NINE MOATI: TWO WOMWN AT PARIS; Ramsay Editions, Paris, 1998 (292 pages)
The stage: París, between 1935 and 1945. There,
two women know each other, two women of quite different roots. One, Maya, is a jewish girl that recently arrives to France from Tunisia. Her husband finances the extreme right-wing groups. The other, Zezette, is from Marsella. Her lover, who supports her, has just open a fashion designer workshop for her.
Both couples live at the same building and the two women, which feel close because their common exiled position, begin a friendship that will last although the hard times they both must confront.
During the unrest times of the nazi''s occupation, Zezette''s lover colaborates with de Vichy''s por nazi regime, and she can help Maya: she protects her, and saves her from deportation. When the war is over, is Maya''s turn to shelter her friend, who has been accused of being the lover of a high level nazi.
Although the writter style is entertaining, it does not present any
surprises: as we read the book, we suspect the outcomes. It has no suspense, no thriller. What really surprises is the abscence of any value judgement or any opinion about the characters'' worths. Such level of innocence results quite unbalanced, and it disturbs us.
The novel is well done, well written, with a clear and moderate languaje use, without any extravagnaces, but its characters are flat, without force or contrast. Some times even the great friendship of the two women seems more a result of the moment than a deep value.
So, Two womwn at
paris becomes a small tell without to many merits.