The Emotions - by Jean-Philippe Toussaint (Paperback)

About the Book

"An analyst at the heart of the European Union revisits his past and anticipates the future after his father's death, in this brilliant, nuanced novel of love, politics, masculinity, and memory. A European civil servant specializing in strategic foresight, Jean Detrez works on the future with scientific rigor. However, the unexpected seems to invade his life, both professional and personal. The Brexit referendum, the election of Trump, the separation from his partner, the death of his father, but also a night inexplicably spent with a stranger. Questioning what to do with time, the one passing and the one to come, leads him from professional life where anticipation is a scientific discipline, to private life where the past troubles the future. Do we want to know what the next few days or weeks have in store for us? Do we want to know if we are going to experience a new romantic or sexual adventure in the hours to come? Or how close death really is? This novel is an experiment in the ways in which fiction disrupts our representation of reality. Jean Deprez foresees events that do not occur, does not imagine those that will crush him, does not always perceive what he is experiencing, and is never certain that his reconstruction of the past is faithful to what happened"--

Book Synopsis

An analyst at the heart of the European Union revisits his past and anticipates the future after his father's death, in this brilliant, nuanced novel of love, politics, masculinity, and memory.

A European civil servant specializing in strategic foresight, Jean Detrez works on the future with scientific rigor. However, the unexpected seems to invade his life, both professional and personal. The Brexit referendum, the election of Trump, the separation from his partner, the death of his father, but also a night inexplicably spent with a stranger. Questioning what to do with time, the one passing and the one to come, leads him from professional life where anticipation is a scientific discipline, to private life where the past troubles the future.

Do we want to know what the next few days or weeks have in store for us? Do we want to know if we are going to experience a new romantic or sexual adventure in the hours to come? Or how close death really is? This novel is an experiment in the ways in which fiction disrupts our representation of reality. Jean Deprez foresees events that do not occur, does not imagine those that will crush him, does not always perceive what he is experiencing, and is never certain that his reconstruction of the past is faithful to what happened.

Review Quotes

"[A] scintillating meditation on existential dread...Pairing amorous adventures with eschatological musings, Toussaint cannily confronts the impossibility of the future with the fleeting hope of the present...It's a stimulating ride." --Publishers Weekly

"Toussaint has written a subtle but bracing exploration of his protagonist's perceptions and failings. An ambitious chronicle of political and marital ambiguity." --Kirkus Reviews

"Toussaint...extends and enhances the long, rich thread of interior-monologue existentialist novels (see Marcel Proust and James Joyce) in this articulate and involving book...beautifully written, this slim volume cleaves into clean thematic passages that organically tie together and lead to a strangely satisfying ending." --Library Journal (starred review)

"[Toussaint] delicately draws attention to the subtle, intimate moments of emotion--glimpsed through glances, gestures, atmospheres...In his quietude, Toussaint is reasserting the human through the banal, through the quotidian, articulating a near-silent resistance in the face of the current predicaments facing Europe and the rest of the world." --Times Literary Supplement

"An erudite novel that prods feelings and intellect in satisfying ways...Toussaint addresses provocative questions throughout...Some readers may embrace the future, others may be terrified, but all will find plenty to discuss in this innovative work." --Shelf Awareness

"An intimate portrait...irresistibly human...Toussaint handles the seemingly boring nuances of bureaucratic work with remarkable precision and grace...curious minds and cynical hearts may find Jean Detrez a compelling representative of his weary, imperfect government." --Daily Californian

"An ambitious novel about the folly of trying to anticipate human affairs." --Financial Times

About the Author

Jean-Philippe Toussaint is a Belgian novelist, photographer, and filmmaker. He is the author of eighteen books, which have been translated into more than twenty languages and won numerous literary prizes, including the 2005 Prix Médicis for Fuir (Running Away) and the 2009 Prix Décembre for La Vérité sur Marie (The Truth about Marie). In 2012 Toussaint created an exhibition at the Louvre Museum that combines photographs, videos, installation art, and performance pieces to convey books without using writing.

Mark Polizzotti has translated more than fifty books from the French, including works by Gustave Flaubert, Patrick Modiano, Marguerite Duras, André Breton, and Raymond Roussel. His translation of Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga was short-listed for the National Book Award in 2022, and his translation of Éric Vuillard's The War of the Poor was short-listed for the International Booker Prize in 2021. A Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the recipient of a 2016 American Academy of Arts & Letters Award for Literature, Polizzotti is the author of eleven books, including Revolution of the Mind: The Life of André Breton (1995; rev. ed. 2009), which was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction; Luis Buñuel's Los Olvidados (2006); Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited (2006); and Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto (2018).