My Father and Me, which is an engrossing and long novel for kids as well as an impressive novella for adults who can read it in a trace, was translated into Turkish in 2014.

My Father and Me, which is an engrossing and long novel for kids as well as an impressive novella for adults who can read it in a trace, was translated into Turkish in 2014. Unlike the fame of its illustrator, Jean-Jacques Sempé, the writer of My Father and Me, Patrick Modiano is not well known in our country even though he is a Nobel Price winner. These two extraordinary men, Modiano and Sempé, act with an eminent harmony and build their ambiguous texts in a way that leads the reader to suspect and make the reader question whether the narrative is real or not. The irony concealed in the text; the symbol of the “glass” which is used as if it is a separate character; the mysterious atmosphere built by the connotation of the words; and the implications the characters use fake names; all create an unsafe environment for the warm story of a father and his daughter.

 

The Glass: Two Separate Worlds is Possible

The glass is the most crucial tool in this insecure atmosphere by which Patrick Modiano intends to refer the social reality in France’s narrative times, not to create a post-modern play. The prime character, Catherine Certitude, was in America in the beginning of the narrative starts; recalling her own childhood which was spent in France thirty years ago when she saw a girl taking off her glass before dancing. The glass, which is just indicated in the first scene, gives a hint that it will have a significant meaning in the story. By wearing and taking off their glasses, Catherine and her father Georges Certitude make the existence of two different worlds possible.

The world that I see without the glasses was smooth; it was as soft as a pillow which I lay my cheeks on and fall asleep (…) [When I wear my glasses] everything turns back to its usual seriousness. I see the world as it is, and it was hard to dream [with them]. (Modiano 5,6)

Rather than crystal clear sights, the Certitude family consisting of the father and the daughter prefer the blurred and indefinite ones that encourage dreaming. This information is the first sign that the characters opt for the imaginary things to escape from the reality. The reason behind the father’s preference is related with hard years of the narrative time, which forced him to do something secret, while the girl’s choice lies in her childhood when she enjoyed dreaming very much. Modiano’s determination of the surname as “certitude”, which means “reality” is an irony of Modiano, making the reader smile.

Another example presenting the glasses as if it has a personality is the part I which Odile’s mother denies seeing Mr. Certitude by hiding the sunglasses behind. Catherine’s friend Odile from dance school invites the two main characters of the story to their home without informing her parents. In the home, where high elites are present, the father Certitude is invisible and nobody talks to him. When Odile wants to introduce him to her parents, Mrs. Ancorena ignores him by using her sunglasses as a barrier. Though the glass functioned to show the truth and making the visible clearer, it covered for the first time the truth with its dark glasses. Whether it be a normal glass that makes the reality clearer or be a sunglass darkens the reality, the state of the glass in both of scene can be seen as a good example for the discussion about reality.

 

Train Station Which Always Reminds the Alienation of the Family

Adult Catherine Certitude was in America in the first scene of My Father and Me; when she recollects to her childhood of thirty years ago that her mother was in America while her father and she were in France. Her mother “had to” go back because she “missed” her country “very much.” The father would go there after finishing his “works” with the daughter. When the reader learns at the beginning of the story that Catherine was in America, they inevitably have a feeling that days in France would have an end, since the writer informs that the days in France were going to end when she returns back to America. At the very beginning of the book, the writer, who promises that her father will return to the US, gives a similar impression to the reader that the days in France will come to an end.

The most striking detail that convinces the reader that they will not stay for a long time in France is that the writer constant remind about the Station in the North throughout the text. For the father Certitude who sat on the edge of a bank during her daughter's dance lessons, Catherine tells the following: “He sometimes looked from the window behind himself at the Station in the North, the lights of platforms and trains which go far destinations.” When Catherine forgot and came back to the studio to take her glasses in the scene in which she danced alone in dim lights was depicted in an extremely magical way. Why does a little girl, who wants to be a dancer, watch platforms of the Statin in the North when she achieves her dreams in a place and time? This is because that she always keeps in her mind that “they will/have to leave one day” even the place where she felt her own as the dancing studio. At this point, this is very meaningful that the news about their going to America was given by Mr. Certitude in association to the Station in the North:

Catherine, my father was right. One day, he came to the Station in the North and decided to stay there. He opened our shop at Hauteville Street. He believed that he must have lived in this neighborhood because there were stations since if we want to leave one day, everything was going to be easier… Should we leave Catherine? Don’t you want to travel, sailing to new horizons?  (71)

What stands out in these lines which show their concerns about living in this country and feelings of a lack of belonging to a family goes back to a few generations before, and that their decisions about where to live were based on their leaving plans. It is clear from the text that the father and the daughter are not “locals” there. Statements on the father’s looking at trains often and the little girl, who emulates to her father, also sometimes looks at trains make the reader feel that this family has a strong sense of alienation about where they live. The impression the reader gets after these details is that it impossible for them to stay France anymore.

 

The Mystery the Words Builds

Though the narrator of the My Father and Me is an adult, who moved to America at the end and able to solve the mysteries in the life, tells about the days spent in France from the perspective of her childhood. Due to this child perspective, from which it is clear she could not make sense of the world, the vagueness of the occupation of Mr. Certitude and to whom he meets remains throughout the book. There are boxes brought to the workplace and taken away, which “looks like a shop” (p. 9). The boxes are the best object to create a vagueness in the text because one can never be sure whether the object is really inside unless opening it. These boxes, which are never opened, and carried especially at “nights” (p. 20) by different men, are the main characters of the mysterious atmosphere of the book. Even if the little girl asks her father about his occupation a few times, he replies them with short answers as saying that they are “packaging stuff” (p. 26). It is time to remember Modiano’s another irony, which was hidden in the lines: Catherine’s mother is a talented dancer and Mr. Certitude is one of the “transporters” who transports revue dancers at the same choreography. Converting the protagonist to someone who worked once at a time in the art business, but who later headed for a transportation of packages which implies illegality is an example of Modiano’s tragicomic irony.

In her father’s notebook, Catherine found by chance, there are objects like “radio, shirt” saved under the received part and “engines, shoes for soldiers” reported under the departed part. The reader, who learns that the real name of the father is not Georges but Albert, and there are syllables like Tse, Tits, Czer in his previous surname, realizes that he is a man of different ethnicity and that he might have supported enemies of France. However, there is no way for the child reader to realize this. Constructing the story as a child story, Modiano aims at making children feel that “things are not as what they seem.” He achieves this by affecting the reader’s sense of security. At this point, it would be beneficial to investigate the words Modiano chose with their implications: “The work is done at nights. The trucks were waking me up with their engine voices, though they did not move. I saw men carrying boxes to the inside of the shop.” (p. 20). Another remarking point besides to the work done at “night” is engines which work even if the trucks do not move. The noise of the engines gives the reader a sense of readiness to “escape” at any moment. Moreover, it is quite interesting that he does not mention the names of the people carrying the boxes and notes that he does not recognize them. This detail implies that people carrying boxes should not have a name as normal people have, and should be unknown. Or, the constant change of their faces can be interpreted as a sign that the appearance of their faces is dangerous.

In the scenes when Mr. Certitude signs receipts, it is so meaningful to use the adverb, “fast” (p. 35). This adverb gives the idea that Certitude is afraid of being captured when he does something secret and get rid of the men. Some examples are evidence for Certitude’s “doing something tricky” (p. 91): his talking about the woman in the photograph as “just a stewardess” (p. 47) and avoiding to make more explanation about her; getting long letters for himself and short ones for Catherine from his wife living in America; going beyond the normal by his behaviour to normalize his job by asking to meet with men wearing “old topcoat and with moustache” (23) at park, but in the end, meeting with them one by one. It is not possible for the child reader to understand political messages; however, they can easily feel with the help of the details and connotations of words that France is an “insecure” place for Certitude family. Thanks to these emotions that are felt by the child reader, Modiano’s ability to create an impressive atmosphere is praiseworthy.

 

Fake Names: You Are not Who You Actually Are

The clearest indication of Patrick Modiano’s implied in the narrative that the life is not based on the reality and security is that most of the characters use fake names and that they disappear suddenly. Catherine’s dance teacher Galina Dismailova is not really a Russian contrary to her introducing herself, but a French named Odette Marchal from Saint Mandeli. Another example is Odile and her elite parents, who invites Catherine and her father to the feast at her home. They suddenly become invisible after the feast. Or, Ancorena family’s house, numbered 21 could not be found in address registers where the numbers jump from 19 to 23. In another one, the dance teacher mentions that this suddenly disappeared family has an accommodation debt for one month (p. 67) and it becomes the evidence for that this wealthy family does not live as they present themselves. Or, René Tabéelion, who talks to Mr. Certitude at the feast and says he wants to be in touch with him by giving him his card, is another character becoming invisible and unreachable.

The scene ruining the reader’s confidence the most is when we learn that the father’s real name is not Georges, but Albert. Adopting a social realist perspective, Patrick Modiano specifies that the residents of France in the narrative time need to change their names due to the ethnic and political reasons. However, he himself is aware of the earliness of explaining these reasons to the child reader clearly. Therefore, instead of showing the situation explicitly, he implies and creates an atmosphere where children “feel” them.

 

The Contribution of Sempé’ Illustrations to the Ambiguity of the Text

It is very difficult not to admire Jean-Jacques Sempé’s ability to make the stories more impressive with his drawing. The reader encounter one of these talents and brilliance in My Father and Me. Here, it is crucial to show his contribution to the text with his illustrations and ‘his eminent harmony’ with Modiano that is already stated at the beginning of this text.

Sempé contributes to the vagueness built by Modiano by changing the position of the observer looking at the illustrations. Sempé always draws the characters directly as in the case of special moments when Catherine and Georges share as a father and daughter feelings and emotions, or when Catherine dances, sleeps, dreams, or when the father and daughter share a common feeling with their glances. In his drawings, there are no obstacles for the observers, and they can easily see. Considering the fact that the narrator is the kid Catherine, these moments are the most genuine times. There is no vagueness or suspicion, but only the warmness of the relationship. Nonetheless, in the case of Mr. Certitude’s job or places resembling his workplace Sempé puts some objects in between. We can remember, as an instance, the scene when the father and the daughter get on the scale at the beginning of the story: Sempé draws them happy but behind the tightly sealed boxes. There is a similar situation when they have lunch together five times in a week at La Picerdie Restaurant. Sempé does not directly draw the table where they sit but pictures it at back among the men wearing top coats and with mustaches. The position where the illustrator stands gives the feeling that someone from another table watches the father and the daughter.

The reader experiences the feeling of looking at a distant location most over the illustrations of broad streets where the shop is located. Sempé, with a view looking the “Casterade&Certitude” signboard, draws the shop always behind the buildings. He does not directly include the entrance. Similarly, only half of the signboard, “Smith&Cerd” is in the sight when Mr. Certitude goes to America and opens this shop together with Mr. Smith. In addition to Modiano, who often tells about the tricky businesses of Mr. Certitude and the ambiguities regarding his job, Sempé also addresses to these secret and implicit works. The most influential example supporting this idea takes place in the scene where the name of the new business partner is written on the signboard when Certitude moves his shop in France: “Casterade & Chevreau”. Here in this illustration, drawing focus exactly on the shop itself and its entrance, rather than focusing on the street view with a broad perspective Sempe always watches the life of Certitude from the distance, behind the buildings, except his relations with his daughter and business. Detail of the half-drawn signboard creates an impression that someone hidden is looking at it. This impression brings the idea of “being watched” and evokes the suspicions about Mr. Certitude’s “work”. This also shows the great harmony between Modiano and Sempé in “building atmosphere”.

 

Conclusion

Childhood is quite an early period to analyze political events and social transformation it causes with certainty. It is not possible for Modiano to talk about the effects of war, its devastating results and the way how it destroys the secure environment. However, he can make children feel it. A writer concerning about the society he belongs, he builds My Father and Me within the insecure atmosphere and vagueness of the social life with the implications for the suspicion. The father Certitude’s occupation is never told us, the hard conditions of the time are addressed through the careful selections of the words and changing identities of the characters. Together with Sempé illustrations, the story gains depth and the child reader feels the insecure atmosphere behind the warm father-daughter relationship. Children may not understand the reasons of this insecurity, political and ethnic reasons causing the feelings of alienation to France on the characters. They may also fail to notice the hints the writer places within the text. But My Father and Me still reaches the target. I also hope –like Modiano- that that child will read the book one more time when s/he will be grown up. Thus, My Father and Me will reach its goals as a child’ novel and adult’ novella; due to the fact that it makes the child reader feel its message and shows it clearly to the adults.

 

Bibliography

Modiano, Patrick. Babam ve Ben. Ankara: Tudem Yayınları, 2014.