Author: Camille Laurens, translated by Adriana Hunter

Publisher: Other Press

ISBN: 97801635421019

Is it a good thing, a bad thing, or an indifferent thing when a review of a new novel draws a comparison to the work of a highly-lauded, world-famous author?

The jury is out on that. Has been and likely will remain that way. There’s just no way to measure the effect. All a reviewer can do is share impressions and let the literary pieces fall where they may. 

The first few pages of Girl bring to mind one of Pearl S. Buck’s most intriguing (albeit  not very famous) novels, The Eternal Wonder. I am compelled to say at this point that whenever I am asked about my all-time favorite authors, Pearl Buck is always at the top of the list. Now, The Eternal Wonder tells the story of a gifted young man who embarks on a search for meaning and purpose, and in the early pages, readers actually travel with the character on a different kind of journey—actually preparing to spring forth from the mother’s womb, and then entering the world, after which we spend some time with the newborn and are allowed to see, hear, and absorb what the author imagines the newborn himself is observing and questioning. 

To be sure, Girl does not follow that precise route, but the author (and her translator) approach the storytelling, at least in the early portion, with an analogous construct. In this case, it’s all about being a girl, specifically, rather than what it’s like to be a human. 

I wonder how compelled I would have been to read Girl had Pearl Buck’s The Eternal Wonder not popped into my mind as I began reading. It’s hard to tell. But it did make me realize that there is enough inventiveness and narrative strength here to make the author, and this work, a good contender for anyone’s should-read list.  

In fact, she’s already proven herself. Laurens, who was born and lives in France, won the Prix Femina, one of her country’s top literary awards, for a novel that in the U.S. is called In His Arms, and another earlier work, Who You Think I Am, was made into a motion picture starring Juliette Binoche. Dancer Aged Fourteen is another of her popular works that garnered stellar reviews.  

Is a girl’s place in life inferior to a boy’s? What does it mean to be one, to give birth to one, to pass along lessons and messages all reflective of that question?

Common literary review verbiage, such as coming-of-age, sweeping saga, biographical, analytical, and several others all come into play here, which is particularly interesting since the volume has the overall appearance of being slender and streamlined. Perhaps that’s one of the most important observations. Maybe that says more than a critical examination of the story ever could. Possibly that may continue to facilitate Laurens’ ascendancy to a literary circle into which  masses of literary lovers will want to be embraced. I wasn’t quite in that explicitly embraceable mood after I finished Girl, but neither I willing to walk away from it. Not by any stretch. You just never know where books, careers, stories, and reputations will lead when it comes to popularity and favorite-author statuses. It can be a mystery. It’s an eternal wonder.