The Opposing Shore by Julien Gracq
With an oeuvre that includes four idiosyncratic,
elegantly written novels, Julien Gracq has established
himself as one of France\'s eminent postwar
fiction writers. A mysterious and retiring figure, he
characteristically refused the Goncourt, France\'s
most distinguished literary prize, when it was
awarded to him for this novel , published in 1 95 1
.
Set in the mythical Mediterranean nation of Orsenna,
The Opposing Shore concerns Aldo, a young aristocrat
sent to observe the activities of a naval base on
the waters separating his native land from Farghestan,
the power with which Orsenna has been in a
state of dormant war for three centuries. The battle
has become a complex, tacit game in which no actions
are taken and no peace declared. Aldo comes
to understand that everything depends upon a boundary,
unseen but certain, separating the two sides,
and he becomes himself obsessed with this demarcation.
Each chapter is a further initiation into the
possibility of transgression, symbolized by Vanessa,
a woman whose complex ties to both sides of
the war pull Aldo deeper into the story\'s web.
Richard Howard, acclaimed poet, critic, and
translator of more than 1 50 works including those of
Barthes and Baudelaire, calls The Opposing Shore
"a charged, oneiric exploration of the meaning of
self-revelation by self-destruction; with the discovery
that only what has been alive can truly die, and
with efforts to overcome the inertia of death-in-life
by an ultimate resolution to \'cross the line.\'
With an oeuvre that includes four idiosyncratic,
elegantly written novels, Julien Gracq has established
himself as one of France\'s eminent postwar
fiction writers. A mysterious and retiring figure, he
characteristically refused the Goncourt, France\'s
most distinguished literary prize, when it was
awarded to him for this novel , published in 1 95 1
.
Set in the mythical Mediterranean nation of Orsenna,
The Opposing Shore concerns Aldo, a young aristocrat
sent to observe the activities of a naval base on
the waters separating his native land from Farghestan,
the power with which Orsenna has been in a
state of dormant war for three centuries. The battle
has become a complex, tacit game in which no actions
are taken and no peace declared. Aldo comes
to understand that everything depends upon a boundary,
unseen but certain, separating the two sides,
and he becomes himself obsessed with this demarcation.
Each chapter is a further initiation into the
possibility of transgression, symbolized by Vanessa,
a woman whose complex ties to both sides of
the war pull Aldo deeper into the story\'s web.
Richard Howard, acclaimed poet, critic, and
translator of more than 1 50 works including those of
Barthes and Baudelaire, calls The Opposing Shore
"a charged, oneiric exploration of the meaning of
self-revelation by self-destruction; with the discovery
that only what has been alive can truly die, and
with efforts to overcome the inertia of death-in-life
by an ultimate resolution to \'cross the line.\'