Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

A way with words

Marie Darrieussecq talks about her roles as writer, mother and feminist

PHOTO: S. GOPAKUMAR

AUTHOR SPEAK Marie Darrieussecq's `Pig Tales' will be translated into Malayalam soon

Marie Darrieussecq is a dreamer, a feminist, a mother of two and a wife. Above all, she is a writer who wins you over with her words, her thoughts

and a plethora of memorable characters. After her critically acclaimed first novel, `Pig Tales' published in 1996, Darrieussecq went on to write equally engaging novels like `My Phantom Husband,' `Breathing Underwater,' `Brief Stay with the Living,' `The Baby,' `White,' `The Country' and a collection of short stories, `Zoo' published in 2006. `Pig Tales' is set to be translated into Malayalam soon.

This prolific and widely translated French writer was recently in the city to participate in a programme at the Institute of English, University of Kerala, organised by Alliance Francaise de Trivandrum and the French Embassy in India. In an interview, Darrieussecq laughed, pondered and spoke about her life - inside and outside her novels. Excerpts

Your evolution as a writer since `Pig Tales' in 1996?

There is good and bad in this book... When I wrote it, I was 25 and I had this power, this energy of anger. So I think there is this energy that I may have lost... But the bad side is it goes too much into caricature and it's a bit too explicit about things, about politics. The main character is very naïve. In a way, I was also very naïve... But I really love this book because it made it possible for me to do nothing but write. On the other hand, I won't be able to write the same way anymore.

You chose to transform your female protagonist into a pig in `Pig Tales,' though pigs are rare in Paris. Why?

A pig is an animal I wouldn't want to be transformed into. It has bad skin, fat and hair - all the things we (women) hate. It is considered dirty and ugly, but it was a good metaphor for everything... for politics and for the bad treatment of women.

You call yourself a feminist. But both your characters in `Pig Tales' and `My Phantom Husband' seem to depend on men...

I'm a feminist in life, not in my writing. In my books, the main character is often a woman at home. But that's not what I suggest: that a woman should stay at home. I don't give messages.

Are you happy with the translations?

It's a miracle. And I think it is very important to be translated into English because many people speak English in the world. I'm happy to be translated... I read Arundhati Roy, but if not for the French translations, I wouldn't have even heard her name.

You have seen India through Satyajit Ray and Arundhati Roy. But this is your first time here. Any cliches in your mind?

Everyone has cliches about countries. I had a really long walk in Mumbai. This may sound silly, but I was wonderfully surprised with one thing... I saw so many loving fathers. And Trivandrum is a sweet city. People are smiling... it's unbelievable. If they came to Paris, they would be destroyed. (laughs)

You live in Paris. Can you say something about your family?

I've been living in Paris for 20 years. When I was little, it was my dream to go to Paris. It's not perfect for (my) children because there are not so many trees. Of course they don't see the countryside as I did during my childhood in the Basque region. But they can go to beautiful museums and visit the theatre.

ANUPAMA R

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail