The perfume of Patrick Modiano's latest novel

All of Patrick Modiano's books are cut from the same cloth. The pretext is always a search. The character tasked with carrying it out – generally a solitary one, the narrator – uses elements from an era, let's say, analog (address books, notebooks, maps, old paper photographs). The action – and the reflection that follows – usually takes place in Paris and its environs. And the time of the story, after the Second World War, a conflict that, more or less, has had some repercussions on the characters. The great theme of his novels is memory. A search for a lost time, perhaps?

From this nouvelle

we now know that it is not: “I thought his memory was coming to me like light from a star dead for a thousand years, to use the words of a poet. But no. The past did not exist, nor any dead star, nor light-years that forever separate us from each other, but this eternal present.” The philosopher who defined the cycle of this immutable present (the eternal return) was Friedrich Nietzsche, who does not appear in the text. T. S. Eliot, who is also not mentioned, reflected lucidly on the circularity of time.

Who is the dancer? Although she embodies the leading role, we do not know her name. She has a young son, Pierre, who for several years has not lived with her. The man with whom she had him disappeared before the woman confessed she was pregnant. On the day of their farewell, they met, almost clandestinely, in a small urban church, and he entrusted her with a briefcase. This is said to have happened almost fifty years ago, and the narrator's present – irrelevant, like all the real

presents in Modiano's novels – is that of the year 2023. We have therefore overcome the pandemic, which, although not named, is unmistakably evoked. Memory is the theme, the substance of the narrative. And the mechanisms it employs. As well as the ghosts it scatters through consciousness: “Even if you try your hardest and believe you are safe, you do not always escape from ghosts.” The point of view is that of the narrator, a novelist who, in his early seventies, is just beginning his literary journey. The reader, however, will realize that, subtly, in some chapter – always very short chapters, made up of the author's characteristic brief sentences – the eyes and voice are those of the dancer.

All of Modiano's novels take place in the 20th century. When, as is the case, we read "from the beginning of the century", the narrator refers, of course, to the past century. The characters drink granadina. And we never quite know what they're up to. In this one they practice "the art of silence". The plot is again very meager, and we will forget it immediately. On the other hand, perhaps a perfume will remain with us. Some of these characters demand order, discipline. The act of remembering also demands it, so as not to be ambushed: "It is advisable to walk with solemnity and circumspection to avoid disorder and the traps of memory". Yes, the perfume, above all. Not much more. (By the way, I suggest that "De si braves garçons", from 1982, my favorite novel by the author, be translated).