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Our Assessment:
B : solid novel of memory and family See our review for fuller assessment.
From the Reviews: - Return to top of the page - The complete review's Review:
Serge is a family-novel, focused on the three adult Popper-children: narrator Jean, older brother Serge, and sister Nana.
Serge is already sixty, but as Jean sums up: "We'll always, to each other, be the three Popper children".
Joséphine's gotten it in her head ever since her grandmother's death. She'd like for her father come along. Nana's fine with it and plans on coming. Serge's freaking out at the idea of being with those two. So, I'm going, too.The family is Jewish, but neither religious nor particularly interested in their family history. The mother -- a fan of Putin, no less -- emphatically did not want to be buried where her husband was -- "No ! Not with the Jews !" -- and is cremated, and the children's attitude is summed up in an exchange Serge and Jean have in their hotel room in Poland: "Can't say we've asked many questions," Serge says.They try to go through the motions here, as: The overarching idea of this expedition -- I'm still trying to get to grips with it -- was, to put it with all the solemnity of our time, to visit the grave of our Hungarian relatives. People we never knew, who we'd never heard talk of, whose misfortunes seemed not to have upended our mother's life. But that's our family: they died because they were Jewish, they experienced the macabre fate of a people whose heritage we carry on, and in a world besotted with the word "memory," it seems ignominious to wash one's hand of such a matter. At least that's what I understand of my niece Joséphine being so feverishly invested.On site, they continue to have trouble connecting, not least because of the tourist-crowds and the peculiar, voyeuristic 'experience' of touring Auschwitz and Birkenau. And matters aren't helped by, especially, Serge's attitude; as Nana complains: "he's been a wet blanket on this trip". Among the other issues playing a role in events are Serge's break-up with girlfriend Valentina, his efforts to find an apartment for Joséphine, and, most significantly, his attempt to secure Nana's son, budding chef Victor, a summer job. The opportunity Serge wrangles is neither really appropriate -- "a two-week stage like I'm an apprentice", Victor complains -- nor what Victor is interested in, but Serge takes offense at what he takes as Victor's ungratefulness, and it all also leads to a rupture with Nana. After they're back from Auschwitz: "Nana and Serge have independently and mutually decided not to talk to each other ever again". In explaining himself to Serge, Victor had written that he did not want or need the kind of help Serge was offering, but rather that: "I just need a family". When Serge and Jen and Nana's mother died, her niece Margot had said: "Mamie, you were the one holding this mishmash of a family together", and indeed with her death things do fall apart -- yet even with their antagonisms, the three siblings seem unable to completely abandon one another; a sense of family -- even if an often not very satisfactory kind of one -- remains. Serge had complained to Jean: Did we need to go to Auschwitz ? Be honest. Did we need the whole gang? Maybe it will end in tragedy.But Reza is not one for grand, dramatic tragic scenes and turns; more true to life, she explores the many smaller ones typical for a family. If less spectacular, they are no less deep and substantial. Serge offers rich character-portraits of the different family-figures, struggling in their various ways, including with their relationships, within and beyond the family. While there is considerable movement to various locales, it still has much of the feel of a chamber piece -- dominated by outsized older brother Serge, even as Jean is the one telling the story (and despite the other relationships he is dealing with). With its several generations -- other older figures also figure prominently, as well as the shadows of those who perished long before -- Serge deals with memory and various forms of legacies, as well as with family in the broadest, multi-generational sense as well as on the most immediate and intimate level. Intentionally small-scale -- even when dealing with something like the Holocaust -- Serge is still a resonant work, a solid novel dealing with its themes in interesting ways. - M.A.Orthofer, 9 July 2025 - Return to top of the page - Serge:
- Return to top of the page - French author Yasmina Reza, born in 1959, achieved her first great success with the play 'Art'. She has also written fiction and screenplays. - Return to top of the page -
© 2025 the complete review
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