Rue Des Boutiques Obscures

I love this writing. He can pull you right into his mood, which is not always a peasant one

"Je ne suis rien" -- I am nothing -- the opening phrase of this 1978 novel which won the Prix Goncourt for Patrick Modiano, now the most recent winner of the Nobel Prize. The protagonist is a private detective named Guy Roland. Only this is merely the name given to him by Hutte, his former employer at the detective agency when he rescued him from total amnesia a dozen years before, and gave him a job. Now Hutte is retiring to Nice, leaving Guy with only one case to investigate: his own.Yes, it is a totally implausible concept, but Modiano is less interested in the mechanism of Guy's search for self than in what that search will reveal. The detective will follow a number of clues, each time finding somebody who will give him a tiny part of his story, but not the whole of it. The story is implausible too in that Guy gets almost none of the "Why bother me?" kinds of reaction that one might expect. Almost all his informants seem glad to talk with him; they invite him to their homes and give him boxes of souvenirs to go away with. This, even as Guy himself is having to pose as someone else to gain their confidence, trying on one possible role after another, as he gradually works out who he must be. And, as he does so, he begins to have flashes of memory of his own.Artificial though the mechanism may be, there is none of the surrealism that one associates with many mid-century French writers. Modiano copies the "policier" style perfectly; his noir settings and vivid dialogue could come from the pen of Simenon or any of his followers. "La lumière du bar baissa, comme dans certains dancings aux premières mesures d'un slow." There is a fascination with his journeys into various quarters of Paris to meet new informants: a cocktail pianist, a jockey, various Russian expatriates, others of mixed or uncertain nationality. Although the title ("Street of Shady Shops" perhaps?) turns out to have little to do with Paris, the roman-noir idea of secrets hiding behind closed doors is a powerful and compelling one. This is an easy book to read, and I soon found myself swept up in its momentum. Here is a longer example that captures both theme and atmosphere well:"Je crois qu'on entend encore dans les entrées d'immeubles l'écho des pas de ceux qui avaient l'habitude de les traverser et qui, depuis, ont disparu. Quelque chose continue de vibrer après leur passage, des ondes de plus en plus faibles, mais que l'on capte si l'on est attentif. Au fond, je n'avais peut-être jamais été ce Pedro McEvoy, je n'étais rien, mais des ondes me traversaient, tantôt lointaines, tantôt plus fortes et tous ces échos épars qui flottaient dans l'air se critallisaient et c'était moi."It is writing of this caliber that raises Modiano above the level of the normal detective novelist. But also the question of where the protagonist's inquiries will take him. I do not want to say too much, but it becomes clear that his story will come to a head during the period of German occupation. Modiano has said that many of his novels use memory to explore the experience of his father, who was Jewish but survived the occupation. That does not appear to be the specific theme here, although references to "those years of night" crop up increasingly among the protagonist's informants. Although the novel builds to a climax that manages to be exciting and desolate at the same time, there have been other authors since who have pulled the net tighter and painted in darker tones. In short, I see this as an approachable and meaningful introduction to the work of this latest Nobelist, though I suspect that the reason for his winning the Prize has more to do with the totality of his oeuvre than the quality of any one book. [4.5 stars]

This is the last Modiano book I am bothering to read. Yes, he writes well, and I kept reading, hoping against hope that I would find something there. Frankly, to quote Dorothy Parker, "This is not a book to be taken lightly, it is to be thrown across the room with great force".Even a reviewer who gave it 5 stars noted the numerous inconsistencies of the book. All those strangers who meet the protagonist are willing to have him in, give him boxes of souvenirs, etc. The French police kindly researches and discloses files. The narrator has apparently unlimited funds.The whole story, if you can call it that, is very vague. Streets and places are mentioned, but there is no real sense of time. The narrator is apparently looking for himself, or his former self, as he has amnesia. Nothing is really resolved. It became very boring for me towards the end. I should call finishing it a dogged persistence, from which I reaped no reward.

A story that needs a lot of thought to see where the author is going

I bought this book without terribly high expectations. It turned out to be one of my favorite French novels. I have to read a lot of canonical and obscure French texts for my doctorate and this was a nice change of pace. Exciting, mysterious and well-written. Five stars!

Well written novel of a man's search for his identity, his past. There is one chapter, however, that I find undermines most of what the searcher has concluded about the years he lost. That is the "Vichy" chapter. I would hope to have a discussion about this with other readers of french.

This book is in French language which is good for me as I'm trying to learn French. I finished duolingo and got up to translation level 10 and I can read this book sometimes a few paragraphs without looking up many words at all and understand the gist of the book and it's interesting book suspenseful and beautifully written.

Unsure about what is memory of the past and what are false memories brought out by photos and clues uncovered.Very sad story!

Well painted characters, interesting historical backdrop and intriguing leaps back and forward in time. Modiano is easy to read in French but for me too much is ultimately left unresolved.

Je n’ai pas vraiment réussi à enter dans l’histoire. C’est dommage, j’avais envie d’aimer ce livre. Cela ne m’empêchera pas d’en explorer d’autres du même auteur.

An excellent "conte" from the Nobel laureate, well worth reading as the author keeps the intrigue/mystery fresh throughout this account of a private detective who has suffered serious memory-loss (and identity-loss) trying to trace his past. Good value for money too.

My second Modiano's book and I am already conquered by his univers. The intrigue is flowing and you get yourself absorbed in the world created by author. The style is simple but magic.

L'écriture est excellente. Cependant, je suis restée sur ma faim. J'aurais aimé en savoir plus sur le héros.