Book: The Counterfeiters by Andre Gide
The Counterfeiters
We’ve all heard of the idea that we (and everyone else) play roles during our lives. In The Counterfeiters
And then there is the younger generation, who are stumbling around—trying on all these different roles to figure out who they truly are, or rather what their final role(s) should be.
So these people are like counterfeited coins—perhaps gold on the outside but glass underneath. And who can really tell the difference?
Does a fake coin know it is a fake? Or since it fulfills the function of a real coin, why can’t it be counted and categorized as real currency?—at least until the forgery is discovered?
These counterfeit characters combine to have counterfeit relationships. There are marriage infidelities, a mistaken parentage, fake friends, and real friends who deny their friendships.
Then into all of this we add the broken fourth wall. I never did figure out who the narrator is, but there is another character in the novel who is writing a novel called The Counterfeiters. Is he a character in his own story? or are the two elements completely separate ones? As Edouard, the novelist, comments on his own work, the narrator comments on Edouard.
It’s quite trippy.
Storywise, the plot is strong. This novel could have stood on its own as a straight forward tale. The first half starts off like (and feels a bit like) a Hugo or Tolstoy work. We start meeting characters chapter by chapter and wait for them to come together.
Readers should be warned that there are pedophilia elements (consensual relationships between men and teenaged boys) here. The effect is so subtle though that beyond one pairing, I can’t confidently be sure of any others.
This is not a terribly hard read but a challenging and fulfilling one. Andre Gide was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947 and from just this inventive work, I can understand why.
1% Well-Read Challenge status: ten completed, zero! to go.