The Children's Room

by Louis-René des Forêts, Jean Stewart (Translator)

This volume contains a novella and three short stories by the much admired French prose stylist and novelist, Louis-René des Forêts, who has been compared to Proust, although in feeling he is much closer to his contemporaries of the 'nouveau roman'.

In 'The Bavard', the narrator relates the incidents of his life, but it is his personality that he conveys, from which the reader - pulled on by the constant stream of words - can discern the reasons for his obsessions as he gradually relapses into silence.

Three stories follow from his prize-winning collection 'The Children's Room' (Prix des Critiques). In the title story, we get great insight into the world of childhood, observed by an adult. Childhood also emerges in one of the other stories, but it is our personality quirks, our egos, that the author examines and projects in his fiction, and in a prose that is a joy to read.

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

Reviews

[Brian James · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection, containing one novella The Bavard and three short stories, while exceptionally well written, tended to be a little dull for my taste. Language is at the center of each story, with plots revolving around the inexactitude of speech, the hypnotic power of the voice, the force of silence, and the confusing oracle of our inner voice that is forever tripping us up. Like other French writers working in the nouveau roman style, the narrators of the stories are not to be trusted. They are often confused themselves as to what is transpiring, constantly speculating on motives to the point of presenting falsehoods. However, unlike the master of the nouveau roman Alain Robbe-Grillet, Louis-René des Foréts forgets to add intrigue to the stories and instead focuses entirely too much on the riddles of comprehension. The prose is flawless and flows wonderfully, but without the weight of a skeleton to hold them down, they float away as easily as they come.

[Alyosha · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent sampling, in translation, providing a glance into the uncanny and deceptively intriguing writings of des Forêts - a work which has received far too little attention, especially in the English speaking world.

It should be noted that this volume is deceptive in itself - not being, per se, a translation of des Forêts' collection of stories published by Gallimard in 1960, under the title La Chambre des infants. While it does contain translations of three of these stories ("La chambre des infants," "Les grands moments d'un chanteur," and "Une mémoir démentielle" - the last whose title is strangely translated here as "Disordered Silence," rather than something like "A Demented Memory/Memoire"), it does not carry translations of the two other stories that make up the French volume ("Un malade en forêt" and "Dans un miroir"), and instead provides a translation of a separate work, des Forêts' most popular, Le Bavard, published as its own volume by Gallimard in 1946.

Nonetheless, this is a wonderful collection of texts by an amazing writer, one devoted to writing and the unquieting demands that it bears.