The incredible author of “Fear and Trembling,” “The Hygiene of the Assassin,” “Mercure,” and many other novels, each more delightful than the last, opens up and shares with us what certain key points in her novels represent.
Those who have read at least three novels by the great Amélie may have noticed that certain characters, from one book to another, share similarities. Character traits, physical aspects, common dreams… Similarly, locations, spaces, elements, feelings may appear quite regularly.
We have thus deduced that these physical or psychological states, these people, these facets, evoke for Amélie, almost automatically, someone or something in particular.
This is what the following represent for A. Nothomb… :
thinness? my 15 years.
cold? hell.
paleness? frankness.
fire? the most beautiful of shows.
the book? a friend met in solitude.
man? a tree.
woman? a vine.
genius? a creature from a lamp.
lying? politeness.
manipulation? an abominable crime.
madness? fragmentation.
war? the Iliad.
escape? my obsession.
obesity? a prison.
death? a door.
suffering? an abjection.
prison? the absence of a window.
air? my best friend.
freedom? the wind.
music? what I love most in the world.
Japan? the country of beauty.
Belgium? a friendly country.
France? the country of literature.
couple? a temptation to domesticate love.
betrayal? a terrible crime.
resentment? a feeling to flee.
jealousy? a mistake.
gentleness? the best style.
truth? courage.
night? a beautiful gift.
black? freedom.
asymptotic yellow? dazzlement.
mirror? the most mysterious object.
magic? generosity.
youth? a risk worth taking.
perversion? an infection.
mask? a confession.
journalist? a blind seeker.
writer? a surgeon.
work? torture.
food? a pleasant danger.
human? a goal far from reached.
