Novel
Changing Track
La Modification
Michel Butor · 1957
Synopsis
Léon Delmont, who runs the French branch in Paris of an Italian typewriter firm, takes the train to Rome. He is going to join his mistress, Cécile, to tell her that he will bring her to Paris and that he will leave his wife, Henriette, and their four children for her. During the long journey, he observes the travellers, the compartment and the landscape, and begins to go back over the decision he believed he had made.
Context
The novel appeared from Éditions de Minuit in 1957 and received the prix Renaudot the same year. It is written from beginning to end in the second person plural: this vous, which designates the traveller, also addresses the reader directly. The journey from Paris to Rome is the sole setting of the narrative, which follows the course of the traveller's thoughts over a single trip. It is the most famous of its author's novels, and it is often presented as the most widely read book of the Nouveau Roman.
Who it is for
A novel held entirely within the consciousness of a traveller, which the use of “vous” brings close to the reader.
Prizes and reception
Translated into English by Jean Stewart, it appeared in 1958 under the title Second Thoughts, then under those of A Change of Heart and Changing Track, reissued in 2017.
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