Little Jewel

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 coloured with great warmth. His father was often away on business, leaving John and Maurice in the care of elderly spinsters, and then they distributed Catholic boarding school, where John confesses 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, removed them from 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 in the postwar periods, which all of Britain in its state of displacement and impoverishment shuffled along through. But he never forgot. John and his brother would go on and do quite well in their academics, and achieve success in their own 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 mother, which finally provided a name. Enter the 1960's 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 most to all of his novels. The disconnected sense of the individual between the past and the present, the sparse sketched 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 follow this ghostly mirage of her past through the streets of Paris back to her depilated apartment block, but 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 into focus. It is revealed  - or  rather 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 and embrace of abandonment. Her mother came to Paris in her youth with aspirations and ambitions 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, further more her birth brought further complications of those starlight dreams.  Dreams and ambitions are like grudges, they continuously burn despite the realities of the situation, which beg for forgiveness of acceptance.

Therefore, Therese was treated as a fashion accessory or a beloved pet for show, more so 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 layers of conceited embellishment, which is forced upon Therese as she's wrangled into a small television appearance at her mothers maneuvering. For Therese's mother those starlit dreams are still tenable, but they come at the cost of her own daughters well-being and emotional nourishment. 

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, abandoning it to the greater city. Any lasting emotional attachment or stability never existed for Therese. Her childhood came to its conclusion when her mother left for Morocco, abandoning Therese in some French village to be looked after by some friends. There in Morocco it is reported that Therese's mother would die alongside her compatriot, some man - no doubt a director or producer, who would make her a star. Despite her reptilian childhood and dispossessed and aimless early adulthood, Therese forms some emotional connections. One is to a little girl she is contracted to babysit, whose parents are equally as distant and cool as Therese's own mother, as if they are unsure of their own daughter treating her as a foreign entity or alien, or more precisely: an inconvenience. The second is a young man who translates foreign radio programs; and the third is a pharmacist who perhaps offers the most support to Therese. 

“Little Jewel,” is quietly bleak, and a stellar addition to match of all Modiano's novels. However, "Little Jewel," explores new territory in Modiano's grey landscape, it provides a silver streak of hope, in its symbolism of light. Of 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 beaconing out into the night. For the young translator it is the phosphorescent green light of his radio. As for the pharmacist it is the light from her pharmacy that draws Therese near out of the 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. In "Little Jewel," 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 punctuated 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