Tous mes amis

by Marie NDiaye

Dans Tous mes amis, un professeur tâche de comprendre pourquoi son ancienne élève a usé d'une telle volonté pour oublier l'enseignement qu'il lui a dispensé avec ardeur, et pour oublier, même, qu'il a été son professeur. La mort de Claude François raconte les retrouvailles de deux amies d'enfance, l'une restée d'une fidélité absolue à la mémoire du chanteur adoré, l'autre au souvenir de la beauté de son amie. Dans Les garçons, un jeune homme sans qualités particulières essaye malgré tout de se vendre à n'importe quelle femme de la ville qui voudra de lui, comme cela s'est déjà fait dans le voisinage. Une journée de Brulard est certainement la plus terrible journée dans la vie d'Eve Brulard, abandonnée sur les rives d'un lac enchanteur et poursuivie par des visions d'elle-même en jeune fille intransigeante. Révélation, ou comment une femme qui entreprend de se débarrasser de son fils au cerveau fêlé comprend à quel point il lui manquera.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, France, French Literature, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, 21st Century

174 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2004

About the author

Marie NDiaye was born in Pithiviers, France, in 1967; spent her childhood with her French mother (her father was Senegalese); and studied linguistics at the Sorbonne. She started writing when she was twelve or thirteen years old and was only eighteen when her first work was published. In 2001 she was awarded the prestigious Prix Femina literary prize for her novel Rosie Carpe, and in 2009, she won the Prix Goncourt for Three Strong Women.

Reviews

[Proustitute (on hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marie NDiaye has a background in linguistics, and does it ever show: while her prose is on the surface rather simple, her narrative technique is truly magnificent. Although remaining in the third-person throughout all of the stories collected in All My Friends, NDiaye is able to tap into the psychological mindsets of the stories' main characters, still remaining detached yet observant, similarly skillful—although by no means in terms of style—in this type of omniscient narration as Woolf was in Mrs. Dalloway.

Most of the stories take place on the outskirts of Paris, and this is fitting as NDiaye is concerned with marginalized characters whose stories we rarely get to hear, whose contempt for Paris and the more bourgeois world of culture and privilege is always seething under the surface of their own personal conflicts. And each character is indeed poised at the point of conflict, some so deluded in their own thoughts and only slowly allowing the truth to reach the level of consciousness that it's truly awe-inspiring to see how NDiaye can situate the reader within a similar kind of unease or unrest. We come to the realizations with the characters, and, for this reason, I think it's imperative that one not read the blurb on the back cover: NDiaye takes her time to parse the information with which she first bombards the reader (and her characters), starting in medias res both in terms of narration and also in terms of psychological tension. The build-up, and what she withholds, are crucial to her pacing and plotting. One example of what I mean here is how a conversation occurs between one main character and a man whose first name is given for several pages; it is only toward the end of the conversation that the omniscient narrator places the qualifying "her husband" before his name, causing the conversation that just ensued to have an intimacy that was removed and in effect displaced.

Each of these stories is devastating in its own way, dealing with subject matter that might be hard for some people to fathom with the open mind that NDiaye begs of her readers. Searing insight is on each page here, too, into how we distance ourselves in our past and present relationships with others; how we distance ourselves from the truth in order to remain as inviolable as we possibly can; and how the ties that bind—familial and those that we choose—can involve making decisions that, to outsiders, might seem to be unethical or immoral but which, in our state of confusion and panic, seem the only logical way out.

NDiaye was the first black woman to win the coveted Prix Goncourt: her talent is that evident and iconoclastic, even when it is quiet, meditative, and concerned with minutiae and ambiguity. I look forward to reading Three Strong Women very, very soon.

Edit: Having now read Three Strong Women, my review of this other NDiaye title is here.

4.5 stars

[jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

marie ndiaye must have one of the most singular voices in modern literature and reading her fiction, even at its most enigmatic or obscure, is always a satisfying thrill. all my friends (tous mes amis) collects five short pieces (four novellas and a short story?) originally published in 2004. ndiaye can set a tableau like no other and it's never long before a portent of some kind wafts along and your hackles rise. sly, seductive, and utterly irresistible.

what did she have to do, she wondered, her head spinning, to turn regret and nostalgia into indifference?

*translated from the french by jordan stump (toussaint, chevillard, simon, mukasonga, volodine, et al.)

[Huy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Một cuốn sách giàu nhạc tính, đậm chất thơ, được viết một cách đẹp đẽ, hấp dẫn, Marie NDiaye đã từng khiến tôi say mê với "Ba người phụ nữ cam đảm" - một lần nữa thể hiện tài năng của bà trong cách kể chuyện quyến rũ, lột tả nội tâm con người với sự sắc sảo bất ngờ.
Năm câu chuyện trong tập sách đều kể về những con người cô đơn, bị ám ảnh bởi những điều khác nhau, đó là tình yêu (như trong All my friends), là sự đói nghèo (The Boy), là quá khứ (The Death of Claude François), là sự nghiệp (Brulard’s Day), tất cả được Marie NDiaye kể với một giọng văn tăm tối, u ám, có phần bí ẩn, dù rất lạ lùng nhưng vẫn khiến tôi có cảm giác gần gũi, lay động.
Đọc cuốn sách này khiến tôi tin tưởng rằng, văn học dù thể hiện ở ngôn ngữ nào (tôi không thể đọc được nguyên gốc tiếng Pháp), nếu được dịch một cách nghiêm túc, thì vẻ đẹp của tác phẩm vẫn tỏa sáng, và mỗi tác giả vẫn có những điều rất riêng, dù là bản dịch nhưng vẫn có những điều chẳng thể lẫn lộn được (như khi tôi đọc "Ba người phụ nữ can đảm" bằng tiếng Việt và "All my friends" bằng tiếng Anh).

[Nathanimal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, first read My Heart Hemmed In , definitely, but this is a terrific afterparty. This book shares much in common with Heart: the dreamily amplified microaggressions, the slow poisonous guilt, the difficult family relations and repulsive dogs. NDiaye’s protagonists are usually infiltrators to the bourgeoisie who have sinned in some undefinable way. Now the Shabbiness is coming for them, it's hunting them down, and it will not stop until it’s left them naked and grimy. To me, this reads like a metaphor for the fragility of our culture, the civility and security that we feel is owed to us but is probably much more tentative than we think. When I’m reading NDiaye I’m filled with a dreamlike paranoia that my life is about to fall apart and there's nothing I can do about it. What I mean to say is it's a very pleasurable read.

[Cait · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was shelving this book, I almost clicked the 'poetry' tag without thinking about it. That's how gorgeous NDiaye's prose is. What a beautiful, tragic little book.

This is also one of the most difficult short story collections I've ever read. Not in a bad way, just in that it required more effort and concentration on my part. There is no gradual introduction to any of the stories; instead the reader is dropped right into the middle of the story - sometimes in the middle of a conversation - with no idea who is speaking to who or the context of their situation. It's kind of like being blindfolded before being led into a room with a party already in full swing. For this reason I wouldn't recommend this as an introduction to the short story form - the ambiguity might be off-putting. For those who already love short stories though, read this book. Especially the stories "The Boys" and "Revelation".

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

NDiaye is remarkable at writing compelling stories in which the POV character is slowly revealed, or realizes themself, that THEY are the asshole in a given situation. It is a strange sleight-of-hand, the piecemeal breaking down of a self-satisfied doofus (best case) or monster (worst case) to an ambiguous, troubling end.

[Darryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this collection of five unrelated short stories, which was originally published as Tous mes amis in 2004 and will be released in English translation by Two Lines Press in May, Marie NDiaye portrays the lives of several ordinary but deeply flawed and emotionally distant individuals who are at crises in their relationships with those closest to them. In the opening story, "All My Friends", a divorced schoolteacher employs one of his former students as his housemaid and becomes infatuated with her, her Arab husband, and another former student who vows to reclaim the woman by any means necessary. "The Death of Claude François" concerns a woman who leaves her privileged existence in Paris to return to her impoverished childhood banlieu, where she confronts an old friend over a man that they both loved intensely. "The Boys" is set in a rural village, in which an abandoned boy seeks to escape his hopeless plight by following in the footsteps of a neighbor's handsome son, who was sold for profit to a mysterious woman by his mother. In "Brulard's Day", a former bit actress returns to the setting of one of her most famous movies, but she is treated with indifference and scorn, as she loses grip with reality. Finally, "Revelation" describes a woman and her "appallingly stupid" son as they prepare to take a bus trip, for which she buys a round trip ticket for herself and a one way pass for him.

The characters in these stories are generally unsympathetic figures, due to their emotional frigidity and, in some cases, mean-spirited behavior toward those closest to them. Each story lacks a definitive denouement, similar to the stories in her 2009 Prix Goncourt winning novel Three Strong Women, which often leaves the reader suspended in mid-air and filled with a sense of foreboding. All My Friends isn't as accomplished a work as her later work, but it effectively features NDiaye's compelling and unique writing style and is definitely a worthwhile read.

[Juniper · Rating 3 out of 5]

probably 3.5-stars, really.

well... what a peculiar and haunting collection of stories. NDiyae is an elegant, lovely writer. there's a lyrical or poetic quality to her writing. her ideas are really... dark and twisty, which makes for quite a juxtaposition to how beautiful her storytelling feels. the stories were troubling. 'the boys', in particular, was quite unnerving. while i read the english translation, i feel jordan stump, serving as translator, has done an excellent job as the moodiness and emotion of each story was definitely and strongly evoked. this isn't a book i would recommend for everyone, but if you love short stories, and dark oddities, definitely check this collection out. i really want to read Three Strong Women now. i think the novel form will work better for me, but i was very taken with NDiaye's writing.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

All My Friends is a book of short stories by French author Marie NDiaye. The second book released by Two Lines Press – a new publisher associated with The Center for the Art of Translation in California, – it is translated by Jordan Stump. I’d heard many good things about NDiaye, and Stump seems to have an affinity for translating unusual narratives, so I was looking forward to reading this book.

Which makes it hard to admit that on first reading I found the collection somewhat disappointing. The five stories are not linked, but they share a common theme – the main character’s inability (or is it unwillingness?) to connect with reality. All five are written in the first person and each narrator drags the reader further into the rabbit hole of psychosis. Because our perception of what is going on is so severely limited and dependent on a series of unreliable narrators, many of these stories are disorienting. NDiaye makes little effort to distinguish between what is reality and what is delusion. What breadcrumbs she leaves are sparse – small, easily overlooked clues as to what is actually going on.

The first story, “All My Friends”, is about a retired teacher stalking a former student. The student is now his housekeeper. His obsession with her dominates his life and defines his remaining relationships. She, in term, loathes him – and seems to take a kind of sadistic pleasure in tormenting him with her disdain. At least that’s what he believes. The situation, as these situations tend to, crumbles. The final scene is chilling… but a bit confusing if you think too hard about what triggered it.

“All My Friends”, along with two of the longer stories in the collection: “The Death of Claude Francois” and “Brulard’s Day”, are particularly challenging. The narratives are fragmented. and at times difficult to follow. These short stories read as exercises, character sketches intended to be absorbed into a larger work (a novel perhaps) at a later date? They lack emotional weight as stand-alone stories. These narrators are so unreliable – their memories and perceptions so distorted – that it is impossible to believe anything they say.

I became increasingly suspicious… not to mention a bit paranoid. I did not trust these people, but they were all I had.

And that’s what makes this collection so brilliant. We are shown the world and events only from the narrator’s perspective. And that perspective is a bit skewed – to say the least.

"Jimmy’s dog ran towards her, leapt up, dampened her cheek with a hearty lick. For the few seconds that the dog’s eyes were level with Brulard’s, she had the brutal feeling that she could see her own anxious soul reflected of submerged deep inside them. The dark mirror of the dog’s pupils seemed to be showing her not her own miniaturized face but something else, unexpected, inexplicable – as if, Brulard told herself at a loss, her appearance had suddenly changed beyond all recognition, or as if the dog’s incomprehensible black eye were reflecting Brulard’s true, secret being, of which she herself had no notion, which she couldn’t describe, even on finding it thus revealed in the gaze of that pitiful creature."

The remaining two stories are less complicated, but equally rewarding. They’re also easier to summarize than ”The Death of Claude Francois” and “Brulard’s Day” (which, though convoluted, are still wonderful) . In “The Boys” we meet René: an awkward, teenaged boy who spends all his free time at a neighboring family’s farm – the Moers. On one visit he witnesses the mother selling her attractive, younger son. Though this event will ultimately tear the family he idolizes apart, René becomes convinced that this is the path down which his own happiness lies. Things, needless to say, do not go as planned.

René, as a character, is fascinating. As you learn more about his life you realize that in his family he is the golden boy. René’s mother gives him the best food at dinner. His brothers and sisters admire him. But his family circumstances are very different from the Moers’. René’s family appears to survive at the edge of starvation. His mother is a prostitute for the migrant laborers in the area and all the children have different fathers. And so his vision of himself waivers between grandiosity and soul crushingly low self-esteem. Remove the strange circumstances this story places him in and René could be any young man-boy with a high opinion of himself that he has done little to justify.

In “Revelation” NDiaye switches from the son to the mother. A woman takes her mentally handicapped son on a bus ride with the intention of abandoning him once they reach their destination. This is a very short story, only six pages long, and focuses entirely on the mother’s emotions. At first she tells us of how she hates her son. How he annoys her and how she mistreats him at home. “He’s unbearable, she sometimes thought. And also: he seems not so much insane as stupid, appallingly stupid.” Yet, we are told -

"She was angry with herself for that. This son was not cruel. His capacity for meanness had waned even as the mother’s aggressive rancor grew. She realized that her despair and her rage were fueled by nothing other than the progressive disappearance of those emotions in the son."

The mother, like all the characters in these stories, is self-absorbed. She is concerned with events only in how they affect her, and as she sits next to her son she does not think about what will happen to him. She has already begun the process of re-shaping the narrative in her head. This son becomes the only son who understood her. She is abandoning him because he is driving her mad, but once he is gone she will love him because of the loss her represents to her.* She will make the most of the situation and will miss him as much as she previously despised him.
All My Friends is a slim little book. After finishing and absorbing (and you definitely need time to absorb) what I’d just read, I couldn’t help but wonder what a longer story by this author – with all its edges softened and gaps filled in - might look like? That’s the tease of All My Friends. A bit like If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler, Marie NDiaye’s stories are just strange enough and interesting enough to spark readers curiosity. And then leave them impatiently waiting for more.

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[Elena Johansen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Much like the other NDiaye book I tried to read, I couldn't connect with this. Especially here, in short story format, so much is elliptical. I read the first story assuming a female narrator, both because the author is a woman and so am I, so with no other context...and then, on page 6, I finally found a pronoun! The narrator was masculine! And that actually made the story creepier and more off-putting, since it was all about him trying to interfere with his maid's (and former student's) marriage, on behalf of a friend who was also a former student. If I understood the plot correctly--and I'm honestly not sure I did--it was incredibly vile, making me uncomfortable. Why would I want to read a story from that perspective? What should I feel but contempt for a man who would blatantly (but ineffectively) set out to destroy someone's marriage, and not even for himself, but for someone else?

That set the tone for my entire experience. I was never quite sure who was meant when a character/narrator was referring to someone else. I'm glad this was short, because I had a truly difficult time matching pronouns to characters. And I never felt anything but discomfort, contempt, or disgust toward any of the characters. I'm not a fan of the "awful people doing awful things" school of literature.

[Noa 101]

deviated from my strict summer reading list (comprised only of books i own and haven't read) for this (the only ndiaye on the shelves at the 53rd street nypl branch) and was not disappointed. came to ndiaye via her and alice diop's brilliant adaptation of her 2021 true crime novel la vengeance m'appartient into probably my favorite movie of the last few years, saint omer. the stories ended up being the perfect intro to her work, especially cus i've been trying to read more short fiction since i started writing it. i learned a lot from this collection. each story is an obscure, faceted little object of study for anyone interested in the form.

[Deborah Bluminberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five short stories, all,beautifully written, about damaged, hurt, delusional people in dire surreal circumstances. Much is left unwritten and unexplained in these stories and they all feel unsettled. These stories have a ‘Twilight Zone’ essence; as a reader I was not always sure of what was happening but I was always intrigued.

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

These stories were a bit too obscure for my liking. I couldn't shake the fog as I was reading.

[Courtney Leblanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shorts stories written with cool funky vibes. Beautiful, lyrical, bizarre, relatable.... realistic. Life is weird and relationships are weirder.

[mims · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ndiaye’s usual themes (claustrophobia, alienation, malevolence, dogs, humiliation, ressentiment) out in full force in these 5 disturbing stories

[T.o · Rating 2 out of 5]

??? only liked the last story… don’t think this book is for me :)

[Allison · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book made no sense

I have no idea what I just read. Not a single story made any sense at all. What was the point?!

[Yvonne K · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not sure I know how I feel about this book really. It wasn’t my kind of read.

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

The five short stories in this excellent collection all deal with ordinary people facing the shortcomings of their lives.

The narrator of the title story is lost and lonely. He tries to connect with his maid (a former student), his estranged wife, an old acquaintance, and the maid’s husband (a former student of his). His attempts fail. He tries to enter a conversation, “But no one hears my wispy voice, and no one pays any mind. I'm nowhere at all anymore.”

In “The Death of Claude François,” an office visit from childhood friend Marlène Vador prompts Doctor Zaka to visit the neighborhood of her childhood. She finds that things are not always the way we remember them.

“The Boys” is the most sinister of the five stories. An impoverished family sells a son into some sort of servitude. A neighbor boy witnesses the transaction and the apparently beneficial results for the family. He decides that he, too, should be sold.

Minor actress Eve Brulard faces fading career hopes, a failed marriage, and a difficult relationship with her daughter in “Brulard’s Day.”

“Revelation” a story of a mother saying goodbye to her son who is about to be institutionalized is the shortest, but most poignant of the five stories.

For the most part, Marie Ndiaye treats her subjects with gentle understanding. We can feel empathy with these troubled individuals trying to deal with life’s disappointments. There are things left unsaid and it is not always easy to fill in the blanks. But that’s life and these stories are intriguing slices of life.

Book reviewed is from my personal collection.

[Jenny Yates · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not a French speaker, so the only way I can approach Marie NDiaye’s book of short stories, All My Friends, is through its English translation by Jordan Stump. And yet, afterwards, I have the feeling that I’ve been immersed in a French sensibility – subtle, nuanced, off-hand, slightly surreal at times, periodically breaking out into passionate expression.

In this collection of five stories, the recurring theme is one’s engagement with the past. Many of the characters are pursued by the people they have been in the past, and by the choices they’ve made. The past doesn’t stay comfortably in the recesses of memory, but finds dramatic, physically compelling ways to disrupt the present. There are no easy resolutions in these stories, and often they end with a sudden escalation of the tension.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wondered while reading this book whether something might have been lost in translation - that isn't to say that the translation is inelegant or imprecise, but I can see how these stories might be more meaningful in French than in English. The stories are bleak and remind me, for some reason, of Sartre or Camus (which is probably the most pretentious thing I've ever said in any of my LibraryThing reviews). There's a very rigid distance between the stories and the reader - one isn't let in too closely. Initially I was going to say that the strongest story was the third one, The Boys, but now what I really remember is the ending of the fifth and shortest piece, Revelation.

These stories are all about people not connecting. While not a happy read nor an easy read, it is an interesting read and different than many of the other short story collections I've read recently.

[Lorraine · Rating 2 out of 5]

When it comes to novels, I like getting dropped into the middle of a story and having to collect clues along the way to get the whole picture. However, with most of the short stories in this collection, I could not pick up enough to clues to really get the whole picture and felt I had to make assumptions or guesses. And sometimes I felt like the object at the centre of the picture was too obtuse for me to grasp. Perhaps that is my reading, perhaps the writing. There were times when I found the sentences so long and full of so many phrases that I lost the thread -- I felt like a high school student trying to make sense of Dickens. Other times I could not determine pronoun antecedents and thus was left with an ambiguous sense of the action. She may be a good writer, but she's not for me.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Add Marie NDiaye to your list of talented contemporary French authors. She has a stylistically unique voice that hints of Kafka and Philip Roth (especially in, The Breast and Portnoy's Complaint). NDiaye stretches our psychological perimeters by probing the boundaries of sanity. Loneliness, hatred, revenge and disillusionment haunt her characters, who deal with their problems in eccentric or disturbing ways. I was thoroughly hypnotized by the quality and depth of Ms. NDiaye’s five short stories. I am eager to read, Three Strong Women, and will follow her work in the future.

“If no one ever sees you, where do you find the courage to tell the world you are there.” The Boys

[Yuliya Yurchuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Я дуже люблю таку коротку прозу. Тут все дуже насичено і настільки несподівано все переплітається в кожній новелі, що іншим знадобилося б писати романи, а для Марі НДіай (не знаю, як правильно протранслітерувати) вистачає кількох сторінок. Це дуже майстерно зроблена література. Я би сама хотіла вміти так придумувати сюжети і так коротко писати про "усе".

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marie NDiaye writes like a dream and her stories are total nightmares. NDiaye left me curious and fascinated with these snapshots of people in mostly horrifying situations.