Steven Carroll, O.

 

- I’m a great fan of Melbourne author Steven Carroll. He writes of love and courage in difficult historical times, and explores the constraints on young women and their passions and challenges.

- This new novel is captivating from the start. We're in occupied France in 1943. 

- As in all his novels Carroll's characters navigate fraught social and political times. Integrity and strength are essential. While loyalty to all sorts of established norms is demanded, conventions are frequently confronted. And in occupied France challenges abound. We think we’re awake...’ she says, voice dreamy, wistful, removed...but are we just sleepwalking?

- Dominique Aury, the adopted name of Anne Desclos, was a real and inspiring historical figure. She was the first female board member of the major French literary publisher Gallimard who carried on a secret lifelong relationship with the well respected publishing director Jean Paulhan. It was a deep, forbidden love. Paulhan was married. She wrote the Story of O, meant just for him. The protagonist 'O' was degraded and humiliated, possessed and brutally defiled..but always with this proud, defiant air of being somehow beyond him and beyond them all.

- Albert Camus was for decades also on the Gallimard board. The directors were fiercely divided on whether the feted company should publish this novel by an unknown novelist 'Pauline Reage'. Camus votes to publish, as does Jean who of course knows the author's real identity, but chairman Gaston Gallimard doesn’t. He considers it ‘smut’? 

- After the book is published in 1954 by a small underground printer Carroll explores the ramifications, some very dangerous. The book becomes a sensation, opinions strong and divided. However there are no dramatic developments. Even the police, who suspect Dominique is the real author, decide not to pursue any charges. Calm comes after the storm. 

- We're taken forward to the 1968 student revolution in Paris, and disappointingly this profound social and political revolution passes Dominique by. A former resistance fighter herself, she's dismissive of it. She just doesn’t get it. That's ironic. 

- Carroll's fictional creation Pauline Reage, a courageous resistance member during the occupation, who was helped by Dominique to escape to London during the occupation, dramatically re-appears years later and meets with Dominique to discuss the book. It's a pivotal moment in the story. Pauline speaks of the book's deeper meaning, the central focus being France’s submission. O for occupation...France the whore who rolls over and surrenders, submits herself willingly to her masters.

- The unpolitical Dominique is shaken as she is persuaded of this truth. Her 'little novel' becomes far more powerful and significant. 

- An impressive and well written novel indeed, and an immensely enjoyable read.

(One question kept bugging me, as a former publisher: did Dominique sign a contract and get royalties? Carroll never mentions it.)