Fran莽ois Charles Mauriac was a French writer and a member of the Acad茅mie fran莽aise. He was awarded the 1952 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life." Mauriac is acknowledged to be one of the greatest Roman Catholic writers of the 20th century.
Maternal love... It is difficult to define because it is so natural and common. Most of us know how it feels like - it unconditionally supports, protects, inspires and encourages to pursue our dreams. But what if this 'love' is an unhealthy obsession aiming at the total control over the child even if he is fifty years old? "Genitrix' explores the dark depths of such 'love' and the damage it inflicts; the rage, despair and eventual emptiness it leads to. Both protagonists, the cruel domeneering mother and the weak-willed immature son are rather repulsive on the surface but the author captures the complexity of their characters and their intense love-hate relationship.
'He knew no greater happiness than to make his mother suffer.'
A controlling mother dominates every aspect of her grown son's life, turning him into a helpless shell of a man, but she begins to lose her stranglehold on his soul when his estranged young wife becomes desperately ill. Mauriac's characters are, as always, completely convincing (although perhaps a little less complex than in some of his other works); and his insight into the stifling spiritual atmosphere created by an obsessive, self-centered maternal love is clearly and beautifully articulated.
Mettre six mois 脿 lire 160 pages n鈥檈st jamais de bon augure 鈥�
Pour l鈥檋istoire, j鈥檃i pr茅f茅r茅 celle du cousin du personnage principal que nous suivons ici (Fernand Cazenave) dans le roman du m锚me auteur 芦听Le baiser au l茅preux听禄.
Pour la relation m猫re-fils dysfonctionnelle, j鈥檃i tout simplement bien plus aim茅 芦听Vip猫re au poing听禄 de Herv茅 Bazin, plus tardif mais avec un go没t de travail fini, qui manque peut 锚tre 脿 芦听G茅nitrix听禄鈥�
Un roman o霉 on retrouve la belle plume de Mauriac, mais, pour une raison qui m鈥櫭ヽhappe, n鈥檃 jamais r茅ussi 脿 me happer compl猫tement. Je pense que j鈥檃urais eu plus d鈥檌nt茅r锚t pour l鈥檋istoire si on nous avait pr茅sent茅 la vie de Mathilde avec Fernand avant sa mort, en suivant un peu leur quotidien. Contrairement aux autres ouvrages que j鈥檃i pu lire de l鈥檃uteur, les personnages ici m鈥檕nt sembl茅 intangibles. Dommage.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Well, just after I lambasted Mauriac in for writing dishonest endings that tack on inauthentic spiritual transformations instead of offering gritty, real world conclusions, he delivers a novel in Genetrix that upends my entire previous claim! In this case, the various deaths do not offer any kind of spiritual release, but instead ensure the protagonist, Fernand, is caught in a hereditary trap: he is doomed to continue the cycle of control and domination that is passed onto him by his overbearing, narcissistic mother, who conditions him to be dependent on her for his every need.
This is the third novel in a row I鈥檝e read from Mauriac featuring a weak father and a domineering mother. In this case, she uses the death of her husband to gain control over her son and infantilize him through middle age, even to the point of constructing platforms in each room from which to observe him in any direction inside or outside the house. ()
Caution: spoilers ahead There are two deaths here that perpetuate the cycle of domination: Fernand鈥檚 wife, after a miscarriage, which frees him (seemingly) of his mother鈥檚 psychic grip by transferring his dependence from his living mother onto the memory of his dead wife. The mother, who essentially killed the wife by neglecting her need for medical treatment after the miscarriage, thinks that she has lost her son forever to the ghost of his wife. And so her only recourse is to die herself, which she does, after lingering in agony just as the wife did. (Isn't that just like the narc-mom, upstaging the daughter-in-law's death with her own!) And with the mother鈥檚 death, the ghost of her memory reasserts itself in Fernand鈥檚 psyche, eventually taking over as a kind of demonic maternal superego. By the end of the novel, he has practically turned into his mother, domineering his maid and her family to the point that they are awaiting his death in the same way that he was awaiting his mother's, and she was awaiting the daughter-in-law's, etc. The cycle never ends.
If not quite a traditional Naturalist novel, this one is much closer to my wheelhouse than the earlier Mauriac novels that try too hard to force a religious moral ending. In short, I like Mauriac when he鈥檚 more Freudian and less religious.
Mauriac nos trae un cuadro que podr铆a ser del esperpento de Valle Incl谩n. Una madre anciana se regocija con la muerte de su nuera: por fin puede recuperar a su hijo鈥� Pero la relaci贸n materno-filial es m谩s compleja: ambos tienen bastante oscuridad por los rincones鈥� como siempre, personajes torturados y odiosos que muestran las bajezas del ser humano. Esa gente tambi茅n se merece ser protagonista, ya que todos tenemos algo de ellos鈥�
A psychological study of a bourgeois French household - mother son wife servant - set in 1920s France , near Bordeaux . Very spare , very tense - somewhat claustrophobic, the action resides in the house and the gardens and in the minds of the 3 main characters ( the servant Marie remains integral but on the fringes )
The novel centres on the pathological hold the mother has on her son now in his 50s and recently married. His wife has suffered a miscarriage and lies gravely ill.
The story unfolds . The wife dies . The son reacts ; unloved in life , the now departed wife becomes a refuge and a ballast for the son against his mother. The novel explores the psychological shifting in power between son and mother as she perceives that the enemy ( the departed wife ) is propping her son up against her.
What I like about this novel and Mauriac more generally is his acute portrayal of our human condition. His characters feel strongly - they verge on madness - but they are real and we recognise in them what it is to live and feel amongst others.
For me the most beautiful and uplifting moment in the novel is the ending and the gentle forgiveness shown by Maria to her master in that final cameo . Very moving .
Read in French
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.