The Prospector (1985)

Lots of symbolism (e.g., modern man's yearning to return to paradise lost; man's inhumanity to man, whether family member or stranger; the meaning/value of life; the grass is always greener elsewhere, etc.). Minimal plot and character development. Lovely images. Reminds me of Saramago's "The Cave". ( )

A sun drenched prose poem about the sea and the loss of childhood. Some of my comments here:

http://drconway.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/the-return-of-pierre-and-virginia-or-th... ( )

This, then, is the story: Boy leaves home in search of treasure. He eventually returns, but “home” is no longer what he remembers. And yet despite the fact that Ali’s journey involves storms and sea voyages, treasure hunts and surviving Ypres and the Battle of Somme, the story is almost equally one of internal voyages as it is external adventure. It is one of those books where even when apparently nothing happens it seems like everything has happened. Where long years seem packed into tiny moments of epiphany; an account of a walk to the beach is just as fraught as an account of a typhoon sweeping over the island. A description of slaughtering sea turtles for dinner as horrific as walking through a field of battle piled with the bloated corpses of dead horses. A man thrown into a furnace during a labor riot and a girl grilling fish on a beach both carry a kind of shattering, bright clarity. Perhaps because the voice is almost entirely in the present tense, it makes even the smallest moments seem immediate and vivid, and the smallest actions weighted with intensity—as if things could fly off into unknown directions at any point, since the future is as unknown and mysterious to Ali as he is telling his story, as it is to us in our own lives. full review

This novel about a man's search for a lost treasure and personal fulfillment begins on the island of Mauritius in 1892, where the eight year old Alexis L'Estang lives with his parents and beloved older sister Laure in an isolated house, surrounded by rich foliage and close to the sea, which nurtures and draws him in every night. His older friend Denis, the son of the black cook who lives nearby, teaches him about the mysteries of the sea and the local flora in the mountainous forest above it. His father also passes on to him his dream to find the hidden treasure of the Unknown Corsair, through maps and stories.

The family's idyllic existence is disrupted by tragedy, causing it to sink into poverty, and Alexis is forced to take on responsibilities in advance of his years. However, he does not abandon his father's dream, and he eventually travels to the island of Rodrigues to seek the treasure that will ensure his family's good standing. There he meets Ouma, the love of his life, but his search is disrupted by the onset of the Great War, and he must abandon his search, and Ouma. Eventually he is able to return, as an older man whose dream and love have not been diminished by time, but his family's continued poverty and changes in the region cause his dual goals to become more distant and seemingly unachievable.

The Prospector is filled with evocative descriptions of the sea and island life, which was its main strength, along with the love that Alexis and Ouma shared for each other, and the description of the horrors of trench warfare. However, the other characters, especially Laure and Alexis' mother, were not portrayed as richly, and I had some difficulty in understanding Alexis' motivations and actions. Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed, and would highly recommend, this beautifully told story. ( )

For the most part I found this book riveting and hauntingly beautiful, but at times I just wanted to shake the narrator and tell him to stop mooning around. The novel starts with the narrator, Alexis L'Etang, reflecting on his idyllic childhood, particularly in the year 1892 when he was 8, on the island of Mauritius. With his mother and sister, he reads and becomes engrossed in mythic tales; with his father he learns about the stars and the Unknown Corsair, who left clues to a treasure buried on a nearby island; with his childhood friend, Denis, from a family of freed slaves, he explores the amazingly beautiful natural wonders of the island and goes out on a boat for the first time. Of course, such a paradise cannot last, and Alexis spends the remainder of the book trying to recapture it, first by compulsively continuing his father's obsession with finding the treasure of the Unknown Corsair and then through his own obsession with Ouma, a beautiful and mysterious member of an isolated indigenous group. The spell is broken when Alexis serves in the first world war, a world utterly different from Mauritius in every respect, but of course he returns.

But the book is not really about this plot. It is really a paean to the natural world -- unspoiled landscapes, the stars, birds and plants, weather, and above all the sea -- and an exploration of how we search for meaning and purpose. Le Clézio is a wonderful writer who drew me in with his language and the images of this almost mythic tropical world; the section depicting the power of a hurricane is dramatic, and the many portraits of the sea and its power over humans are compelling. The book also examines, mostly subtly, the impact of colonialism and racism.

For most of the book, I was completely drawn in to Alexis's world and his quest (and I must agree with the other LT reviewer who said that the English title is not a good reflection of what Alexis is doing, that he is much more a searcher as in the French title than a prospector as in the English). But the World War I section, the ambiguous character of Ouma (who at times seems real and at times doesn't), and the novel's conclusion all left me puzzled as to how they fit with the rest of the book. In the end, the novel made me think, and that's good.