My French Life™ BOOK CLUB - The End of Eddy: NATURALISM in THE END OF EDDY

[Jacqueline]

To what extent is 'The End of Eddy' the worthy successor of French 19th-Century literary movement 'Naturalism' ? (as first formulated by Emile Zola in France and then introduced by Franck Norris in the USA)
Do you have in mind particular examples from book that could illustrate this point of view if you agree with it ?

Definition of Naturalism Naturalism is a literary genre that started as a movement in late nineteenth century in literature, film, theater, and art. It is a type of extreme realism. ... Thus, naturalistic writers write stories based on the idea that environment determines and governs human character.

Indeed the particular graphic description* of the French working or unemployed and poor classes in Northern France also reminds me of this literary school as rendered in The Rougon Macquart series by Emile Zola (Germina, Nana …) it’s all there : violence, hard living conditions, determinism seen through a magnifying glass in a hostile environment.

[Jacqueline]

Tomi Kent Smith I hadn’t really thought that deeply into the actual reading style to compare with Zola, however the points you bring up are definitely some that such be discussed. Pros and cons. It will be interesting to see the end results. My immediate thought regarding style was the distance between the narrator and the actions even though the narrator is relating/explaining his own life, his own family, his own community, etc. The narrator has placed himself outside looking in while remaining inside.
Jacqueline Dubois I agree with you Tomi, the author is like the spectator of his own narrated past. I suppose his decision to change his birth name Eddy Bellegueule into Edouard Louis accounts for this. It's like he was telling us 'this used to be me but I'm not this person anymore', hence the distance you're mentioning. I don't know how one can stand this split in their own life and deal with it on a day-to-day basis.

[Jacqueline]

Carolyne Lee I don't know much about naturalism, and have read little by Zola, but perhaps the equivalent in English literature would be Charles Dickens, whom I have read. While Dickens' works were definitely fiction, many elements were taken from his own early life (father in debtors' prison, etc), and his writing did a lot to illuminate poor social conditions that existed at the time. According to the definition of 'naturalism', 'Eddy' is certainly in this genre, and he very much tries to show how the social environment generates behaviour. Now that I am nearing the end of the book, I am retreating from my view that it's more 'biography' than novel, as it has now gone back to being very novel-like (e.g. during and after the shed/hangar episode--not sure how hangar is translated in the English edition, maybe shed), after a longish patch of reflective non-fiction style prose around the middle section. Something that is bothering me, though, is the unrelenting misery of it all. I know he says at the start that he has no happy memories of his childhood, but it all makes for very hard reading. I keep wanting something even slightly positive to happen, but there is nothing. Surely there were times at school when his teachers recognised how bright he was, that would have given him pleasure? (maybe that happens later and I haven't reached that part yet...?). I'm very glad to be reading this book, however, mainly because of the counterweight it provides to the unrealistic and glamorized attitude many people have towards France, and also because the book shows how impoverished social conditions and class discrimination produce similar results in quite different countries, such as France, Australia and the UK.
Jacqueline Dubois I think Zola's naturalism is different from Dickens's. First of all, if both were 19th century writers, Zola's novels are deeply rooted in a different period of time,the second half, still Victorian times for England but for France, it was the end of a kings' and emperors' post Revolution era and the beginning of the very long 3rd Republic. I would call Balzac's or Dickens's novels realistic more than naturalist. But I am no expert in the matter of course. I know this literary movement inspired by French naturalism existed in the US with such writers as Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, Frank Norris and Jack London. This idea of drawing a comparison with Zola's naturalism came to my mind when Donna spoke of the weather as 'central element' and influence on the characters. As for Eddy/Edouard, there is a real life happy ending (check his wikipedia page)! It accounts for the fact that even though it's more difficult for the children of poor families brought up in a culture-less background, there's hope thanks to school, resilience, work, right encounters( and this is more accurate and possible now than in the 19th century, that's why we're not completely Zola-esque here!) Finally , I totally agree with you when you say that 'impoverished social conditions ... produce similar results' regardless of countries and that the book 'counterweights the unrealistic and glamorized attitude many people have towards France.'