Trysting by Emmanuelle Pagano

 

Trysting

by Emmanuelle Pagano (translated by Jennifer Higgins and Sophie Lewis)

A book review 

What is Love? It is a question which poets and philosophers have long enjoyed grappling with, but whose answer remains as elusive as ever. Even if we were to consider just one type of Love - that between lovers, between partners - its manifestations are incredibly varied. Every couple has its own love story.

Emmanuelle Pagano's Trysting was originally published in French as "Nouons-nous" and is available in an English translation by Jennifer Higgins and Sophie Lewis, issued by independent publishers And Other Stories. Trysting is an exploration of romantic and erotic love presented in a series of poetic vignettes in which different narrators describe aspects of their relationship. Very few of the entries exceed one page, most consist of a short paragraph, some are just one-line aphorisms. The protagonists are ordinary people from all walks of life. Only once are we allowed to guess the identity of the narrator - and that turns out to be a historical figure, explorer Lady Franklin. Frankly, this exception jars - one of the most delightful aspects of Trysting is that the couples who people it could be the readers, or their friends, or the spouses who live down the road.

This book is as hard to define as love itself. Is it a novel? A short story collection? An anthology of prose poetry? Flash fiction? Perhaps it could be considered a "mockumentary" or fictional "vox pop". Yet, despite the variety of the lifestories and feelings evoked (happiness, loss, parting, pleasure, desire, indecision, peace, comfort, pain) there is little attempt to differentiate the narrative style. It is as if the protagonists of the book whispered their secrets to the author and entrusted her to weave them into one poetic garland, rendered in the writer's own unmistakable voice.

This is a special book which, whilst recognising and describing the heartache relationships can cause, bravely celebrates the gloriously ordinary joys of Love.

Paperback, 176 pages

Published November 3rd 2016 by And Other Stories (first published October 3rd 2013)