Olivier Rolin's 'Tigre en papier' revisits May '68 with grace

Olivier Rolin's novel 'Tigre en papier', published by Éditions du Seuil for the 2002 literary season, recounts the story of Martin, a former leader of the Gauche prolétarienne, who narrates to Marie, daughter of his late comrade Treize, the world of revolutionary idealism and its disappearance. Set during a night of endless drives on the Paris périphérique, the book reflects on May 1968 and its aftermath, avoiding self-celebration and easy irony. Martin attends a friend's 50th birthday in a Belleville bistro, where he encounters Marie. Through fragments and digressions, he evokes a youth driven by self-transcendence and impossible horizons, rejecting consumerism. The novel intertwines references to Proust, transforming autobiographical experience into a metaphor for the individual's struggle against mediocrity. A key episode describes Martin and Treize climbing the south tower of Saint-Sulpice at dawn; Treize later falls fatally, an ambiguous accident or suicide that marks the end of a totalizing vision. Rolin's prose is praised for its sincerity, humor, and lyrical power, capturing the burlesque and tragic aspects of revolutionary commitment.