Review of The Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme

Makine's Novel Reveals Much About the French/Russian Connection

Aug 8, 2009

Personal experience transcends nationality and history in this quest for identity.

Andreï Makine was born in Soviet Russia but lives in Paris and writes in French. His work explores twentieth century history, a particularly successful example being A Life’s Music. In The Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme, Makinefocuses on the impact of World War II on personal identity.

The novel is created from three interwoven stories: the relationship between Jacques and ‘Alexandra’ during the war; the childhood of the orphan narrator; and his adult search for the story of Jacques, who escaped Nazi imprisonment only to die in a plane crash in Siberia. His personal connection with him is not clear, but he obviously needs to revisit the past and ‘find Jacques’ to understand himself more in the present moment.

Jacques and ‘Alexandra’ are introduced to the reader on the night before the battle of Stalingrad. The pace of their lives is dictated by the dramatic events that they are a part of; the war has brought Jacques to Alexandra and the war will take him away again. A totally private experience becomes impossible.

The intensity of the war intensifies time, so that, ‘The span of their life together is to be so short that everything will happen to them for both the first and last time.’ (pg1) A love affair that would normally last a lifetime is compressed into less than a week.

No-one can be completely individual in this novel. The narrator’s sense of self is dependent on understanding a war relationship that happened before he was born. He needs another person to understand himself – indeed, another culture.

The narrator remembers reading about the four noblemen of Aquitaine as a child, and ‘What I was searching for in my reading was what I lacked. Attachment to a place (that of my birth was too ill defined), a personal mythology, a family past. But, above all...the divine freedom to reinvent life, and to people it with heroes.’ (pg 51) He is searching for his story.

The Influence of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry on Makine’s The Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme

The character of Jacques Dorme is hugely inspired by the iconic French writer and pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Both were adventurious pilots who died in mysterious plane crashes and both had passionate affairs. Most significantly, they fought the Germans and were prepared to die for their cause – bravery which challenges the typical wartime image of the French surrendering to the Nazis. The courage of many individuals transcends national boundaries.

The connection between France and Russia is significant. Indeed, Makine’s decision to write in French is a source of contention in Russia – French was spoken by the Russian aristocracy and considered to be the language of culture and diplomacy. French nicknames appear in nineteenth century Russian literature, including Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

Alexandra is a French woman who became stranded behind the iron curtain to spend her life in the Soviet Union. Her real name is not mentioned – the Russians around her call her ‘Alexandra’ or ‘Shula.’

Her memories of Fin de Siècle France, and the French language, sustain her throughout her difficult life, and she is able to pass this linguistic love on to the narrator during his unhappy childhood in a Siberian orphanage. Although his first language is Russian, it is French that opens his heart and becomes his mother tongue when she tells him a story about Mother love, something he has not experienced before.

The search for Jacques seems to be the narrator’s search for French identity. Aviation is tremendously important in French culture. The image of a man exploring the air, an element that is not a natural habitat for humans, carries great significance. It is part of the national identity, and the life of Saint-Exupéry has become an important part of the French story. Perhaps this also reflects Makine’s personal search as a writer in the French language.

Nationality therefore becomes a complex issue. Alexandra was a Frenchwoman stranded in Russia. Jacques was a French pilot who somehow ended up flying planes for the Russians. The narrator is a Russian who returns to the country of his birth to rediscover his connection with France there – and this search evokes memories of his Russian childhood.

National boundaries are broken down within individual experience, and people are more than individual countries. As Makine said in an interview with the New Statesman, “Stalin or Churchill did not win any battles, but the soldiers themselves – Mr Smith, Dupont or Ivanov. These men had brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, wives, children, lovers. Our memories can make them immortal.”

Andreï Makine (trans. Geoffrey Strachan), The Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme (Hodder and Stoughton, 2005)

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