Fashion, art, philosophy and anthropology converge in Jouet's (Mountain R
) slim, semibiographical novella based on the life of postimpressionist artist Paul Gauguin, grafting the facts of the famed painter's life onto a new Paul Gauguin, a clothing designer. Paul, a young man “still in a formative state,” recounts his trials and failures at several careers before stumbling into experimental fashion design after a happenstance meeting with a curious old woman named Madame Taillefeu-Ponçard, who sparks his creativity and trains his artist's eye. After being abandoned by his wife and inspired by his lover, Ananwana, Paul travels to a series of French colonies to explore the limits of fashion, art and the human experience. While the novella offers a series of interesting points of discussion, the book's sparse, dutiful re-creation of an increasingly mentally ill narrator prevents the reader from fully engaging with the story. This novella feels mostly like an unfinished literary experiment. (June)
