By Dumitru Tsepeneag,
Translated from the French by Jane Kuntz
Dalkey Archive Press, 2008
Reviewed by Stefanie Sobelle
Dalkey Archive Press, 2008
Reviewed by Stefanie Sobelle
Communication, Tsepeneag suggests, is a
collaborative process. "I couldn't write a novel unless I had
domestic help," quips the narrator, "I've always dreamt of
a writing workshop modeled on that of the painter's atelier of olden
times: with helpers and apprentices." The narrator makes good on
this dream in his composition, recruiting three friends to contribute
recollections that he can cobble into his text as a way of pushing
past his own lack of inspiration. But these friends (who may or may
not be imaginary) are hardly docile helpers; instead, they each have
their own opinion of and agenda for the project, against which the
narrator must constantly reassert his own intentions. In this vein,
but outside of the narrative itself, another member of this atelier
is likewise created in the English version of the novel—the
translator, whose role in the present edition is masterfully handled
by Jane Kuntz. Kuntz has worked with Dalkey on a variety of titles,
including novels by Olivier Rolin and Lydie Salvayre. Preserving the
pace and nuance of Pigeon Post—chock-full of word play and
literary allusions—can have been no simple task.
The Observer Translation Project
thanks Words Without Borders for allowing us to reprint a
section from this review which appears in the April 2009 edition of Words Without Borders
