Manuel Pereira da Ponte Martins, figlio di un ricco latifondista sudamericano, è un uomo molto ambizioso e punta al potere. Ma ha un problema, una veggente gli ha predetto che morirà per mano del suo popolo. L’uomo decide quindi di fuggire ma prima istruisce un sosia che prenderà il suo posto. Ma anche il sosia istruirà un altro sosia, avviando così una spirale, in cui le controfigure diventano protagonisti del romanzo. E Pennac intermezza la storia, anzi le storie dei suoi sosia, con dei paragrafi chiaramente autobiografici, spaesando ancor di più il già spaesato lettore. Lo stile di scrittura di Daniel Pennac rimane brioso, brillante, ma siamo lontano dalle storie del signor Malaussène, in questo romanzo, che viene anzi definito metaromanzo da una parte della critica, il tono narrativo non è per nulla lineare. Ma la lettura ne risente, e ne risente molto, il continuo gioco di Pennac di aggiungere personaggi, citazioni, non funziona, il ritmo diventa inutilmente altalenante, lo scrittore francese non è Calvino, tra un buon romanziere ed un grande scrittore ci sono grandi differenze e questa prova di Pennac ne è testimonianza. ( )

The Dictator and the Hammock by Daniel Pennac My rating: Five stars out of five!
First publish, in French, in 2003. Published in English in 2006.

Daniel Pennac’s book, The Dictator and the Hammock, is as much a demonstration of how to plot a story, develop characters, and harvest the wealth of ideas in one’s life experiences as it is a novel. It has an unusual structure for a novel and, in theatrical terms, it breaks the fourth wall by speaking to the reader, albeit in the sense of the author voicing his thoughts as he puts the story together. With this book Pennac has done for the novel what Brecht did for stage performances; he created a fiction that is clearly a fiction and he does not let the reader escape the fact that it is a fiction. That is until that latter part of the book where he plays with the readers mind blurring the line between fiction and reality. More on that later.

Let me warn you that I mention a few plot elements and you may wish not to read this before reading the book. I have read this book twice and when reading it for the second time I found my knowledge of the story did not reduce my enjoyment.

I was first drawn to the book by the blurb on the back that outlines the plot of the story stating that it is about a Dictator who gets bored with his duties and installs a double in his own place while he heads off to Europe to live the life of a playboy. It is basically an amusing farce and I prepared myself for some laughs, and indeed I found many laughs in this story. I was a bit shocked, however, when what appeared to be the end of the story about the Dictator appeared on page 38 with the end of the novel being on page 271. I asked myself, “What is going on here?”

I was more confused when, in the next section, Pennac starts recounting what appeared to be random observations about his time living in Brazil. Apparently he spent much of his time when in Brazil in a hammock, the hammock of the title, writing letters to a friend. These letters, he tells us, are the source of ideas, scenes and characters he has used in the story. It turns out his fictional country is a real state in North Eastern Brazil, Piauí, and his fictional capital city, “Teresina”, is the real capital city of Piauí.

As one reads these apparently random observations the author surprises us with little comments that link to the content of the story of the Dictator. This becomes more frequent until we come to the end of his description of an unintended visit to Teresina. This section ends with Pennac and his companions discovering two locals watching a Charlie Chaplin movie on a small black and white television they have hooked up to a street light as it is their only source of electricity. Pennac and his companions are laughing with the locals as they watch the silent movie and Pennac suddenly gets an inspiration about continuing the plot of his novel.

In the first part of the book, up to page 86, he told us the story of the Dictator. He also spoke to us about what would make a good story. This is part of not letting us forget we are reading a fiction.

In the second section he was telling us about his life experiences in Brazil and through his apparent random observations, some which were very insightful with respect to human life, theatre and politics, he has given us a look at where his ideas and inspirations have come from. It was through his life that ideas were created and evolved.

After Teresina the story continues, but it is enhanced. The original 86 pages told the story of the Dictator, what he did and what happened to him. On page 86 that story had finished, or so I thought. Well, perhaps that story had finished, but Pennac asks, “What happened the double who had remained in Teresina playing the role of Dictator in the real Dictator’s absence?”

The answer is the next part of the book and we follow the double to his death many years later on page 154.

At that stage Pennac asks more questions about the person who found the double’s body. Who was she? Why had she dried tears from his face? Did she know him?

Following the answers to these questions we come to the story of Sonia. Sonia grows in stature as Pennac explores her character, her motivation, her personal preferences, and her family background. It is here that Pennac is starting to play with the reader’s mind and starting to weave the writer’s spell that will start to blur the boundary between fact and fiction. As we proceed through the story of Sonia her character grows and we discover she is a strong, confident woman. Pennac toys with the idea of her being a real person and mentions this in passing.

While fleshing out Sonia’s character he poses questions to her about her encounter with the double and answers these questions thus building her character and backstory further.

The double’s death occurred in December 1940, the same month Daniel Pennac was born. He was writing this book in the late 1990s and into 2002. He wonders what has happened Sonia and what age she would be now if she were seventeen when she discovered the double’s body in 1940. Over dinner with friends he mentions her name and it turns out the friends know her. She became a very successful set designer and is in fact living in Paris, not far from the apartment where Pennac and his wife live. Through his friends he arranges to visit Sonia Ka and finds her an amazing elderly lady. They talk about the night she found the body and what has happened in her life since then.

Out of interest Sonia asks to read the book when it is finished to see what he will do with the information she has given him. Pennac likes this idea and sends her a copy of the manuscript which he completes during his holiday in the Vercòrs region. On returning to Paris he visits Sonia to get her impression of the book. At their meeting she tells him some of the things he got wrong, the things he got right, and she pleads with him to have a decent ending, not a Philip Roth ending that she finds insulting in its tidy, neat sewing up of loose ends.

I see this last part of the story as Pennac demonstrating how a writer can craft a story to have the reader wondering what is real and what is fiction. The first time I read this book I found myself having to remind myself it was all a fiction. Pennac was consulting one of his fictional characters about the “facts” and speculations in his story. He takes her advice and completes the ending in a fashion she would favour. In addition, she quizzes him about parts of his life and why he has made certain decisions.

I see this book as a guide to plotting stories, creating and developing characters, and a demonstration of the power of mixing fact with fiction in a way that leaves the reader wondering which part is fiction and which part is fact. At the end of this story I was left feeling Sonia was the most real person in the whole book.

In addition
I have dealt above with Pennac’s structure for this story and my perception of the book as a master class in fiction writing. In addition to the story and the subliminal instructions to writers, Pennac has filled this book with dozens of axiomatic observations and ideas, many relating to politics, but just as many about human life and the motivations that drive us. I have underlined dozens of quotes and would need to write several more pages to deal with the issues raised and their implications.

Would I read more work from Daniel Pennac?

Yes, and I have.

Would I recommend this book to anyone?

Yes.

Who would I recommend this book to?

Anyone who likes to get more from a book than just the story. Someone who likes to ponder political ideas, human motivation, and humour. Anyone with a desire to write might use it as a case study to help develop their creativity and how to add substance to form in their stories. ( )

Unico libro di Pennac che ho trovato pesante da leggere ( )

Wonderful, touching, intriguing. The history of a dictator and his alter ego. Wonderfully read by Claudio Bisio, and with fantastic musical accompaniment. This is the story. ( )

http://www.poxd.org/2007/12/17/lectures-3/ ( )