After being excited by "The club of incorrigible optimists," I started reading "The Dreamlife of Ernesto G." with a mixture of envy and apprehension. I have not been disappointed with this second novel, but was not the suite, has a great brotherhood with the first. The trip may seem similar: Paris, Algeria and the countries of the East, but the steps are treated differently. Paris is no longer the center of the action. Algeria has experienced before and during World War II and not in the "events". As for the countries of the East, Czechoslovakia is in the center if the "friendly" countries are discussed and communism is seen here by a man who remains in his country. The characters also have in common: men and women mistreated by history (Joseph, the hero in the first place), female characters at odds with the vase (here it is also strongly question of feminism), historical figures ( whose Ernesto G. whose initial is like a riddle while Sartre, or even Nureyev Kessel lit the previous novel). One of the incorrigible optimists previous novel comes even make a lap. Still in the details, nods arise, be it a game of chess or a man always with a book in hand. In such form, there are hotlines and variants. When, in the first novel, the author confronted the past and the present in the narrative, in the second, he rather alternates perspectives and forms employed (omniscient narration, thoughts, letters, diary or reports, all marked with different typefaces). But if this second novel combines elements of the first, it is not nothing repetitive. It gives the impression to compose a fresco, to integrate a wider work that reminds me of the authors of the nineteenth century. After "The Human Comedy" of Balzac, we Guenassia he proposes a "communist Comedy"? I wish I knew whether to continue this approach in his next novel or start a break ...
In any case, I am ready to follow this author yet, which, despite the atrocities of history, manages to preserve life splinters and hope. Blows of fate and other outrages seem again to enhance the joys, the joys and the moments shared with loved ones. I still love the fluidity of its style and accuracy with which he captures the feelings and behaviors. There may be a little less humor than in his previous novel, but perhaps a bit more emotion.
