Univers, Univers by Régis Jauffret: A gigot that creates hundreds universe

Univers, univers a novel by Régis Jauffret, French, 2003. 609 pages.

Sebuah novel, 600 halaman lebih, tak seperti novel lainnya. Berawal di satu titik, dan berakhir di titik yang sama. Tak ada alur yang jelas, tokoh yang juga tidak jelas, seolah-olah hendak meyakinkan pembaca tentang fungsi sastra: membuka ide baru, mengejutkan pembaca, dan bercanda dengan dunia sambil mengisahkan cerita demi cerita....

An uncommon novel, uncommon woman protagonist, circumstances, ...

It is an anonymous afternoon. A woman is waiting for a leg of lamb, gigot, in an oven. What the gigot is doing there and why, are questions without answers. Not only ignoring the gigot existence, she does not know either who she is, why she is waiting for the unterminated process of grilling the gigot, and where exactly she is located in the world. In her disturbed memory, she thinks that her husband will ring the appartement bell and enter in an instance or another, and two invited persons, probably a couple, will dinner together with them. Tomorrow, she and her husband have to go to Pierrot family house, probably, invited by the family for a dinner where they must support their story about their last trip. The Pierrot family is, probably, a rich family having a nice big covered swimming pool that she must use before the dinner started. Sometimes, they even dine in the pool, probably. Her husband, she has no idea who he is, expects to sell his agent to the couple to finally realise his dream of round a world trip, probably.

There is, in fact, nothing real except the gigot in front of her, the oven, and the appartement that has a terrace where she is located. It is not sure that the husband really exists, that his agent is there, that the the Pierrot couple is a real existence, and that there will be an invited couple to finish her gigots. Nothing real, except the gigot, oven, appartement, and her body. But the husband, the invitees, the agent and the Pierrot couple unexplainably penetrates her memory repetitively.

During waiting the gigot she tries to find out who she is by fitting some biographies. First, she tries one biography of a woman , then she drops it, and tries another biography, some of them reach very far until the death -- many of them are because of suicides-- and some just for one night, and others have only a short introduction sentence before next jump. She changes biography just like changing skirts with an unknown reason, or maybe no reason at all. She enters the biographies and lives several professional, familial, and sexual lifes, often rude and sometimes full of violence. The cold and odd love experiences, the suicides or horrible accidents are repetitively present accompanied sometimes with bitter humor. . Not only woman, she also tries biographies of a man, an animal, a house, anything. Sometimes, she does not imagine other biography and imagines her biography herself.

(from page 81)
Elle est Karine Retas, née à Brest, de parents commerçants. Elle s'intitule Amandine Dupanle, originaire du Jura. Julie Muit de Lausanne, Caroline Fry du Haut-Rhin. Elle se nomme Marie-France Jouvaud, son père était généalogiste, il est mort l'an dernier lors du séisme tandis qu'il était en voyage d'agrément.

(She is Karine Retas, born in Brest, from trader parents. Her name is Amandine Dupanle, from Jura. Julie Muit of Laussane, Caroline Fry of Haut-Rhin. She is called Marie-France Jouvaud, his father was genealogist, died last year on an earthquake while he was in an official trip).

The novel starts from a gigot in her kitchen, and then some, maybe hundred stories of short and long similiar biographies, ends with gigot that finally ready. Still unclear for whom and why, neither who she is...

Her husband desperately trying to sell his agent, the Pierrot couple with their boring stories, the invitees, and not to forget the gigots , the only real thing central of the novel, often comes back into the scenes with some variations here and there.

Given its nature, the novel is quite surprising for readers (I am included) that may expect that a novel must have conflicts, ending, flows, clear narrator point of views. The novel simply has none of that. Its 609 pages contains biographies of almost a hundred imaginative persons -- imagination of the protagonist -- her husband, his agent, invitees, Pierrot. The narration is mainly from the third person, but often it switches to a person in the story that speaks to the protagonist.
Even more surprising that in the opening of the novel, the narrator, warned the readers about the novel and asked the readers to close the book, or at least find some other books where they can find something useful inside. He even said 'that what literature is for': simply not to hope something with conventional beauty, morality, or usefulness. It is to open ideas, to surprise, at a nearly extreme level. The goal , in my opinion, is achieved greatly, although in my opinion 600 pages can be an unacceptable torture.

The writer, Régis Jauffet, has written 10 novels up to 2003, the published year of Univers, Univers and now he had 13 in his account, with Asile de Fous as his last novel. Univers, Univers was rewarded a Prix Decembre 2003. A feminin protagonist is always his preference and it seems that the circular story like this to be his style. Although not particularly seduced,I definitely will not stop with this Univers, Univers.