The Review of Contemporary Fiction
The Rendezvous by Justine LévySusan Ireland
Justine Lévy. The Rendezvous. Trans. Lydia Davis. Scribner’s, 1997. 142 pp. $22.00.
Narrated by eighteen-year-old Louise as she sits in a café all day waiting for her unreliable mother to come to their rendezvous, Levy’s wonderful first novel paints a poignant yet funny picture of strained mother-daughter relations. While she waits, Louise reminisces about her mother—an egotistical former fashion model whose self-destructive tendencies have led her to drugs and alcohol. Louise’s painful memories alternate with comic interludes involving events in the café. In particular, Louise relives the most distressing episodes of her childhood and adolescence—her mother’s overdose, her arrest for shoplifting and the ensuing prison visits, her drunken appearance at a parent-teacher meeting, and the series of male and female lovers who have passed through her life. Recurrent letdowns and disappointments give rise to a wide range of emotions on the part of the daughter, ranging from anger, jealousy, and resentment, to intense love and guilt at having abandonned her mother to live with her father. This tale of a mother unsuited for motherhood and of a daughter’s unrequited love powerfully evokes the sense of tragic loss and the emotional impact of a difficult relationship. Lévy’s conversational style and gift for dialogue have already led to favorable comparisons with prominent writers such as Françoise Sagan, Nathalie Sarraute, and Marguerite Duras. Readers interested in the subtle portrayal of complex family relationships will not be disappointed by this irresistible novel. [Susan Ireland]