As+You+Were+Saying...

=//**As You were Saying: American Writers Respond to Their French Contemporaries**//=

79 pages, Dalkey Archive Press, $9.50 //**
 * //Edited by Fabrice Rozié, Esther Allen, Guy Walter


 * Does Culture Impact Your Writing Style?**
 * By Eleni Yannelis**

As You Were Saying, a collection of short stories by both American and French writers, is unusual and thought provoking. The goal of the book is to explore the difference culture plays in writing. In some stories the American author simply ends the story the French author began and at other times, the French and the American authors develop the same plot independently and the stories are published side by side. The different perspectives lead to completely different stories in some cases. This book offers a verity of literary styles, exposing the reader to many different writing approaches. One story by Raymond Federman and Jacques Roubaud, entitled the Carcasses, has no real punctuation, instead after each point or adjective there is a dash. This style turns the story into a poem. Other stories are insightful and philosophical texts. I admit to being skeptical when I first picked up the book: I hate short stories. I have always felt they are too simple and the endings often miss something, but I never felt this way with any story in this book. More than a collection of short stories, the authors’ different “takes” on the same material is a bridge between cultures.

The book begins with a letter from Jean-David Levitte, the French Ambassador to the US, urging Americans to read translated texts. Translations account for only 3% of all books in the US, but in France nearly half of all translated books are by Americans. I was quite shocked when I saw this figure. Every American can name Rousseau or Voltaire, but very few know Colette or Nina Bouraoui, which is a pity. The book exposes you to another culture—another world. You will see firsthand how our environment affects our writing. For example, the writing style of the French authors is philosophical, with many adjectives and nothing ever directly stated. The American authors’ style is different: they never “beat around the bush.” Marie Darrieusseq’s and Rick Moody’s story about plastic surgery had a profound effect on me, showing me two different ways to look at materialism. A once beautiful man whose face was disfigured by a fire has plastic surgery to please his girlfriend. The Frenchwoman (Marie Darrieusseq) writes the story from the girlfriend’s perspective, which describes his eyelids, pupils and gaze. He decides to have surgery because he is bewildered as to why this beautiful woman would stay with an ugly man. When the American (Rick Moody) writes, the story is about a middle class couple. The man is hardworking with a materialistic girlfriend who is obsessed with plastic surgery. He feels bad about his looks, lives in fear that his attractive girlfriend will leave him, and finally submits to the surgery so his girlfriend does not leave him. In both stories, the girlfriend clearly cares about how she and her boyfriend look, but I felt more sympathy for the couple in the story written by the French author.

Both authors received exactly same plot, but they approached it very differently. The French author wrote, “Even his gaze had changed, because, as I’ve come to realize, eyelids are what make a gaze. An eyeball has no gaze, no expression. Intensity, yes, I remember the intensity, the unblinking rage, the wicked laugh.” The American author wrote “In the end, you see, she was only interested in me for my looks.” Each quote is meant to convey the same point, our protagonist was sadly disfigured, but they do it in extremely different ways. The book allows you to see the impact of culture on writing. For example, the reader can see consistent differences in French and American writing styles, such as the use of adjectives or even the kind of analogies made.

This book looks at why we do the things we do. Is it because we were teased at school or because our mothers taught us so? For example, the story In Praise of Ugliness, is a spin off of a French tale that most French children are familiar with. A mother, teachers, and schoolmates tease a young boy because he has a cowlick on his hair. He consistently tries to change this, putting water on it, putting gel, and eventually cutting it off, but nothing will fix his hair. Even such a trivial thing such as hair makes you wonder about all the things you do because your culture has influenced you.

This is a captivating book that I highly recommend, whether you are interested in short stories, American Literature, French Literature, culture, writing style, or simply a quick read with interesting characters. The book persuades us to step back and analyze things around us. The book made me question everything around me and want to read more, or maybe even try my hand at writing!