Alain Fleischer's 'Ambitions désavouées': A Novel of Reversed Ambition

Alain Fleischer's novel 'Ambitions désavouées' (Éditions du Seuil) follows narrator Léo Tigerman, an ironic Rastignac figure who, despite numerous prestigious opportunities, chooses a mundane post as cultural attaché in Peru. The narrative explores his systematic self-destruction, both professional and personal, dragging his lover Marika into his descent. The novel challenges traditional notions of ambition, presenting a protagonist who deliberately sabotages the expectations others have for him. Tigerman's journey includes encounters with a Hungarian-French writer officially dead for a decade, who engages him in conversations about death, nature, and love in the Amazon. The writer has published two novels, 'Roman des temps passés' and 'Roman des temps présents,' and provides installments of a third, 'Roman des temps à venir.' The novel is structured in two parts: 'L'épaisseur' (nearly 400 pages) and 'La surface' (about a dozen pages), creating a deliberate imbalance between depth and surface. Fleischer uses stylistic devices such as the pronoun 'j'il' to distance the narrator from himself. The work is a moralist exploration of lucidity, self-satisfaction, and the aggressive euphoria of elites, ultimately questioning whether the protagonist finds redemption or final decline.