There is at times dense exposition: "Simultaneity is the total annihilation of time and not of movement; an annihilation to be conceived not necessarily as mystical experience, but by a constant exercise of the will to the absolute in abstract reasoning." Yet there is also wonderfully descriptive writing: "The sun went on blazing in the naked sky, and the countryside shrank back into itself, little by little, under the heat; the soil cracked in places, the grass turned a dirty yellow, sand heaped up in holes in the walls, and the trees were weighed down by dust. It seemed as though the summer would never end. .... The atmosphere made unremitting efforts."
This all tends to reflect and reinforce Adam's fragmented and mercurial mind. We do not learn whether he recently left the army or a mental institution; his internal and external dialogues leave both as possibilities. We do not know whether it is simply society, life in general or anything in particular that created his sense of alienation and detachment or his occasional delusions of seeming grandeur. When Adam ultimately acts publicly in a way that leads to being committed for psychiatric observation, there is still some question whether he or others are more perceptive of reality.
The nontraditional approach of The Interrogation and the fact it is the story of a seemingly unstable mind in existential crisis makes it unlikely to captivate a broad English-speaking audience. That does not, however, mean Le Clézio was awarded the Nobel Prize as a result of anti-American bias. To the contrary, the departure from literary norms The Interrogation embodies is one exhibit in a body of work of which Americans are too unaware, a body of work which undoubtedly provided more than adequate grounds for the honor. While the book is certainly not for everyone, the opportunity for Americans to explore for themselves the work that first brought Le Clézio to the attention of the literary world is one step toward reducing our insularity.
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