When journalist write literature, literature is ennobled because they bring to the imagination the counterweight of the experience, helping to reveal realities of the everyday life they only knew better. Dalya Daoud is the founder of Rue98 Lyon where she worked as a journalist for 12 years. Her debut novel Challah la danse, published last year, made sensation for her depiction of France périphérique, that space between big cities and no man´s lands.
This area, situated at the periphery of Lyon, is not seen however as a lost place, of social failure, but as a world in itself, worth to write a book about. With fine sociological and anthropological observations, it opens the gate to a micro-space on the move.
Written as a succession of dated entries, from locations around the areas - including the parking lot - it covers the end of the 1980s. A time when the first generation of France-born immigrants, for instance, were making France their home. The humour and the natural way of being of the characters may remind of Discretion but the characters from Challah la danse do gather from different parts of the world and social status. Their interactions are more genuine and their stories go though beyond an ethnical narrative of any kind. The story of the place is part of the French history in the making from the 1970s onwards.
The journalistic simplicity may be also the curse of this book, as it does not have necessarily a plot. and when the reporting starts, the reality is also cut. There is no autonomous story.
It is a relatively short book but so enjoyable both in terms of characters, interactions but, last but not least, the colourful vocabulary. If you need to update your everyday French slang, this is the right book to start it.
This was just another good French read, and stay tunned for even more recommendations in the coming days and weeks.
Rating: 3.5 stars
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