Eight novels, two collections of poetry, a story, a philosophy essay, one on gender studies, a comic book… Here are brief reviews of fourteen notable works in this third week of the year.
Novel. “The Camouflage Man”, by Jose Ando
One year after the great Just Jackson (Fayard), Jose Ando, of Afro-Asian origin and born in Tokyo in 1994, looks back on the condition of mixed-race Japanese, halfin a cozy novel, on the edge of a thriller. At the beginning of The Camouflage ManIbuki, a porn influencer, is left for dead at Fight Club, a gay hangout frequented by the narrator. He and Ibuki are Afro-Asian, and only feel themselves in this underground place, immersed in a bluish light. Here, with a simple gesture, they pass ” order “ of their desires. Escaping, they believe, from the gaze and codes of a Japanese society described as racist and homophobic.
“On the surface, I am doomed to lie and act wherever I go”admits the narrator. He hides his homosexuality from his colleagues, who nickname him “NPC”, like a “non-player character” in a video game, one who is not controlled by a human. The plot changes when, fearing being accused of the stabbing of Ibuki, the narrator observes his surroundings with paranoia.
Jose Ando’s sober pen and his sense of description convey the feeling of a worrying Tokyo, anonymous and dense, impeccable in appearance, but which conceals latent violence. Thus the final scene, at the back of a labyrinthine restaurant, reveals all the camouflages of the novel in a bloodbath. Gl. It has.
-“The Camouflage Man” (Meisai-iro no otoko), by Jose Ando, translated from Japanese by Léonore Shiina, Fayard, 144 p., €19.90, digital €15.
Philosophy. “The Sartre Question”, by Alain Badiou and Pascale Fautrier
Seen from a distance, one might believe that everything is opposed to them. Sartre, philosopher of conscience and freedom, sees in man a « passion inutile ». Badiou, theorist of the event, bases his ontology in mathematics. However, on closer inspection, many themes bring them together: commitment, communism, concern to develop the concept of a collective subject. The Sartre Question explains how the second sees the first and why he has retained unwavering loyalty to him.
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