A Brief Stay With the Living

by Marie Darrieussecq

From the 'stunningly talented' author of Pig Tales and Breathing Underwater comes a new novel about a family haunted by their past. An exploration of loss and guilt, A Brief Stay with the Living is the story of a mother and her three grow-up daughters. Jeanne, the eldest, has moved to Argentina with her husband; Anne lives alone in Paris, but is in the throes of an unhappy affair with a married man; and Nore, the youngest, is in her first year at university but still living at home. Although not close, all four women are drawn together by an incident from their past - a secret that the story only gradually reveals.

Genres: Fiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Marie Darrieussecq was born on January 3, 1969. She was raised in a small village in the Basque Country.

While finishing her PhD in French Literature, she wrote her first novel, Truismes (Pig Tales) which was published in September 1996 by Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens (POL), who have published all her subsequent novels as well. After the success of Truismes, Darrieussecq decided to quit her teaching position at the University of Lille to concentrate on writing her novels. Her first husband was a mathematician, her second is an astrophysicist. She gave birth to a son in 2001 and to a daughter in 2004.

Reviews

[Steven Godin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the four Darrieussecq novels I've now read this was certainly the most difficult to penetrate. The whole book is told in a really dense and lyrical stream of consciousness style that swings back and forth between four minds - a mother and her three daughters - and the tragic event from their past that slowly reveals itself. Now, this work is likely to frustrate the hell out of anyone who happens to pick it up expecting some family drama as there isn't a plot to speak of or any real characterisation and it only every now and then starts to feel like something resembling a novel in the traditional sense before whirling off in all sorts of other directions. I even thought about throwing in the towel early on, as to find my way into it was like trying to ride a bicycle with square wheels. But the more I stuck with it the more I wanted to read, for the simple reason of the dazzling passages of writing where Darrieussecq is heavy with word-play - and it happens a lot. It's all probably too experimental, too disorientating, too excessive, and too ambitious for it's own good, but I at least praise her boldness for trying something different; being the total opposite of just playing it safe, when it comes to themes such as coping with loss and guilt. When I think of all the film makers from the last 20 years or so, then who really is out there doing things completely different from all the rest? I could probably tally them up on just one hand. Change that from directors to novelists then Darrieussecq is definitely counted on one of those fingers. I was somehow deeply moved, stunned, disturbed, and repelled, all at the same time. Despite me thinking this one isn't her best, I do feel she is a writer with talent in abundance - talent that is much better off away from the mainstream.

[Lionel Berthoux · Rating 1 out of 5]

Comme on dit sur mon coin de la planète: Chus pas capab'
J'ai acheté ce livre (pas neuf, heureusement!) sur la base du beau titre et de la réputation de l'autrice, propulsée dans les hautes sphères de la littérature française grâce à un autre roman au beau titre, "Truismes", dans les années 90. Je n'avais rien lu d'elle auparavant, mais je serais prêt à essayer Truismes, car elle a des qualités indéniables pour ce qui est de la construction des phrases, du choix du vocabulaire, et de l'originalité du sujet. Mais le procédé utilisé ici, celui de nous livrer l'enchaînement des pensées des personnages, sans arrangement ni logique, ce que les anglophones appellent "stream of consciousness", ça ne fonctionne tout simplement pas. Et que dire des choix stylistiques ridicules tels que l'absence de points à la fin des paragraphes ou l'absence de majuscules. Tant d'autres auteurs ont déjà essayé de se montrer originaux via de tels trucs faciles... et ça ne marche pas en général. Ça fait juste paraître l'auteur prétentieux, et je ne pense même pas que Darrieussecq soit une personne prétentieuse dans la vraie vie. Je dis seulement qu'avec ce roman, elle a travaillé fort pour que l'on pense qu'elle l'est.

[Bernard Convert · Rating 5 out of 5]

C'est le premier livre de Marie Darrieussecq que je lis. Dès les premières lignes, un rencart raté sur le parvis de la BnF, ça m'a beaucoup plu et je l'ai dévoré en quelques heures. Il s'agit des monologues intérieurs de quatre femmes, trois soeurs et leur mère (plus à un moment son ex-mari, un Irlandais, qui monologue en anglais), meurtries par un événement qu'on découvre petit à petit. Des lambeaux de pensées, des fantasmes, des rêves, des phrases toutes faites, des paroles de chansons, la tête à Toto, tout ça s'enchaîne, ou non... On décroche peut-être parfois. Moi, ce sont les pensées d'Anne, celle qui vit à Paris, que j'ai eu le plus de mal à suivre. Elle est complètement paranoïaque et s'imagine avoir été recrutée par Eux... Au sein de ces monologues intérieurs, il y a curieusement, beaucoup de romanesque. Passionnant.

[Isabelle Sim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finished this book out of sheer hatred and a morbid curiosity to see if ANYTHING good could emerge by the end of it. I am ok with the occasional tasteful stream of consciousness style of writing but I am so extremely and genuinely annoyed when every single line is a nonsensical and random thought, and I just do not know what I was supposed to have gotten out of this book. The super casual mention of gang rape is also quite a nono for me. 2 stars because if you write so many sentences, I will admit that I am bound to like a couple of them. Overall, this confirmed my dislike of The French Stereotype. I will recommend this to people who annoy me (snooty pretentious sorts).

[Pierre Prisset · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difficile d’y entrer mais si on prend le rythme c’est magnifique . On voyage dans la tête des personnages dont une (Anne ) un peu folle . on découvre les décors avec une précision Proustienne !
Des phrase sans construction et sans point qui dure…surtout quand c’est Anne

[Amy Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Phew. This was a difficult, claustrophobic, sometimes harrowing read. It consists of the thoughts--transcribed in the fleeting, circuitous, confusing structures of real-time webs of thought-- of one mother and her three grown daughters, all on a single day. The writing is amazing, stunning, but almost suffocatingly so. The use of the Eggleston photo on the cover is gorgeous. Look at that Virginia Woolf lookalike! I will read more Darrieussecq, for sure. Crazy as it sounds, I sort of want to read this one again. It's a very confusing read but now that I know the things that are very, very slowly revealed, I think it would be fascinating to re-read.

[Alan Pottinger · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the very few books I've given up on ... I totally hated it. Just couldn't get into to it's 'stream of thought' format. It felt terribly self important and high brow twaddle.