The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 16 April 2024
by Antoine Laurain
The French astronomer Guillaume le Gentil de la Galaisiére was a real historical figure, sent overseas by French royalty to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun in the summer if 1761. There are a few good scientific questions that can be answered by a careful observation of a transit. They're a little less specific to a transit today, but, back then, sailors traveled to the corners of the Earth to make these observations. Captain Cook's first voyage to the Pacific took place during this time, and with the same purpose: determine the distance from the Earth to the Sun (150,000,000 km). Transits are also infrequent, coming in pairs but with more than a century betwen each set of two. In any case, these observations were prized events, on par with the valuable products of trade.
Meanwhile, back here in 2012, Xavier is an estate agent in Paris. He deals in elegant and sometimes quirky condos and flats, the kind many of us imagine we would love to live in, in that urbane and stylish city. A cranky new owner wants the junk from the previous owner removed. Xavier turns up, pries open a closet, and discovers an ancient astronomical instrument, a copper and brass telescope, etched with names and dates and markings of time. He takes the antique home, sets it up on his lanai, and peruses the rooftops of Paris. That's what we do with telescopes, no? As much as the sky is full of obscure beauty, there will ever be the guilty pleasures of (hopefully) innocently scanning the windows of one's neighbors. In Xavier's case, it's a mysterious woman with a zebra.
In this novel (translated from the French Les caprices d'un astre), the author flips back and forth between the contemporary and historical stories. He deftly crafts numerous coincidences and parallels between them, but are they significant connections or merely the common echoes of human life? Xavier's romance grows, interrupted briefly for the French terrorism squad. Guillaume's journey is more or less doomed to failure. But in both cases, despite the loneliness and isolation evident in the protagonists' lives, there is yet room for hope. The book has a light touch, and this reader found its epilog rather brilliant. Recommended.