Une illusion passagère

by Dermot Bolger, Marie-Hélène Dumas (Translator)

Martin, haut fonctionnaire irlandais d'une cinquantaine d'années, rattaché à un ministère en bout de course, se retrouve, le temps d'un voyage officiel en Chine, seul dans sa luxueuse chambre d'hôtel. Accablé par une existence terne, entre une épouse avec qui il ne partage plus aucune intimité, et trois filles qui sont déjà absorbées par leur vie d'adultes, il décide de s'offrir un massage durant son séjour.
Le jeune femme chinoise qui vient le masser ne parle pas sa langue et ne partage rien de sa vie : mère célibataire, elle peine à joindre les deux bouts, mais ce qu'elle lui procure est autrement précieux : le plaisir d'être touché, la sensation d'être désiré. Une complicité naît entre eux, que rompt la proposition de la jeune femme de monnayer ses charmes. Martin va-t-il céder à cet appel qui le trouble ? En l'espace d'une nuit, l'écriture dense et acérée de Dermot Bolger, d'une grande sensibilité, condense la vie d'un homme, ses convenances, ses incertitudes et son trouble.
Dans une interrogation existentielle semblable à celle que traverse l'Irlande, Martin aura au moins retrouvé un peu de ce qu'il est.

Genres: Irish Literature

133 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

Dermot Bolger is an Irish novelist, playwright and poet born in Finglas, a suburb of Dublin.

His work is often concerned with the articulation of the experiences of working-class characters who, for various reasons, feel alienated from society. Bolger questions the relevance of traditional nationalist concepts of Irishness, arguing for a more plural and inclusive society.

In the late 1970s Bolger set up Raven Arts Press, which he ran until 1992 when he co-founded New Island Press.

Reviews

[Steve Petherbridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit a certain bias as Dermot was in my year at school, though we did not know each other, but, our wives (his beloved widow, Bernie), trained as nurses together and were good friends even though they would only meet intermittently in later years. His works were often read in our class, though he was a student in another, and courageously setting up Raven Arts Publishing House in his teens, he gave a "first break" to many now prominent and eminent Irish authors and poets. I have attended some of his readings and he is a skilled editor and interviewer.

In this novella, Dermot Bolger mirrors Ireland’s fall from trumped-up Celtic Tiger glory into recessionary, IMF-controlled disgrace with an intimate psychological portrait of Martin, a middling civil servant, caught in a career rut and mid-life crisis, on a keeping-up-appearances St. Patrick’s Day visit to Beijing. Martin's sole purpose is to ensure his Junior Minister seems important and to make his counterparts in the lower levels of the Chinese government feel as though they are being listened to by an influential Western politician.

Life is less than rosy back in Ireland for Martin and his life is somewhat directionless and unfulfilled. While he believes that he has built loving relationship with his three teen-age daughters (and – unlike his neighbors – the satisfaction of actually owning his house in a now recessionary Ireland and never investing, lemming like with his fellow citizens, in a deluxe rental in Bulgaria in the quest for material wealth, a quest basically driven by greed) he is increasingly estranged from his wife, Rachel, who, herself in the middle of a menopause and in trying to find herself after accepting an early retirement package from her own career, has communicated, somewhat dismissively, that she no longer cares for Martin on an emotional, or, on a physical level.

Chilling out in his luxury hotel room, he is alone with his thoughts after being informed by his Junior Minister that his presence on the remainder of the junket is not required. In a form of rebellion, fuelled by boredom and lonliness, that would be of little consequence to some, but, is a big deal for Martin, who still yearns for his wife, he calls a masseuse to his room. She awakens in him what he wants, or, what he needs, and what he will never have.

Even though a novella, some scenes are overdone e.g. it may have been best to leave it to the reader to conclude that “his fall had been as abrupt and humiliating as the fall of Ireland”, the novella is still worth exploring as a metaphor devised by Dermot Bolger, somewhat keening for his country and it's lost, temporarily we hope, people. Typical of this skilled, and often under-rated writer (his shyness may have a lot to do with this), the novella is still rich in detail, a believable portrait of a person and a state of mind we, especially of a certain age and at this time in 2015, can empathise with!

A good and a brief read, a novella, a representation of the recent times, probably from 2008 to 2014 especially, imposed on us Irish citizenry by our failed, and somewhat corrupt, political, banking and entrepreneurial leaders, and from which we, despite our Government, but, through fiscal rectitude imposed by the EU, IMF and Frau Merkel, as well as our own hard work and sacrifices, are slowing emerging.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well-written, but ultimately just a flimsy, hollow metaphor

[Gayle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first book of Dermot Bolger's that I have enjoyed

[Mary Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Ireland at the time of the banking crisis. The government (as in many countries) has contributed to, but is useless at finding solutions, and the future of the country is in the hands of the IMF.
Martin, a senior civil servant is equally aware of the reasons for, but powerless to arrest his disintegrating marriage. Alone in a hotel room in China on a trade mission, he has plenty of time on his hands to think. Even within the fake world of a career diplomat, he constantly tries to maintain his self-worth. As the story unfolds, I think he does.

A powerful and though provoking novella

[Mary Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella was a joy to read. The description of married life, the decline of it in parallel with the decline of the Isih economy was excellent. Loved it.