Jean-Philippe Blondel's Autofictional Road Novel

Jean-Philippe Blondel's novel "Et rester vivant" (Éditions Buchet Chastel) is a masterfully constructed autofiction that follows three young people on a road trip through America, their complex emotional bonds shaped by a family tragedy. The narrator, whose family was decimated in an accident, experiences a strange freedom and must decide whether to live. The narrative fluidly reveals memories through writing, making them tangible and vibrating at the edge of grasp. Characters and landscapes continuously resonate, with places like Morro Bay and Cabo San Lucas seeming animated, while characters are sometimes perceived as geological features. The story's rhythm and efficiency are inspired by Lloyd Cole's song that accompanies it. The book explores themes of forgetting, living, freedom, love, and building a life with others, without definitive statements. Thérèse Moro's review highlights the book's sincerity as evanescent, with movements of a story drawn and dissolved in the unsettling and delightful crossing of doubt.