Le Bal des murènes

by Nina Bouraoui

Un adolescent souffreteux, reclus, prisonnier de ses cauchemars, voue une passion d'amour et de haine sa mre, dont la mchancet semble exacerbe par une faute ancienne et dissimule. Ce secret-l envahit tout, hante le moindre recoin de la maison, ronge les tres comme une maladie...

Genres: France

162 pages, Paperback

First published March 13, 1996

About the author

Nina Bouraoui (born on 31 July 1967) is a French writer born in Rennes, Ille-et-Vilaine, of an Algerian father and a French mother. She spent the first fourteen years of her life in Algiers, then Zürich and Abu Dhabi. She now lives in Paris.

Her novels are mostly written in the first person and, with the exception of Avant les hommes (Before the Men), have been said by the author to be works of "auto-fiction". This is even the case for Le Bal des Murènes (The ball of moray eels), which, like Avant les hommes, has a male narrator. Since writing her first novel in 1991, Bouraoui has affirmed the influence of Marguerite Duras in her work, although the life narratives and works many other artists are also to be found in her novels (and songs). This is particularly true of Mes Mauvaises Pensées (My Bad Thoughts) which bears the imprint of Hervé Guibert, Annie Ernaux, David Lynch, Eileen Gray, and Violette Leduc amongst others. Questions of identity, desire, memory, writing, childhood and celebrity culture are some of the major themes of her work.

Reviews

[Joanie Desjardins · Rating 2 out of 5]

L’histoire est sophistiquée, trop même. Difficile à suivre avec l’usage quasi exclusif de phrases courtes et de longues énumérations.

[svalleballe · Rating 5 out of 5]

ff bäst