EXPOSITION
Nathalie Léger, trans. Amanda DeMarco (Les Fugitives)
Part-biography, part-autofiction, part-essayistic collage, Exposition is resistant to categorisation. A deceptively conventional premise sees Nathalie Léger’s narrator given the task of curating an exhibition on the Countess of Castiglione, notorious aristocrat and mistress of Napoleon III. An intense period of research follows and, with it, the prose becomes an unbridled stream of consciousness that uses the Countess’ life as a sideways lens to examine the lives of icons of art and cinema, from Louise Bourgeois and Robert Mapplethorpe to Isabelle Huppert and Marilyn Monroe. While these grand meditations on femininity and creativity are diverting, Exposition is at its most affecting when exploring the narrator’s own relationships and inner life. Léger’s showy, self-reflexive autofiction might be a turn-off for some, but as a true original it is deserving of attention. AH
Price: £12. Info: www.lesfugitives.com