Posted by joffre on 22/2/2009, 21:51:31, in reply to "Re: Alain Robbe-Grillet, Jealousy - This post contains SPOLIERS"
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Well, I've reread this book and read it with as much attention as possible. I made several pages of notes. I don't think it's possible to establish a timeline. The narrative contradicts itself. In one place it seems clear that A and Franck have both finished reading the Africa novel before going to town. In another, they seem to have already been to town, and A is only a fourth of the way through the novel. In one place, the centipede is killed the day after they started planning the trip. In another it seems to happen on the same evening. A and Franck make two trips: the one to town and one so she can visit Christiane. Sometimes it seems that when they come back from town, both get out of the car, and when they come back from visiting Christiane, only A gets out. But in one of the places where only A has gotten out and she is leaning through the window, the narrator thinks she is probably gathering her purchases. It seems that the narrator cleans away the mark of the centipede while Franck and A are in town, and then it seems that the mark is still there after they've come back.
I don't think any violence occurs within the book. A seems to be in her room when the native is looking down into the stream. At one point, she seems to be watching him. I suppose it could be possible that Franck's body is there. There is an occasion when Franck is expected for lunch or dinner but doesn't show up. This issue is somewhat clouded by the men working on the bridge. Is the man peering into the water one of them? He seems to be alone. At one point, Franck seems to be driving away at the time the men are working.
I don't think there's much of a story to this novel. I think it's a portrayal of jealousy, of that state of mind, an illogical state of mind at least in this case. The narrator's mind is sometimes very disordered. I wonder if he is not drunk on the evening on which Franck and A are away. Things seem to be swirling in his vision.
The narrative contains a few things which seem objectives correlative to the novel itself: the knot in A's hair, the flight of the beetle, the song of the second driver.
Why, by the way, is he called the second driver? Who is the first driver? There are a lot of such questions with this book. Why do A and Franck switch chairs at one point? Why are we told about a hole where a nail or screw once was. Why do the lights go out on the narrator? I guess there are no answers to any of these.
I don't mean to say that I dislike it, but I think I can put this book away for a long time now.
