The Review of Contemporary Fiction

The Young Man from Savoy, by C-F Ramuz
reviewed by Tim Feeney

Trans., intro., and afterword Blake Robinson. Host, 2008. 148 pp. Cloth: $25.00; Paper: $15.00.

Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz (1878–1947) seems underrepresented on U.S. shores—in Switzerland he appears on the 200-franc note; wonders never cease—but with any luck a few outlets will give a little coverage to this new, able translation and bring some attention his way. Ramuz deserves it: his oeuvre belongs squarely in the pantheon of prewar European experimentalism, and Host and translator Bruce Robinson deserve credit for adding to his few works available in English. The story is simple: Joseph, a young crewman on a cargo ship, is halfheartedly engaged to a local girl, Georgette, while becoming obsessed with Miss Anabella, a high-wire artist he sees at a traveling circus. The crew of the ship loses their jobs and Joseph seeks solace with a third woman, a barkeep at a local tavern, which decision does no one any good. Joseph starts to wonder about his engagement at the same time Georgette seeks to strengthen it, and the novel spins toward an inevitable conclusion. Ramuz’s storytelling implies more than it describes, and his prose is subtly unsettling: in Savoy he often substitutes “you” for third-person pronouns, and he switches between past and present tense at will, sometimes within the same sentence. The techniques combine to practically force the audience into identifying with the characters while distorting the overall narrative reality, like meeting a group of people who proceed to shake you by the shoulders. (It’s a lot more accessible and fun than it sounds.) Writing as Europe continued its long descent into World War II, Ramuz seems most concerned with what results when unstoppable forces act on simple lives (as in his earlier When the Mountain Fell). Savoy makes the point that those forces can come from within or without, and sometimes there’s no telling the difference.