Hello
Gentle Reader
“The
Telegraph,” recently published an article by John de St Jorre, in where he
summarizes and discusses his memoir (“Darling Baby Mine: A Sons Extraordinary
Search for his Mother,”) and his search for his mother who had gone missing
while he was still a small child, at the tender age of four, during World War
II. Her disappearance and absence was only met with silence, as the matter was
never discussed by his father; and John and his brother (Maurice) concocted and
concluded that their mother had died during the London bombings, therefore
quenching any further inquiries into her whereabouts by curious school mates
and other children. John de St Jorre’s early life was not met with great warmth
or reception. His father was often away on business, leaving John and Maurice
in the care of elderly spinsters, before being sent to a Catholic boarding
school, where John confesses that he and his brother suffered hunger, physical
punishments, and of course intense loneliness. It was only later, did their
father remarry to another woman, who would become a godsend to both the boys
and their father. Their new mother (Edith) took them out of boarding school,
and placed them in good solid state run schools. She went beyond this however;
she created a home for the two brothers as well as their father, one that was
stable and loving. Her only flaw de St Jorre admits: she also remained silent
on the matter of the boy’s biological mother’s absence and whereabouts. Life
would go on its now newly set itinerary. Though as John de St Jorre puts it, he
did not forget about his mother, or neglect the only memory he still had –
clinging to it closely; but also confesses that he did nothing to find her, as
surviving the War and then the displacement and impoverished state of the
country after the War, was all he could handle and bear to get through at the
time. But forget? He did not. John and his brother would go on and do quite
well in their academics, and achieve success in their lives. Maurice for
instance, would become a mining engineer, and move to Canada; while John would
serve in the military for two years (mostly stationed in Malaysia), and would
later get a degree from Oxford. In his last year in Oxford, John de St Jorre
was recruited into MI6, by his medieval history teacher, who was a
‘talent-spotter.’ Yet, his mother’s absence quickly became more and more
pressing, with greater conflicted feelings of guilt. His stint with the secret
service was short lived – though in order to be accepted into organization some
information was required, and his father needed to release some information
about his biological, and from there he got a name. Enter the nineteen-sixties,
with its swinging revolution, and his progressive outlook on life, and soon
John de St Jorre would revolt with it – the old Victorian eras stringent code
of conduct and polite behavior was soon cast aside; and the once taboo subject
of his mother would be reopened. Yet the search for his mother was not easy. It
was a ten year pursuit – which was as much a painful archaeological dig as it
was a relieving exorcism. Needless to say John de St Jorre would find his
mother.
John
de St Jorre’s story mirrors the themes of Patrick Modiano’s novels; even his
life could is similar to that of Patrick Modiano, with adjustments. Much like de St Jorre’s father, Modiano’s
father was often absent because of business. The difference: de St Jorre’s
father was a marine engineer, while Patrick Modiano’s father was noted for his
black market dealings with the Carlingue (the French Gestapo). Modiano is noted
for having a strained relationship with his mother (in the case of John de St
Jorre, his mother was absent due to mental illness) who was often absent from
his life because she was touring with theatre groups. Modiano’s childhood along
with his younger brother Rudy, was often spent in boarding schools. Rudy would
later die at the age of nine. Rudy’s death would become a traumatic experience
in Patrick Modiano’s life. Unlike John de St Jorre’s memoir, where he finds his
mother; or where he finds solace in his new found stepmother who created a warm
welcoming and stable home for him, his brother, and his father; Modiano’s world
was continuously surrounded by ambiguities and a certain self-absorption of his
two parents, in which he (and his late brother) were continuously cast a side.
The absence and indifference by his parents and the ambiguities of the Nazi
occupation of France, and his father’s dealings in it would later, become
hallmarks of Modiano’s fiction, and would later seal his Nobel Laureate status.
Memories
for both Patrick Modiano and John de St Jorre, are both powerful driving
forces. However, on the contrary they are both ghosts that haunt them. For John
de St Jorre, finding the whereabouts of his mother would lead him to finally
exorcise his past of the oppressive silence, as well as the fleeting ghosts
which anchored the absent figure into his personal reality. Concluding with evidence
and attempting to start a relationship would finally wash away the doubts, the
questions and the silence. For Patrick Modiano his entire bibliography is his
cartographic exploration of the underbelly of memory, amnesia, absence, as well
as silence; but also probes the depths of identity in its relation with memory,
childhood traumas, absence of people and parents, and the grander indifference
of history in itself. In the case of Patrick Modiano, the personal predictions
and despair of his childhood and youth would later be the personal way to view
how history is overlooked and forgotten by the populace who refuses to
acknowledge its own past. In this case: France’s history and its ‘cooperation,’
during the Occupation by the Nazis.
“Little
Jewel,” is a hallmark of Modiano’s bibliography; as it follows the similar
pattern of all of his previous and succeeding novels. “Little Jewel,” is a
hallmark of Modiano’s bibliography; as it follows the similar pattern of most
to all of his novels. The disconnected sense of the individual between the past
and the present, the sparse yet lyrical prose, and the underlying dread, doom
and menace that encompasses the book. Where “Little Jewel,” deviates or
dissents from other Modiano novels, is the narrator in this novel is a woman by
the name of: Therese. Therese is a young adult (giving her age at nineteen)
whose is adrift in Paris. She lives in a one room apartment in a former hotel,
and supports herself by working temporary jobs. One evening on the metro
though, Therese encounters a troublesome reminder of her complicated and
emotionally complex past. On the metro she spots a woman in a yellow coat, who
she swears could be here mother. There is just one problem: her mother
(supposedly) died years earlier in Morocco. Therese is compelled to soon follow
this ghostly mirage of her past through the streets of Paris back to her
depilated apartment block, but soon leaves, as she cannot compose herself to
confront the woman. This surprising encounter is less then serendipitous for Therese,
as memories from her childhood come flooding back. It is revealed (or
discerned) that her childhood was lonely, as Therese was often left to her own
devices; or completely left behind in the rafters of her mother’s life, in the
shadows of abandonment. Her mother came to Paris as a young woman with dreams
to become a prima ballerina; but this dream was quickly shattered by an
unfortunate accident that crippled her ankle. Presumption tells us that Therese
was a unplanned child, and a mere surprise to her mother, and would also
complicate her mother’s starlight dreams. However it were to seem dreams and
ambitions are like grudges, they continuously burn despite the realities of the
situation, which beg for forgiveness of acceptance.
Therese
in her childhood was treated more as a fashion accessory or a beloved pet for
show, then a child. The lovely little pet name ‘Little Jewel,’ was less out of
pure motherly thought or maternal love; but more cold and superficial with
having layers of conceited embellishment, in which she forces upon Therese to
be referred to as for a small television appearance, in which her mother forces
her to participate in. Again the hopes for starlight dreams remains well and a
live for her mother; but at the cost of Therese’s well being and emotional
requirements.
This
period of Therese’s life is riddled with anonymous individuals, as well as
names being changed frequently by her mother. It is noted Therese’s only
companionship in her childhood was a ‘uncle,’ who would come pick her up and
visit her, as well as her beloved dog, who would stay with her during the
nights; and who would be disposed of by her mother, who shoed it away and
abandoned it to the greater city. Beyond this, Therese was often left to her
own devices, and rarely made any emotional attachments. The final nail in her
childhood came however, when her mother would leave for Morocco and abandon
Therese to some French village to be looked after by some friends; and there in
Morocco she would die, with her compatriot – some man (presumably some director
would make her a star). Despite her cold childhood, and very lukewarm and
lonely early adulthood, Therese begins to make emotional attachments. One to a
little girl, who she baby sits, for a aloof and cold couple who continuously
leave alone; often mirroring her own childhood. The second is a young man who
translates foreign radio programs. The third is a pharmacist who perhaps offers
the most support to Therese.
“Little
Jewel,” is quietly bleak; no more than any of Modiano’s other novels. However,
it offers hope, in its symbolism of light. For the three people in who Therese
finds comfort and a emotional attachment to, there is a light for them. For the
little girl, it is the light of her window, when her parent’s leave her alone
at night; for the young translator, it is the phosphorescent green light of his
radio; and for the pharmacist it is the light from her pharmacy that draws
Therese near down a dark street.
In
this novel Patrick Modiano exorcises the complicated relationship between
himself as a child and his parents: his mother’s indifference two her sons, and
his father’s black market clandestine business affairs. The relationship
between mother and daughter becomes a motif of past and present, and it’s at
times strained and irreparable damaged affair. The remnants of Therese’s love
for her mother are often overshadowed by her childhood’s often bleak
environment and continual abandonment. Silence it seems echoes greater than the
faintest ethereal whisper. “Little Jewel,” is indeed a little gem of a book,
typical of a Modiano’s previous literary predilections, but with a new
narrator’s voice and gender, which leads to a new perspective of the past, its
silences, its alienating abandonment, and its persistent loneliness, which
continually haunt the individual into the present.
Thank-you
For Reading Gentle Reader
Take
Care
And
As Always
Stay
Well Read
M.
Mary