Volume 13, Number 2 · July 31, 1969
Hanging by a Thread
By Mary McCarthy
Between Life and Death
by Nathalie Sarraute
Braziller, 183 pp., $5.00
If you can imagine an auditory pantomime, you will be in the peculiar world of Nathalie Sarraute. A pantomime in reverse, where instead of tiptoeing action and gesture, you have vocables, so to speak, with their fingers to their mouths. In pantomime, the spectator 'understands' a dialogue or soliloquy from the signs made by the performer ('He is afraid,' 'He is arguing,' 'His feelings are hurt'); in the mime of Nathalie Sarraute, an invisible action or plot—that is, a relation—is understood from snatches of overheard speech, the word in some way reverting to its primitive function of sign or indicator. And just as an 'Ouch!' or a 'Pow!' in a silent movie has a greater sonority than any 'Ouch!' or a 'Pow!' recorded on the sound track of a talkie, so the action in Nathalie Sarraute emerges from the murk that conceals it with a degree of visibility that is almost immodest.
Review, 6020 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |