Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

Even though Fear and Trembling is based on Amelie Nothomb‘s own experiences, this novella feels like a dark modern satire. Ostentatiously, this book is about a young Belgian woman working for a year in male-and-tradition strong Japan.

While culture definitely plays a role in the book, I feel that the story is translatable and transferable to almost any society with a modern work life. There are ridiculous corporate hierarchies, asinine bosses, gender wars, and the pure absurdities that seem inescapable when one works.

Even though I am comfortable calling this a satire, I think that this book’s reputation and regard is partly built upon how breezy Amelie Nothomb can be while making everything ring true. The heroine is not living a fable or a situational comedy.

I have no trouble believing the series of events that bring the fictional Amelie from her empty job of sitting at a desk through her required resignation from a position that expired on its own. It’s just that as I read the book, it seems like a story one would tell over dinner to a group of close friends when one is finally back home. They’ll be shocked and dismayed at portions of the tale, but they’ll laugh—sometimes uncomfortably, sometimes with true merriment, but often in amazement tinged with disbelief.

Perhaps that’s what’s so interesting about Fear and Trembling. It makes us realize that our own lives are probably as absurd and satirical as Amelie’s is. We just don’t have the proper narrative voice setting that up for us.

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1001 Books To Read Before You Die list: 85 down.
New Author Challenge: nine completed, six to go.

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