In The Cafe of Lost Youth

I am not exactly proud to admit that when I realized I needed a book to review for the blog this week, I walked over to our New Fiction shelf and plucked up one of the shortest books I could find, without even glancing at the cover. I'm not proud of it, but I could not be happier with the consequence. The title and cover of Patrick Modiano's In the Cafe of Lost Youth would not have enticed me to read this book, and that superficial oversight would have been a big mistake.

Modiano's work is a quick read not because of how short the book actually is, but because of how it is written - seemingly as a stream of consciousness, flowing as easily as the thoughts and conversations we have with ourselves at any given moment. A story is told from three points of view. Modiano doesn't announce when the narrator changes, there is simply a shift in the narrative. The narrators do not introduce themselves, but by the end of the book you know who they are and feel how they feel simply from having caught a glimpse into their thoughts. The story appears to be about a girl, Louki, who catches everyone's attention simply by being a part of the mystery, as it is said. However, what the book was about, to me, was an idea only mentioned in passing. It seems to be about neutral zones, black matter, and the people you meet in both spaces who play a part in "the mystery" and can stick with you long after you've left their presence to rejoin the real world.

Modiano makes the reader really reflect on themselves and their experiences, without openly asking them to. The awareness of your own stream of consciousness stays with you awhile after reading through someone else's. If you aren't afraid of delving into the "neutral zones," I would definitely recommend giving this a read.