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The Prospector (1985)

by Jean-Marie G. Le Clézio(Favorite Author)

3.76 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1567923801 (ISBN13: 9781567923803)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Verba Mundi

review 1: I responded to the lyricism, the sensuality, the evocation of environments, but I was turned off by the protagonist's lack of real engagement with his human and natural communities. This was a story of a recluse, a failed colonialist and a failed dreamer, someone who made observations and had feelings, but who wasn't motivated to participate in life. I would've been much more interested in the stories of Denis or Ouma, his black teachers, who seemed to have their own vibrant communities and who enthusiastically engaged in their sustenance. To borrow Le Clezio's metaphors, there are as many stories as grains of sand on the beach or stars in the sky, and not all are worth telling.
review 2: Had I read this book when I was 16, I may have thought it a masterpiece. ... moreNow, I think it is boring and navel-gazing. In short, this is the story of a man of French decent who grew up on Mauritius. After recounting his childhood, the happiness of which is cut short by a hurricane and an evil uncle (seriously), he tries to recapture the magic of his boyhood for the rest of the book. He hunts buried treasure for years, goes to war, and has an affair with a beautiful woman. The affair is especially annoying. She is constantly appear, quickly disrobing, and then diving into a pool of water. The author is constantly describing her like this: "Ouma with her beautiful x-colored body," where x was brown, copper, coffee, and any other word he could think of. The moment when I actually audibly scoffed was when the narrator realizes that the valley is the universe and vice versa. Blah! less

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