Jacques the Fatalist- Denis Diderot

[Amanda]

Now this was an interesting book. On the surface it tells the story of the titular Jacques and his un-named master telling stories as they march to an unknown destination. However, as Jacques tells his stories (mostly about his licentious personal life) he is frequently interrupted by other people with their stories piping, a disembodied reader interrogating the plot, and stories of characters within his story being explored to the point of several layered nestled meta-stories.

It's frequently funny and intriguing, even if a bit confusing. Stories include tales of Jacques seductions (failed and successful), an even more licentious priest, solider friends who can't stop dueling, and the idea that there is a divine scroll of all events ever being recorded.

I read a good comment about this book that ironically Jacques isn't really a passive fatalist, but rather a determinist. This idea- that things are predetermined based on causation rather than truly random or based on free will, or determined by fate- is one I tend to ascribe to and find interesting so I was engaged with this aspect of the book.

The narrative choices compliment this stance as well; every event is lead up to by the previous histories of every person or natural phenomenon involved in being there in the first place. The nestled stories grant us a long, complicated, and full picture of how that is the case. The undetermined journey itself will be a product of everything that Jacques tells as his story throughout the journey that leads them there. The divine scroll can also be read as the physical history etched into every precipitating event into the next one. The Master is shown to be as dependent on Jacques as vice versa- indicating Jacques and his life as a necessary factor in determining the life course of the master.

I thought this book was charming, structurally and narratively intriguing, and well supported in conveying its philosophy. I gave it 4 stars.