The Review of Contemporary Fiction

To Write on Tamara?, by Marcel Bénabou, translated by Steven Rendall
reviewed by Chad W. Post

Trans. Steven Rendall. Univ. of Nebraska, 2004. 179 pp. Paper: $19.95.

The author of Why I Have Not Written Any of My Books and Dump This Book while You Still Can!, Marcel Bénabou has created some of the most clever books (and titles) to come out of France in some time. Although neither as obsessive nor as stylistically complex as his earlier books, To Write on Tamara is a fantastic addition to Bénabou’s oeuvre. The plot of this novel is quite simple: a young man named Manuel leaves Morocco to study in Paris, falls in love with a charming young girl named Tamara, but despite his pursuit of her love, loses her because of one of the most literary of all reasons (which I won’t give away here). What’s interesting about this novel, though, is the way the narration shifts from the youthful Manuel, whose sections are told with a naive writerly ambition, and the older, wiser, Manuel, who ironically mocks the occasionally overblown emotions and writings of his youth. Despite the older narrator’s ironic viewpoint, the story is at times quite moving, and the games Bénabou plays with the narration only make this book more compelling. Literary references abound, yet the conventional nature of the plot make this a much more accessible book than his earlier works and a great way for readers to start exploring Benabou’s writing. Steven Rendall masterfully captures Benabou’s distinctive style once again in his wonderful translation.