The Prospector
At the turn of the 20th century, on the island of Mauritius, the idyllic childhood of Alexis L’Étang and his beloved sister, Laure, is about to come to an end. Alexis’ father’s death precipitates him into a darker world and a quest which will carry him from the remote islands of the Indian Ocean to the hell of the Flanders’ battlefields and back again. He dreams endlessly of a return to his childhood home, to Laure, and to his mysterious lover, Ouma.
This is a deceptively simple novel, gently paced and with a dreamlike quality which belies its profound harshness and cruelty. By using language which is mesmerically repetitive and ritualistic, Le Clézio overlays every scene in the novel with a sense of distance and unreality, as though nothing is really happening but is an elaborate figment of its protagonist’s fevered and obsessive imagination. The long central section of the novel sees Alexis living rough on the island of Rodrigues, searching for the treasure of the mysterious Corsair, whose maps he has pored and dreamed over all his life. It is evident to the reader, and everyone else in the book, that his search is a fantasy, and this in turn makes the reader wonder if the rest of his life is also fantasy, from his joyful childhood and his romance with Laure, to his relationship with Ouma, to the war itself. For Alexis, nothing really exists but his quest for the treasure, and this is the slow, sad story of his disillusionment.
A beautiful novel, though not for you if you like a fast pace and a strong plot. It will, though, make you want to drop everything except your passport and head for Mauritius.
