´C´est d´ailleurs cela, l´apprentissage de l´enfance: la perte´.
More than ever, this year I am spending an impressive amount of time reading French novels and it can only get better. The Jaguar´s Dream was a pleasure for the soul, a family story wrapped in the golden threads of the Latin American magic realism. I do have some more books waiting to be reviewed and none of them disappointed.
Les Yeux de Mona - or Mona´s Eyes, translated into more than 30 languages - by Thomas Schlesser is a story of growing up surrounded by the realm of art. Mona, a teenage girl, is suddenly hit by an episode of blindness. Her grandfather, who lost an eye during the incidents surrounding the Chatila massacre in Lebanon, brings her for one year, every week, to visit works of art in different Parisian museums: Louvre, Orsay, Beaubourg. This, instead of taking her to the psychologist, as he promised to the girl´s mother.
During those 52 weeks, they are watching and analysing together each work of art, which covers a generous timeline from the history of art, from Mona Lisa to Christian Boltanski. The works of art, reproduced on the folding cover of the book, are an opportunity to discover and understand the world, and ultimately herself.
The author is a historian of art himself, but the ways in which he uses art in the story is far from lecturing, but as a pretexte of the story. Art, brought out of the books and galleries serves as a guidance and way of finding oneself, better understanding the world. Therefore, the encyclopedic take is just a tool to build bridges between different stages of life.
The book however develops into its own story, which is as interesting as the works of art doctly introduced. Mona´s episode of blindness, around which the story is built leads actually to another layer of story. Although we are left in suspense until the end of the story, assuming that at the end of the 52 weeks, something tragic is about the happen, the twist of the story is nonetheless deep and brings to the forefront deep philosophical questions regarding free choice and death. It is also a warning about how powerless we are when talking with children about death.
Les Yeux de Mona, shortlisted for Grand Prixc RTL-Lire, reinvents art as novel narrative tool and brings it as character in a timeless story of love and childhood loss.
Rating: 5 stars
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