Posted by Steven
on 1/3/2009, 10:25:01
76.187.98.74
Though In the Labyrinth was similar in many ways to Jealousy, I did not enjoy it nearly so much. Jealousy had emotional involvement and a level of voyeuristic expectancy that made me want to read more despite the repetitions. In the Labyrinth had neither of these, and probably could have said what there was to say in half the space.
The story is simple: in World War II an exhausted French soldier arrives in a seemingly deserted city ahead of the advancing Germans with a package he is to deliver as a comrade's dying request. He doesn't know what's in the package or to whom he is supposed to deliver it. He receives help from a mysterious child and falls in with a handful of characters whose circumstances present a picture of the mood of defeat and recrimination in France in 1940.
The structure is the same as Jealousy: fragmentary scenes and memories in seemingly random order, repeated with small variations and inconsistencies. There is meticulous description of details as one would expect. One of the objects so described is a painting on the wall, and, as we are examining the painting, the narrative becomes a description of the actual events depicted in the painting. The painting comes to life, in other words, and later a scene of "live" action becomes another part of the painting.
The theme of the work, as best I can make it, is its depiction of confusion, futility and disorientation. It is the reader himself who is "in the labyrinth," an endless maze of places, people and events that turns back upon itself.
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