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Absence by Lucie Paye

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soahfi's review

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

illustrated_librarian's review

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reflective medium-paced

4.5

An anonymous woman writes letters to a long-lost loved one while an unnamed painter obsessively returns to the lone female figure that's appearing in every new landscape he paints. In a drip-feed nonlinear narrative, Lucie Paye weaves a tale of the unconscious in artistic creation, unconditional love, secrets, and absences.

The book is told in alternating chapters titled 'He' and 'She' as the anonymous letter-writer and the painter worry away at their respective projects. Both characters are circling around an absence, a rent in the fabric of their lives that yawns, paradoxically coming to dominate their psyches. One comprehends what they are missing far more than the other, leading to some deeply-felt passages of such realistic yearning as to take my breath away. The other is consumed by an absence they can't quite grasp, a half-glimpsed shadow trying to make itself known.

Paye builds their narratives as if with small touches of paint to a canvas, gradually creating a psychologically intense atmosphere with economical, crisp prose. Her tight focus on a particular moment in these characters' lives left me wanting to know so much more, while understanding that this was the point. This absence, at least, the reader can fill for themselves.

This reminded me of two other translations I've loved: I Who Have Never Known Men for its sparse effectiveness, and Optic Nerve for the contemplative atmosphere and reflections on art. I think fans of either novel will appreciate this softly melancholy narrative and the feeling of yearning it leaves behind, impressed long after the covers are closed.