"Là où les chiens aboient par la queue" or questioning the concept of "transmission"
I've been meaning to write this review since... december 2019? While setting up my monthly schedule, I'd always think about writing my review for this book, but I could never bring myself to actually put it down in my to-do list. Why? Because I can relate a little bit too much to some situations described in the book in terms of family dynamics, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one feeling that way. However, sometimes you just have to stop procrastinating and keep it moving.
“Là où les chiens aboient par la queue” means literally “Where dogs bark with their tail” which is the literal translation of the Kreyol saying “Sé la chyen ka japé pa ké”. This is what you would say to describe some place far away in the countryside. This is the first novel of Estelle-Sarah Bulle. Released in August 2018, it took the publishing world by storm. In the run for several big prizes. It won the “Prix Stanislas du premier roman”, “Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe et du Tout-Monde”, the “Prix Aptom” as well as the “Prix Eugène Dabit du roman populiste”. Why did it receive such big accolades so fast? Was it the themes? Was it the writing style? Maybe was it a mix of these two reasons? Probably. Frankly speaking, I really don't get how someone would dare to say this novel is badly written. No matter how little interest this person may have about Antillean people's life in the second half of the 20th century. Three siblings tell their family story from their own point of view in the span of 40 years. Sometimes, the same situation would be told differently according to who is speaking which allows us, as readers, to make up our own mind on what actually happened. The easy flow of the descriptions and transitions helps us to figure out how the past of these ordinary women and men echo our collective past.
So I won't break down the different themes in the novel like I usually do in my reviews. We get to see strong women giving different meanings to the concept of “Caribbean woman”. We get to see tough men who won't acknowledge their vulnerability as they try to stand up for themselves in a society that they don't understand or in a society that doesn't understand them. This time around, I'd like to focus on how this book reflects our contemporary approach of the concept of “transmission” and “legacy” that social media are helping to renew.
Estelle-Sarah Bulle is the first generation of BUMIDOM children. The 1960's and 1970's were a time of social, political and economical struggle in Guadeloupe and Martinique. BUMIDOM was an organization created by the government to encourage the migration of young people from Guadeloupe and Martinique to continental France. They were promised a good job with a good salary to live in a good life. What they got was underpaid and unqualified jobs doubled with being confronted to racism on a daily basis. Up until five or six years ago, no one talked about it. The author is in the first generation of those born in continental France who are now old enough to question their memories, to ask the right questions that will highlight the struggle of their parents', and even their grandparents', generation. However, whose words are we using?
The literary strategy to have the story told through testimonies of the descendants allows the reappropriation of oral transmission. The listening character gives the opportunity to each character to become the narrator of their own life. But this creates another kind of biased vision of the past.
As the characters question their own past, they give their own understanding of their present. The intergenerational gap with their own parents can be read and heard. That's when we get a glimpse of another time we barely know: the late 19th century and the early 20th century. I'm not talking about the literary production by the Negritude movement. I'm talking about stories telling the Guadeloupe (or the Martinique) of the 3rd Republic. Yes, there are novels set in this era, but those I know are always using the point of view of the child. To me, not telling the story from the adults' point of view is just creating another distance... It's like taking away their power to speak up independently. It's like keeping us from seeing the world in another light, it's keeping us from trying to understand their circumstances. And this question can also be asked the other way around. How do we approach the transmission with the next generations? What will we tell them about our present? Do we leave them enough clues to understand our circumstances?
At the end of the day, “Là où les chiens aboient par la queue” deserved to be read at least because it's a masterclass in writing. FYI, it's not autobiographic. It's a fictional version based on some real-life events of the author's family. That's probably what gives it this overall universality. However, this book is also a good start to think about what “legacy” means today.
Don't hesitate to share your recommendations of books set in the Caribbean of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Especially if the story is in another island.