The Review of Contemporary Fiction
Matin brun (Brown Morning), by Franck Pavloffreviewed by Philip Landon
Franck Pavloff. Matin brun (Brown Morning). Cheyne Editeur, France, 1998. 12 pp. €1.00.
A psychologist and children’s rights expert who has spent years working for humanitarian causes in Africa and South America, Pavloff is a politically engaged French novelist and children’s author. His antitotalitarian parable Matin brun, originally published in 1998, became a phenomenon after the virulent National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen beat the official challenger, socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin, in the first round of the 2002 French presidential elections. The incumbent Jacques Chirac, a republican, won the decisive second round, but Le Pen’s initial success at the polls shocked Europe, highlighting the presence of extremism and xenophobia.
What if the government suddenly announced that all cats, except brown ones, were to be outlawed for reasons of “overpopulation”? What if the authorities went on to say that all nonbrown dogs had to go as well? If all newspapers except the official “Brown News” were to be banned? And what if one day all those who had ever harbored nonbrown pets were hoarded up and taken away, together with their families and associates? Matin brun brings to life the incremental process by which an open society can succumb to totalitarianism. Apathy erodes freedom: a small concession today can pave the way for serious oppression tomorrow. The ultimate reference is to the specter of fascism, “la peste brune,” Europe’s overrepresented trauma, which has become imaginatively unreal: It Could Never Happen Today.
What is most original about Pavloff’s unusual, pamphlet-length best-seller is its vivid problematization of political quietism. How far do things have to go before minding your own business becomes a form of collaboration? Pavloff uses a children’s story and absurdist narrative to pose a conundrum that only a mature, historically educated citizenry could ever hope to handle for real. A topical, devastatingly simple tale in the tradition of Camus, Orwell, and Saramago, Matin brun struck a chord with the French reading public, becoming a best-seller in the spring and summer of 2002. A classic instance of subversive literary experiment, it cuts to the quick of a political problem, offering protection against indifference in any society where entertainment rules, racism is an issue, and electorates are sluggish. A lucid starting-point for a debate on civic responsibility, diversity, and democracy, Pavloff’s story deserves to become a classroom classic in Europe and beyond.