Feeding my Modiano obsession (and yours)

From the novel, So You Don't Get Lost in the Neighborhood:

He had written this book only in the hope that she might get in touch with him. Writing a book, for him, was also a way of beaming a searchlight or sending out coded signals to certain people with whom he had lost touch.

The novel is by Patrick Modiano -- the first work I read by the French Nobel Laureate. And the start of an obsession. Coded signals!

Are you, too, obsessed with Modiano? I even stalk one of his translators on Twitter!

In the event you've also fallen under the spell of Patrick Modiano, I've compiled a list of links so I can obsessively immerse myself in his history.

Since that first wonderful novel, I've read the following books by Modiano:

Suspended Sentences

The Black Notebook

Invisible Ink

Missing Person

Pedigree (memoir; you can read an excerpt here https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2015/12/09/patrick-modiano-on-childhood/)

Paris Nocturne

In the Cafe of Lost Youth

The Occupation Trilogy

I find his obsession with maps and addresses and half-remembered episodes from his childhood mesmerizing.

I also love the way he presents childhood as a puzzle we spend the rest of our lives trying to solve.

And his obsession with perennially reconstructing his childhood mirrors my own, though he is careful to point out in Pedigree that he does so without nostalgia. His father was a shadowy figure -- on the run during World War II because of his Jewish heritage and willing to get his hands dirty to stay free -- and along with his mother, who performed in theater, frequently left Modiano in the care of friends.

If you, too, are mesmerized by this French fiction master, here are some good articles about Modiano:

From France Today:

https://francetoday.com/learn/books/patrick_modiano_literary_giant/

From The New Yorker:

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/patrick-modianos-postwar

AND

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/05/the-unforgotten-books-alexandra-schwartz

From Slate:

https://slate.com/culture/2014/10/patrick-modiano-wins-nobel-prize-these-are-his-three-best-books.html

From 3:AM Magazine:

https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/patrick-modiano-in-and-out-of-silence/

From the Paris Review:

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/02/24/lamplight-and-shadow/

From the website of Yale University Press (which has published some of Modiano's English translations):

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2020/12/18/a-conversation-with-patrick-modiano/

I had a ridiculous thought this past week -- we'll see if I follow through: perhaps I will try to read one of Modiano's books in the original French (with the English version close at hand; it would make sense to read a book I've already read). It's something I do when I am conducting translational research for my Italian translations -- comparing the English version to see how it matches up against the Italian original.

In this case, I will really be shoring up my High School French but small literary adventures like these make life truly rich, especially during those final hours of the day when a mother of a 10-year-old is looking for a small treat.

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