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Romain Gary: Les métamorphoses de l'identité
Qui était Romain Gary ? Comment cerner la vérité d'un homme qui s'ingénia, mêlant constamment réalité et imagination, biographie et fiction, à construire sa propre légende ? Recenser les mensonges du roman, répondre à la fabulation par l'archive, démentir l'invention par le document n'ont que peu d'intérêt pour ceux qui aiment Gary. Gary changea de nom, de pays, de nationalité, de langue, de femme... La question de l'identité est au coeur de sa création ; elle sert ici de fil rouge à la réflexion sur l'oeuvre.
290 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 2008
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July 31, 2026
I read this for my research and I have so many things to say...
First of all, I really appreciate Amsellem's use of complicated concepts in ways that are understandable to those unfamiliar with them. It makes the reading process a whole lot more accessible because there is almost never the need to pause to read up on something. I also really like his intertextual comparisons and his engagement with Freud and Lacan on a profound level. There was a lot of rich material here and I enjoy his writing style – especially the little moments where he traces an idea at the end of his paragraphs and lets it trail off for the reader to come to their own conclusions. That's not something you see a lot in academia these days.
I knew this was going to be a psychoanalytical reading going in (which is not 100% my thing, so this was never going to be a 5-star read) and am familiar with the conventions in psychoanalytical literary theory, so I absolutely knew what to expect. On that note, I appreciate Amsellem's clear stance on the limits of psychoanalysis at the beginning. Nevertheless, I do think that his book occasionally takes it a step too far. For example, there is no need, in my opinion, to bring Freud's thoughts on the origins of schizophrenia into this critique, which have been widely refuted by science (especially when the critique occasionally makes claims about the writer himself)! I do also personally believe that an individual's suicide should not be a significant part of academic analysis – particularly speculating about reasons for said suicide. It's a shame that the epilogue of this volume focused so heavily on why Gary ultimately took his own life. I would have found it far more interesting to read a (traditionally French) synthesis of the book's three parts and how they are interconnected. There are also a couple of statements, particularly about trans people, which, while they do not seem mean spirited, are slightly outdated.
Overall, this book is well-written and well-researched but the referencing could be better. There were definitely some source mentions without footnotes and I am generally not a fan of the continuous op cit. though I am aware of course that this is more prevalent in French academia. I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in Romain Gary and psychoanalysis, though it would be best to be familiar with at least a few of Gary's works before reading to get the most out of this book. I will definitely be referencing this in my own research!
First of all, I really appreciate Amsellem's use of complicated concepts in ways that are understandable to those unfamiliar with them. It makes the reading process a whole lot more accessible because there is almost never the need to pause to read up on something. I also really like his intertextual comparisons and his engagement with Freud and Lacan on a profound level. There was a lot of rich material here and I enjoy his writing style – especially the little moments where he traces an idea at the end of his paragraphs and lets it trail off for the reader to come to their own conclusions. That's not something you see a lot in academia these days.
I knew this was going to be a psychoanalytical reading going in (which is not 100% my thing, so this was never going to be a 5-star read) and am familiar with the conventions in psychoanalytical literary theory, so I absolutely knew what to expect. On that note, I appreciate Amsellem's clear stance on the limits of psychoanalysis at the beginning. Nevertheless, I do think that his book occasionally takes it a step too far. For example, there is no need, in my opinion, to bring Freud's thoughts on the origins of schizophrenia into this critique, which have been widely refuted by science (especially when the critique occasionally makes claims about the writer himself)! I do also personally believe that an individual's suicide should not be a significant part of academic analysis – particularly speculating about reasons for said suicide. It's a shame that the epilogue of this volume focused so heavily on why Gary ultimately took his own life. I would have found it far more interesting to read a (traditionally French) synthesis of the book's three parts and how they are interconnected. There are also a couple of statements, particularly about trans people, which, while they do not seem mean spirited, are slightly outdated.
Overall, this book is well-written and well-researched but the referencing could be better. There were definitely some source mentions without footnotes and I am generally not a fan of the continuous op cit. though I am aware of course that this is more prevalent in French academia. I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in Romain Gary and psychoanalysis, though it would be best to be familiar with at least a few of Gary's works before reading to get the most out of this book. I will definitely be referencing this in my own research!
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