Tiphaine Samoyault's 'Bête de cirque' Explores Shame and War

In a review for artpress, Philippe Forest analyzes Tiphaine Samoyault's novel 'Bête de cirque' (published by Seuil in the 'Fiction & Cie' collection). The book employs a Chinese portrait game structure, using comparisons and analogies to approach its subject indirectly. Central themes include shame—of being human, a woman, a mother, or a writer—and living in an era without collective or individual horizons. The narrative revisits Sarajevo fifteen years after the author's humanitarian teaching mission during the war, questioning the meaning of that past engagement and her present situation. Sarajevo is depicted as a utopian center of Europe, a site for reinvention and reaffirmation of values, but also a forgotten city. Forest compares the novel's composition to Jean-Luc Godard's films, where fiction alternates with cinematic essay and philosophical conversation. Leonard Cohen's song 'There is a War' serves as a soundtrack, reflecting the wars between rich and poor, man and woman, left and right. The novel is seen as a prophecy of the present, akin to a new 'Confession of a Child of the Century,' expressing the fate of a generation lacking history. Forest argues that traditional novelistic forms are inadequate for such a situation, requiring a more perplexed and unresolved narrative formula. He concludes that the novelist, like Cassandra, chooses a side in the war between those who acknowledge war and those who deny it.