Power of Flies

by Lydie Salvayre

The Power of Flies begins in a courtroom, where a man is undergoing an interrogation. He has committed a crime, and he must now explain himself. But instead of letting the judge, lawyer, and psychiatrist question him, he asks himself all the questions--and answers them. While ranting on to the court about various topics--his family, the museum where he works as a tour guide, and even the French philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal--the narrator...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1564784207
• ISBN13: 9781564784209
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Length: 186 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 6.9"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Swamped by the Mind of a Madman

The narrator of this book is a museum guide on trial for murder. We learn about him via his one way conversations (we only hear his side of these conversations) with his doctor, the judge, the district attorney and others. He is obsessed with his mother and Blaise Pascal. If you delve into this story you'll by swept up and swamped with the rambling of a madman. This is a fascinating story, originally published in France a dozen years ago and finally making it into English via the excellent translation of Jane Kuntz. I did delve into the book and at first it was not easy going. I found myself rereading the first three or four chapters several times, then all of a sudden the ramblings of this murderer pulled me in and I couldn't get away. This is a short book and not easy fare. It's certainly different and it is literature. I'm glad I didn't write anything about this novel when I first read it over a month ago, because my feelings toward it have changed. Though I had been captivated by the story, I don't think I liked it very much back then. However, I've loaned it to a couple friends, one who loved it and one who hated it and we've had several conversations about it. That doesn't happen very often with a book, when it does, is there any doubt that it deserves five stars.

Original

A first person confessional, an imperfect narrator, and little dialogue make for an out of the ordinary point of view. Personally I am partial to my main character's being flawed. I enjoy the distorted spirit. Jacques, accused of murder, is discovered piecework, via his narration of his trial and thoughts regarding the peoples in his life. Soured by immigrant parents, a discordant marriage and most important, it is essential to understand his life as a tour guide to gather the keys that unlock the murder. (Not all is at it seems) Not enough value can be placed on the intelligence of this work. Although our narrator's obsession with Pascal was beyond my scope it was nonetheless enlightening and essentially dimensional to the depth of both narrator and novel. At times bitter, yet still with strokes of rough humanity, Jacques' story is compelling if feverish and dark, because Salvatre manages touches of just enough light to coerce us to eagerly read on.

Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness

Blaise Pascal, Pensées, no. 412 Lydie Salvayre was born in France in 1948, the child of Republican refugees from the Spanish Civil War. Salvayre went to medical school and became, and continues to work as, a psychiatrist. The protagonist of Salvayre's novel, "The Power of Flies" is the child of Republican refuges from the Spanish Civil War. One must assume that the similarities end there because the unnamed protagonist is on trial for murder. The only voice heard in "The Power of Flies" is that of the defendant. We hear him speaking to the judge, his lawyer, a prison guard and a psychiatrist. We only hear his responses to questions or comments but that is more than enough to reveal a life that is mired in quiet despair and alienation. As the story unfolds we hear snippets about the defendant's life. We hear about a timid mother and a terrifying and abusive father. We learn that the defendant was a museum guide at the abbey Port-Royal des Champs and that he has developed a fixation on the writings of Blaise Pascal who is one of the center pieces of the museum. Pascal becomes the focal point of the defendant's life and the obsession around which the defendant's musings always seem to focus on. "The Power of Flies" is a dark, somber look a one man's life. It is beautifully written in the sense that the defendant speaks seemingly without emotion and without any sense that his upbringing and behavior may be violently off-kilter. The defendant is so alienated from his wife and society that he has no idea of the power of his words. In one passage, speaking to the Judge he says "don't go and conclude that I'm a [gay], Your Honor. No, rest assured, I'm that way only when I dream." Salvayre peppers the story with these revelations that the defendant casually tosses out into the ether. His is a life of isolation and despair so total that it seems as if the defendant simply has submerged that despair and saves any and all his emotions for the writings of Pascal, and those bits of Pascal that act as an emotional counterpoint to his emotion-free narrative. The book is not morbid however as strange as that may seem. Salvayre writes with wit and humor and there were plenty of occasions where the defendant just said things that were downright funny. The book's ending was powerful and very fitting under the circumstances. Salvayre's writing reminded me very much of Georges Simenon's wonderful `romans durs' (`hard stories'). See Dirty Snow (New York Review Books Classics); The Man Who Watched Trains Go By (New York Review Books Classics); or The Engagement (New York Review Books Classics). In those stories the absence of emotion in Simenon's storytelling accentuated the downward spirals of his protagonists. Similarly, Salvayre's book also reminded me of another French writer, Michel Houellebecq. The Elementary Particles and Whatever Houellebecq and Salvayre both take a mordant look at the social isolation of their protagonists in a France tha

186 page soliloquy!!!

Ms Salvayre is a psychiatrist who, in her own words, works in a suburban medical center where she "sees teenagers who don't write poetry." Her writing has won France's Prix Novembre and Laval University's Prix Hermes. She is a brilliant woman perfectly suited to write a powerful depiction of mental illness from the patient's perspective, as in "The Power of Flies." This is a long soliloquy from a museum guard recently incarcerated for a murder. No quotation marks anywhere, and the only pauses are when he is asked a question (which the reader hears nothing of, save for the reply). I can understand why some readers may be put off by such prose, as this French novel seems experimental in nature, not conforming to set rules and expectations of what a "novel" should constitute. The story is tragic, yet darkly humorous. The protagonist is repellant, yet strangely sympathetic. The novel is broken up into chapters, but seems to have neither begining nor end; the unreliable narrator misleads the reader; and there doesn't seem to be a "plot" -- hence, this book is a mass of contradictions. Yet it all works. The anti-hero protagonist is a self-taught expert on Blaise Pascal, and refers to his writings endlessly: yet seems strangely ignorant of the works of other philosophers. He tailors his tour guide prattle according to what he feels are the "needs" of that particular group (dependant solely upon his pathologically biased preconceptions, as per: nationality, social class, gender, age, etc). The results are often valid, but frequently result in complaints. He presents as pretentious, naive, and even grandiose. This eventually causes his employer great embarassment. His mistreatment of his wife is referred to throughout. At first we are horrified by his attempts to "better" her. Then, we learn that he is distraught that he may be turning into his beastly father, and has decided that his wife will never change her ways. And then we come to realize that perhaps she is not the saintly martyr that we thought, but a peckish shrewlike woman constantly pushing him to his breaking point due to neuroses of her own. This book is quite dark, yet amusing, and even touching in a way. Certainly not for the unappreciative bourgeoisie masses, what with their State U degrees and 6th grade reading level. Recommended for folks who enjoy good literature but are looking for something a bit *different*.

An Obsession with Blaise Pascal

This interesting little book was a quick read. The author uses so much of what Blaise Pascal has written that even the title is from a beginning of one of his Pensees. The entire book is written as a soliloquy of a museum tour guide who is awaiting his trial for murder. We learn about his life and what brought him to his current circumstances by listening to him narrate his manias to a cast of listeners besides us, the reader. He shares his story with the judge, a prison guard, his lawyer and a psychiatrist. His obsession with the French philosopher Blaise Pascal is only equal to that of his obsession with his parents. The glimpse of a life of desperation is well done in this book. You will continue to read the book as the museums guide soliloquy leads us more in depth into his life and motives. You must read on if you wish too learn who the victim of his alleged crime is. This book has actually made me decide to pull my copy of Blaise Pascal's Pensee off the shelf and re-read it. I also recommend that you read the book before discussing it with anyone or reading a review that would give away the end. I found that the entire story of the books main characters life is summed up in the Pensee that it is titled after. If you like post-modern work or enjoy reading philosophy you may like this book.