S., is autobiographical and mesmerizing — best read in one sitting.
It has been published in Canada, France and Germany and has won two literary prizes in France.
Twenty years ago, Grimbert's parents committed suicide by jumping from a balcony together. The narrator grew up as the only child of two unusually attractive people, the father named Maxime and the mother named Tania. They operate a wholesale business in hosiery on the rue du Bourg-l'Abbe in Paris.
It is hard work, but the Grimberts are workout freaks who are proud of their bodies and determined to keep them "buffed and toned, like those statues in the galleries of the Louvre." Their son feels terribly inferior because he knows that his body will never compare to their glamorous ones, and he is weak and sickly to boot.
His parents are not only very busy, but they hardly ever carry on anything resembling a conversation with him. They have built a wall around themselves that their son can't penetrate. His is a silent world. Almost everything seems to him to be unspoken, and because of that, he worries and fantasizes about the life his family lives.
As a crutch, he creates an imaginary brother who is better looking and smarter than he is. This is a literary ruse that doesn't work very well, and the author overworks it. Then, later, Philippe is surprised to learn that he really did have a half-brother who has disappeared.
Because he is so curious about his parents, he also imagines their first meeting, their courtship and passionate love. He characterizes them as unusual people because his father is handsome as well as muscular and his mother is an intensely beautiful woman.
Suddenly, he starts to have genuine conversations with Louise, an older woman who gives his parents massages in the evening when they are suffering from fatigue. She is a good friend of the family and feels sorry that Maxime and Tania do not cultivate the relationship with their son. So, she tells him detailed, surprising stories about them.
As she does so, the secrets are revealed, involving Romania, war, persecution of Jews, concentration camps, terrible deaths and illicit love. Philippe is astounded. The translation seems to fit the author's mood and intentions, a story told with elegance and simplicity. Only occasionally does a word turn into a clunker, i.e., "rickety furniture," "gangly arms," "rubberlike woman" and "persnickety," words or phrases that do not seem French enough for this sophisticated
tragedy.
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