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Two Writers Deserving Attention

© Robert Powers

French novelists aren't particularly in favor these days on this side of the Atlantic. However, Johns Hopkins University Press has been doing its best to bring fresh attention to the works of Michel Tournier. The publisher has just issued the fourth Tournier novel in the past ten months.

Gemini ($14.95 paperback) relates the story of a man who takes desperate measures to be reunited with his twin brother. The book was originally published in 1975. The controversial Jean Genet called it "an exceptional, incomparable novel." Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, has described Gemini as "most extraordinary" in "using the theme of twinship to explore a near infinity of dualities."

Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature calls Tournier a writer "whose manipulation of mythology and old stories has often been called subversive insofar as it challenges the conventional assumptions of middle-class society."

Tournier, born in Paris in 1924, holds master's degrees in both law and philosophy. He has produced programs for French television. At one time he intended to pursue a career in journalism. Later, he turned to fiction. He has won the Prix Goncourt (unanimously) and the Grand Prix du Roman of the Academic Francaise. His masterpiece, The Ogre ($14.95), was written in 1970. The story follows the life of a submissive schoolboy who evolves into the "ogre" of a Nazi school. The Washington Post called The Ogre "engrossing, poetic, and profoundly eventful."

Also available in handsome paperback editions are Tournier's take on the traditional story of the Magi, The Four Wise Men, written in 1980 and labeled a masterpiece, and Friday, Tournier's first novel, published in 1967. It revises the story of Robinson Crusoe.

While Tournier's novels aren't "page turners" in the traditional sense of that label, they eventually weave a mesmerizing pattern as they look at old tales with a fresh inspection of messages and meanings. Tournier writes fearlessly and his conclusions are unexpected. Navigating through his novels is well worth the effort.

HOWELLS DESERVEDLY GETS NEW LOOK

William Dean Howells, born in 1837 in the river town of Martin's Ferry, Ohio, was in the 19th century the preeminent American writer and critic. His novels and short stories were done in a realist style, often describing uneventful middle-class life.

Howells developed a friendship with Samuel Clemens, who achieved immortality in letters as Mark Twain. At one time, they both were at the top of any list of America's beloved authors. While Mark Twain continues to hold fast to his reputation, with many deeming The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as the single greatest American novel, Howells has faded to the point that most readers not only never read a word he published but never heard his name.