In the Café of Lost Youth

Louki was her name at the café Condé. But she was Jacqueline originally. Unless she only ever became who she was when she was named again, when her life became a fixed point for other lives passing by. She was a creature of the neutral zones, those grey areas of Paris in the 1950s where everyone is travelling on an alternate passport. And neither her boyfriend, sometimes called Roland, nor her husband, nor the less the savoury people from her past appear to know the first thing about her. But was there ever anything to know?

Told obliquely by different characters, including Louki herself, this highly evocative tale captures a certain wistful bohemian existence which may not be accessible to us now. This is Modiano at his best, just show more beyond the edge of narrative. The kind of writing that, if the “events” of the story were lined up in linear order, the entire sense would be lost. I was transfixed.

Definitely recommended. show less

The café is called the Condé, in Paris. The lost youth are a loose group that convene there, none of whom appear to be notable, now or in the future. A figure of intrigue is a girl nick-named Louki. She’s as lost as the others, maybe more so. Four narrators, including Louki, tell her story, ultimately a tragic one.

As with most of Modiano’s novels there are elements of mysticism, ambiguity of time and space, and looking back at events that happened to the narrators some time ago. And as always, much of the story consists of “details that conceal other details, much more painful ones.” Navigating the details and the journey are, as always, worth it.

3.5 a little over my head? or challenging in translation? It has that angsty French feel of Sartre and I kept feeling like understanding was just out of my grasp. Set in Paris in the 1950s, no doubt there are post-war dynamics at play too, but it seems like a good portion of the city sits in cafes (more like bars are in America) debating existential topics, and covering up realities and alter-egos with nicknames and vague revelations about their past. In this story, the cafe is called the Conde, and it is a hub for intellectuals, lesser known writers and hangers on. It is told from 4 points of view, though the story is about a young woman called Louki (nickname) who is a waifish beauty and a bit lost. The first point of view is an show more unnamed younger man - high school age? who just hangs around and observes and notices everything about a certain group who congregates there - mostly middle-age men with Louki on the fringes. "She was taking refuge here....as if she were running from something, trying to escape some danger." (11) Next comes a private detective who is able to fill in more of the blanks about this mysterious woman, aka Jaqueline Delanque Choureau. However, he sits on his findings. Next we hear from Louki herself about her childhood with her single mother who works at the Moulin Rouge, her restlessness and her efforts to see more of the city/life in her teens, which seems to take a hinted-at dark turn due to the company she kept then. Finally, Roland gets his turn - her well-matched (in age and interest) lover with whom she spends a lot of time in the cafe, pursuing esoteric concepts of Eternal Return theory and Neutral Zones with a noted lecturer. It's almost like dabbling in the occult. What this all comes to is surprising, but not unexpected. Gem of the writer (or translator): "In this life that sometimes seems to be a vast, ill-defined landscape without signposts, amid all of the vanishing lines and the lost horizons, we hope to find reference points, to draw up some sort of land registry so as to shake the impression that we are navigating by chance. So we forge ties, we try to find stability in chance encounters." (40) show less

I had wanted something quick but intriguing at the library and I found this book. This is a story about a woman who is a regular at the Cafe Conde as told by four different people, one of whom is Louki herself. I loved the setting, 1950's Paris, and the reminiscing that the past is gone now, the buildings sold to foreigners and turned into high end shops. (Just like the US!)
There is a sad, dreamy quality about this book, an indie movie kind of film. It was a good translation, judging by the mood of the book. I wanted to be there, just for awhile.

Reading other reviews, I see people equate the lost youth as the ones who frequent the cafe. I saw the lost youth as those who are now older and remembering this Paris.

This is a sad, melancholy and at the same time beautiful book. Told from the perspective of several of the characters in the book it is, as its title says, a story of lost youth in one of the most beautiful cities on earth.

The writing of Patrick Modiano, Nobel prize in literature 2014, reminds of Alberto Giacometti’s emaciated statues, isolated beings lacking in flesh and blood. The protagonists meet and talk but there is neither much happening nor true interaction between the protagonists. This coffee shop of lost souls is waiting for Godot without the humor. Fortunately the page count is very low so there is little time wasted. The most fun part of Modiano for me is the voyeuristic tracking the Paris addresses on Google Streetview as he offers street addresses including house numbers. The story thus seems very constructed and flat.

1950s Paris, especially at night, is the real star of this book. Of the four narrators, three look for fixed points to navigate the chaos of life. Louki, the fourth and the main character, constantly flees fixity and stability. The end is inevitable rather than shocking.