Alain Julien Rudefoucauld's 'Le dernier contingent' Reviewed by Alexandre Mare

Alexandre Mare reviews Alain Julien Rudefoucauld's novel 'Le dernier contingent', published by Tristram. The book follows six adolescents—Marco, Sylvie, Thierry, Xavier, Malid, and Manon—who flee the adult world after being pushed outside the law by a crushing system. The narrative is choral, with each character speaking in the first person, yet they share a single voice—a violent, literary language at odds with street reality. Manon, a teenage prostitute in Bordeaux, calculates earnings from gang bangs and oral sex. Marco is two meters tall; Malid also sells sex; Sylvie witnessed her father's suicide and escaped a gang rape. The story unfolds in concentric circles, evoking Pierre Guyotat's 'Eden, Eden, Eden' on the Algerian War. The book is timeless, not set in a specific era, and ends with the line: 'And it is in the antechamber of hell that I speak...' which could also be the first, suggesting an eternal return.