In the Café of Lost Youth (New York Review Books Classics)

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The third narrator is Louki herself, who tells us that her big drama comes precisely from the fact that she never had anyone close to her. This is the Paris of late-night metro rides, of all night cafes, of night time walks along boulevards. The multiple perspectives come from different periods, with some told at the time of the events, and others related in hindsight.

In the Café of Lost Youth is a little more plot-driven than most Modiano books I’ve read, and we gradually find out more about poor Louki, a woman we sense will come to a bad end, even if we’re not quite sure how. The company I used to work for had its head office on the outskirts of the city so I made fairly frequent trips there with visits to the city centre for dinner etc. This is my first experience of Modiano and I am grateful to the 21st Century Literature group for choosing it for the February 2018 group read because I doubt I would have picked it up otherwise.Jeunesse qui s'appelle Louki, évidemment, silhouette élusive et changeante selon les perceptions de chacun, pour symboliser soit un idéal, l'éternel féminin comme pour l’élève à l'École des mines, soit un mystère à être gardé révérencieusement, comme pour le détective, soit l’Amour, comme pour Roland. In this life that sometimes seems to be a vast, ill-defined landscape, amid all of the vanishing lines and lost horizons, we hope to find reference points, to draw up some kind of land registry so as to shake the impression that we are navigating by chance. Instead, his books comprise elements from many different genres: mystery, personal memoir, travelogue, and others. Esa falta de volúmenes en la personalidad parecía un recurso del autor, que tal vez pretendiera que fuera el lector quien reconstruyera esos personajes a partir de los detalles que se presentan aquí y acullá.

The book has been written in a lyrical daze, and the characters are varied but seem to be suffering from a certain mass malady - which captivates the reader as if the sci-fi is happening for real. Il semble déchirer impitoyablement le voile de mystère, en rendant Louki ordinaire, mais à la fin lui aussi, ensorcelé, lui permet de s'échapper du con de la lumière cruelle où il l'avait capturée. Nothing much happens, in this story about a mysterious young woman whose portrait emerges through the voices of different men, but, as usual with Modiano, what's important is what's untold and what the reader can sense in between the lines : a world of lost youth, murky pasts, shadows from years gone by, feelings once felt and now slowly fading, memories.

Consider Philippe Claudel a far more versatile and passionate author than this accidental or compromise Nobel laureate. A mysterious young woman, who they nickname Louki, sometimes sits with them but doesn't usually participate in the conversations. He identifies with Louki and her attempts to flee and hide, for he has had many of the same experiences.