"the sole color of cruelty"

Self-Portrait in Green by Marie NDiaye, translated from French by Jordan Stump, is 4.5 x 6.9 x 0.3 inches & 120 pages.

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Two summers ago, when the practice of walking was an important cultural topic, I learned about the color hunt walk. Basically, you pick a color and that color directs your motion. So, if you choose red, and then you see a red car, you walk in that direction. Then you see a dog on a red leash and go that way, then go towards a holly bush with red berries and then towards a store with a red sign and then you end up at the H&M, just kidding. The creator of color hunt walk warned against three colors that were too ubiquitous to follow. I think one was silver, I think one was gold, and I know that the last one was green. 

In Marie NDaiye’s slippery novella Self-Portrait in Green, the narrator sees green everywhere, including places where it isn’t. The book is a psychological thriller where the unreal whirls alongside the real and there’s a haunting woman in green at every turn. It’s a work about the unnamed, the unconscious, the undiscussed, how our preoccupations obsess us, and how our obsessions overtake us until we can’t see anything else.

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Self-Portrait in Green is an Amina Cain (!) rec & also the February installment of Purse Book Gals-On-The-Go Official Book Club Book. Here’s what the gals thought:

• “I love green, it’s my favorite color to wear, but while I was reading this, I got very suspicious of green and didn’t wear any. But I wasn’t paranoid that I was a figure in green.” — Christina, who read this book partially at the DMV, good luck Christina. 

• “I thought this book was enchanted, though I disagree with the plant photo choice on the cover.” — Emily C.

• “A little creepy, a little convincing. I loved it!” — Mac A. 

• “Swept away, again.” — Simon K. who has read this book twice !

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P.S. I read that the French writer Collete Fellous suggested this project to NDiaye with these questions: "What if you wrote a self-portrait, Marie? How would you talk about yourself in a book? Alone with the book, no gossip; what would you say?" ALONE WITH THE BOOK, NO GOSSIP! This is one of those phrases where I have no idea what it means, and it really speaks to me.

P. P. S. I heard the French version has all sort of photographs of NDaiye’s in it (old family photographs, scenery, self-portraits). Feeling bereft about that!!