Reviews

• 最終的に遊牧民の魂に結ばれ、時空を越えた宇宙が広がる作品

  著者40歳、1980年の作です。 二つの物語が絡み合ってます。小説は最初、ヌール、砂漠の青い人 と呼ばれる遊牧民、トゥアレグ族が、水を求めて無限に放浪し、 1909-1912年に,偉大な族の長老マエル･アイニヌの仲間に加わり、 キリスト信者の植民地化拡張と絶望的な戦いをし、反乱者の首を 奪います。彼らは、サハラ砂漠の真ん中に建てた町、スマラに集合し ます。戦いを拡販するため、北方に向って逃げます。長い放浪の後、 大佐マンジャン･アガディルの装甲自動車により虐殺されます。生き 残った者達は、存在の意味を失くし、ヌールは若い男子でドラマの 証人です。偉大な長老マエル･アイニヌのガイドにより聖地まで達する べく、両親と一緒に約束の地へ逃げます。 ララ･アワの二つ目の物語は現代の話で、砂漠の青い戦士の末裔です。 叔母アーマ、老いた漁師ナマンから彼らの話を聞きます。タンジェル近く のマロックの地獄のスラム街で生きてます。彼女は遊牧民の昔の思い出 を記憶に逃げて隠し持って、砂漠の偉大さを精神と肉体で経験します。 砂漠は彼女を呼び、青春を過ごしに行き、おしの若い羊飼い、ル･アルタニ と一緒になります。しかし、彼女は若い現代の娘のように、西洋の町の 美しさ、マドリード、パリ、マルセイユを夢見ます。冷たい紙の雑誌の魔法も 夢に見ます。ある日、金持ちの男が町に来て、彼女を連行しようとします。 彼女はル･アルタニと逃げ、砂漠に行き、そこで彼に身を任せます。 ル･アルタニは一人砂漠の旅を続け半死半生となり、彼女は妊娠します。 彼女はマルセイユに行き、アーマと再会します。最も単純な者達に囲まれ 幸せを知るが、若い時と別のスラム街、彼女が追い掛けたヨーロッパの町 の惨めに居る現実、また空腹である現実を見つめます。彼女は子供の生ま れるのを待ちます。写真で、彼女は自分の美貌を知り、カバーガール誌で、 イメージを拡販し、有名になります。しかし、信仰の魂と砂漠への情熱は燃え 続けます。砂漠の呼び声を聞き、祖国へ帰ります。砂漠と海の間で、イチジク の木の下で、生まれた娘と世間に向き合います。 二つの物語は最終的に青い人、遊牧民の魂に結ばれ、時空を越えた宇宙を 広げてくれる、稀有の作品です。

• A DELICIOUS BOOK

  IF YOU HAVE BEEN ALREADY IN SAHARA DESERT YOU WILL LOVE IT. IF YOU HAVE'NT BEEN YOU WILL HAVE "THE CALL" TO GO. YOU WILL UNDERSTAND WHY LE CLEZIO RECEIVED "THE GRAND PRIX PAUL MORAND"

• Un voyage intérieur plus que narratif

  écriture et ses paysages très évocateurs. Le rythme est lent et contemplatif, mais l’atmosphère est forte et les personnages touchants. Un roman qui marque davantage par son ambiance que par son action.

• Desert di Le Clezio...

  ... è un capolavoro assoluto. Non trovo altre parole per definirlo. Lo consiglio a chiunque ami una prosa che sa essere sempre POESIA. E' un poema in prosa...

• Prize-winning French novel

  Wonderful style. Most beautiful feeling of the desert.

• "As if she had only slept an hour or two... "

  Lalla and Nour, the two young protagonists of this engrossing novel, have a lot in common. Descendants of an ancient Berber tribe in the Western Sahara, they carry the traditions, the stories and visions of their tribe, and, last not least, the intimate connectedness to the rugged desert lands of their forebears. Still, their lives never connected directly: Nour was born at the end of the nineteenth century and Lalla could have been his great-grandchild, a teenager probably in the nineteen seventies. Their two narrative streams are interleaved, resulting in a moving and extraordinary portrait of two special children, their culture and times. Each an astute observer of their surroundings, their view of the world, while innocent and dreamlike, also holds depth and hope for the future. From the first pages Le Clézio's "Désert" carries the reader into another world: a caravan of nomadic Berber tribes, led by the famous "Men in blue", the Tuareg, slowly winds it way through a landscape harsh and bleak to the extreme, yet stunningly beautiful and profoundly mystical. The Berber and Tuareg clans have called this part of the Sahara desert their home for thousands of years. In the North (today's Morocco) the chiefs were promised new pasture land to settle. Based on the historical events of 1909 to 1912 when the sovereignty of the tribal chiefs under the leadership of Ma el Ainine was finally crushed by the French colonial forces, the author introduces Nour as the young observer. Through his eyes we follow the Berber efforts to protect the ancestral lands from invading forces and ward off the "soldiers of the Christians". Ma el Ainine, revered as a holy man and grand chief by his people, was regarded by the French as a "fanatic", a "savage" and murderer who needed to be destroyed at all cost. Le Clézio realistically depicts the desolate conditions facing the chiefs, their ragged warriors, and the women and children, weakened by hunger, following behind as well as they could. Nonetheless, his empathy with these proud defenders of their desert lands is openly displayed through Nour's perspective. At the time of publication in 1980, it was rare for a French author to take so determinedly the position of the historical underdog as Le Clézio. The other protagonist, Lalla, a lone orphan raised by her aunt, is like a spirit child of African story telling. Living in a desolate shanty town on the outskirts of a Moroccan sea-side town, she prefers nature to people and is irresistibly drawn to the desert close by, the rugged hills and high plateaus where she dreams and loses herself in the stories of her mysterious past. She senses, mainly subconsciously, her unique heritage deeply rooted in herself: belonging to an ancient desert tribe, deeply connected to the sun-drenched and parched land that constantly calls her. The line between reality and visions are easily blurred, especially whenever she feels the intense watchful eye of "Es Ser", who she calls "the Secret One". Her only friends are the mute shepherd boy Hartani and the old fisherman, Naman. From one she learns to see beyond and below the stone boulders, the crevasses and the sea of sand; with the old story teller she discovers the countries beyond the ocean where white gleaming cities offer a different kind of future. Eventually, circumstances lead her into that other world, but what she observes and experiences is nothing like what she was told by Naman. The description of Lalla's life in Marseilles is a devastating yet visually powerful portrait of the city's underbelly. Radicz, the young beggar and thief, becomes her guide into this foreign culture. Le Clézio does not hesitate to use a somewhat unrealistic scenario of the rags to riches kind to elucidate the extraordinary personality that he imagines for Lalla as she grows into a young adult. It is not difficult to guess where Lalla's journey ends: "it felt as if she had only slept an hour or two"... At several levels, this novel is all about journeys - physical and mental/emotional. Whether the long trek north by the Berber tribes through the exhilarating desert landscape of what is now the still disputed region of Western Sahara, or Lalla's exploration of the same landscape in southwestern Morocco, the spiritual journeys of Nour and Lalla are intimately connected. The "coming of age" component sees both young protagonists explore their identities, roots and roles. Some readers might find the lengthy descriptions of searching, wandering and constantly moving somewhat too drawn out and slow. However, the deliberately used repeats and slight atmospheric variations may encourage the reader to slow down to the speed of a camel caravan; a speed where we can ourselves see beyond the surface to discover the intricate and rich physical and mental landscape that his protagonists share. The review is of the French original, unfortunately no English translation appears to be in print at this time. For Désert Le Clézio was awarded the Académie Française's Grand Prix Paul Morand. [Friederike Knabe]

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