Changing Track

by Michel Butor, Jean Stewart (Translator)

On a train from Paris to Rome on his way to surprise his lover, the businessman Léon Delmont begins to mull over his past and question the decisions he has made about his future. These musings – together with his impressions of the unfolding scenery, conjectures about his fellow passengers and some recurring leitmotifs – form the basis of a riveting narrative that provides a psychological case study of an everyman and subtly illustrates the onset of the protagonist’s doubts and fears.

Published in 1957 and awarded the prestigious Prix Renaudot, Michel Butor’s groundbreaking third novel remains the most popular and widely read work of the nouveau roman genre. Famously written in the second person in order to immerse the reader more fully into the psyche of the main character, Changing Track pulls off the rare feat of being at once experimental and accessible, disquieting and engrossing.

Genres: France, Fiction, French Literature, Novels, Roman, Literature, Classics

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Michel Marie François Butor was born in Mons-en-Barœul, a suburb of Lille. He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, graduating in 1947. He has taught in Egypt, Manchester, Thessaloniki, the United States, and Geneva. He has won many literary awards for his work, including the Prix Apollo, the Prix Fénéon; and the Prix Renaudot.

Journalists and critics have associated his novels with the nouveau roman, but Butor himself long resisted that association. The main point of similarity is a very general one, not much beyond that; like exponents of the nouveau roman, he can be described as an experimental writer. His best-known novel, La Modification, for instance, is written entirely in the second person. In his 1967 La critique et l'invention, he famously said that even the most literal quotation is already a kind of parody because of its "trans-contextualization."

For decades, he chose to work in other forms, from essays to poetry to artist's books to unclassifiable works like Mobile. Literature, painting and travel are subjects particularly dear to Butor. Part of the fascination of his writing is the way it combines the rigorous symmetries that led Roland Barthes to praise him as an epitome of structuralism (exemplified, for instance, by the architectural scheme of Passage de Milan or the calendrical structure of L'emploi du temps) with a lyrical sensibility more akin to Baudelaire than to Robbe-Grillet.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Léon Delmont goes on the train from Paris to Rome to meet his mistress, Cécile. He yearns for a new life on a new footing and he is full of hopes and looks forward to the new start with his beloved and the cardinal changes in his life.
He scrupulously observes the other passengers, contemplates arts, recollects and analyzes his family life, his work, his habitual visits to Rome and his previous rendezvous with Cécile.
And the train goes on…

And once again now grown customary noise and rocking movements resume and the world outside the window is running to meet you, to that boundary without the beginning or end which goes through your seat, and behind that boundary it disappears out of sight, and again the wind rushes in the compartment and instantly dries up the air.

But the nearer is Rome the less sure becomes Léon… Doubts arrive instead of hopes… Anticipation turns into apprehension. Fears nest in his heart.
All the previous travels and the present ride merge in the single endless journey… Léon falls asleep and he dreams that Charon carries him across the river Styx in his boat to the world of the dead and dream merges with life…
Nostalgia reigns over the world so the past always seems to be better than the present. But the past will never repeat.

[Mohammad Hrabal · Rating 3 out of 5]

متاسفانه نتوانستم با آن زیاد ارتباط بر قرار کنم. برای خواندن آن باید خیلی حوصله داشته باشید.

[sAmAnE · Rating 4 out of 5]

اما خوب می‌دانید که به هیچ‌روی گریه نخواهد کرد، و تنها به این بسنده خواهد کرد که بی‌آنکه کلمه‌ای به زبان بیاورد نگاهتان کند، و بی‌آنکه کلامتان را قطع کند خواهد گذاشت که برایش سخن‌رانی کنید. خوب می‌دانید که دست آخر، خود شما از خستگی و بی‌حوصلگی دیگر ادامه نخواهید کرد، و در آن هنگام خواهید دید که در اتاقتان هستید، که دارد خیاطی می‌کند، که دیروقت است، که از این سفر خسته‌اید، که در میدان باران می‌بارد...

دگرگونی برام از اون دست کتاب‌های خاص بود، که هیچ‌وقت خوندنش رو فراموش نمی‌کنم. کتابی سرشار از روزمرگی‌های خیلی معمولی ولی مهم برای شخصیت اصلی داستان... داستان مردی میانسال و متاهل که در سفر خود از پاریس به رم زندگی پیشین و آینده‌ای را که پیش رو دارد، را به تصویر می‌کشد و سردرگم است برای انتخاب و تصمیمی که باید بگیرد. سفر او با قطار است که با توضیحات داده شده قطعا برایش مهم بوده. دنیای درونی مرد میانسال بی‌نظیر نوشته شده بود.

[Ratko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Мишел Битор један је од представника тзв. француског „новог романа“, који се јавио педесетих година ХХ века. „Преиначење“ критика наводи као његов најбољи роман.

Сиже је наизглед баналан, конвенционалан – средовечни, добростојећи мушкарац, са пристојним животом и породицом у Паризу, запослени у једној италијанској компанији писаћих машина, током пословних боравака у Риму упознаје млађу љубавницу са којом одржава везу на даљину. У једном тренутку одлучио је да раскрсти са старим животом, разведе се и доведе љубавницу да му буде ближе, у самом Паризу.

Ми га упознајемо у тренутку када започиње путовање јутарњим возом Париз–Рим, где иде да изненади своју љубавницу и саопшти јој своју дефинитивну одлуку о „новом животу“. Тако ће на наредним страницама једина позорница бити купе у том возу током 22 сата путовања, дакле неће се ништа посебно дешавати. Идеално време да се одспава, прочита нека књига или можда промисли о свом животу, прошлости, будућности, о стегама и притисцима, о породици, љубави, старењу итд. Управо је тај интензивни унутрашњи свет нашег јунака оно што чини ову књигу толико маестралном (и још једном ме подсећа зашто волим књиге „у којима нема радње“).
У ритму клопарања воза смењују се унутрашње слике нашег главног јунака. Временски план у коме он размишља није линеаран. Јављају се многобројна прошла пословна путовања истом трасом, коју путник већ зна напамет, али он замишља и будућа путовања на овој релацији, као и будући живот. Како се време доласка на крајње одредиште приближава, ентузијазам са којим је пошао и увереност у исправност своје одлуке се све више сенчи. У међувремену седи у купеу и посматра пејзаж и сапутнике. Прелази су често нагли, без „упозорења“, час се возимо у једном, час у другом смеру, смењују се дан и ноћ, зима и лето, тако да се све стапа у један континуум. Купе у возу Рим–Париз тако постаје симболом самог живота.
Занимљива је такође дихотомија Рим–Париз. Живот у Паризу (монотон, досадан, са женом и децом које више не разуме) контрастира се са лагодним и полетним животом на Медитерану, али, испоставиће се, можда је то само илузија.
Веома је занимљиво да је књига у највећем делу писана у другом лицу (ви улазите..., ви ћете сести...), што јесте неуобичајено, али сјајно функционише.
Осврнуо бих се још на изванредан превод на српски самог наслова – La Modification. У најопштијем би се то превело као промена/измена/модификација, али скидам капу ономе ко се сетио речи „преиначење“. То одлично сумира саму срж романа (али да не спојлујем).

Много, много тога још би се могло споменути и анализирати, али најбоље да и ви сами узмете Битора у руке и на читање.
Не петица, него десетка као кућа!

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Changing Track is Jean Stewart's 1958 translation of Michel Butor's 1957 novel, La Modification, which won the prestigious Prix Renaudot in France.

Although (slightly oddly) the English translation has been published under a number of titles, originally Second Thoughts, then A Change of Heart, with this version published in 2017.

Butor is an author who I have come to only recently, but is rapidly becoming one of my favourites, as well as someone whose influences I detect in others, notably Mathias Énard (see below) and WG Sebald.

Butor is enjoying something of a general and long overdue renaissance in English, courtesy of small independent presses, who do much of the heavy lifting in the UK literary scene, particularly when it comes to experimental writng. Butor himself said: "La littérature, c’est l’expérimentation sur le langage". And his Wikipedia page describes his style:

Part of the fascination of his writing is the way it combines the rigorous symmetries that led Roland Barthes to praise him as an epitome of structuralism (exemplified, for instance, by the architectural scheme of Passage de Milan or the calendrical structure of L'emploi du temps) with a lyrical sensibility more akin to Baudelaire than to Robbe-Grillet.

This re-issue by Alma Press, under their Calder Publications imprint, was followed in 2021 by Pariah Press reissueing the long out-of-print and brilliant novel Passing Time, Jean Stewart's 1960 translation of Butor's L'Emploi du temps, winner, in the original, of the 1957 Fénéon Prize, and an clear influence on Sebald. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Most recently, Richard Skinner at Vanguard Editions has commissioned, edited and published Selected Essays, a collection of translations by Mathilde Merouani of Butor’s essays on the novel, mostly from the 1960s - my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Changing Track is told in the course of a long train journey from Paris to Milan, and was indeed explicitly the inspiration for Mathias Énard's Zone, published 50 years later - my review of that: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The "plot" of the novel is remarkably simple. Léon Delmont, aged 45, Head of the Paris Office of the Italian firm Scabelli, manufacturers of typewriters, is travelling from Paris to Rome, where the firm is headquartered. This is a trip he takes quite frequently, but this is an unusual occasion. Rather than travelling 1st class, on official business, he is in 3rd class, travelling on a clandestine trip, unknown to his employers (who assume he is taking a break at home) and his family, his wife Henrietta and his four children (who think it is a typical business trip, albeit one undertaken at an odd time). His actual purpose is to visit Cécile, a woman with whom he has been having an affair for a couple of years. Although the trip will also be a surprise to her - he wants to tell her of his resolution to leave his wife and bring her to Paris to live with him, one formed when his wife organised a 45th birthday party for him:

At that time you intended to settle everything by letter and not to see Cecile again until your next monthly trip, for the annual general meeting of the directors of Scabelli's foreign branches, and it was only on Wednesday that things came to a head, and that, no doubt, because it was t3th November and consequently your birthday, and because Henriette, who still clung to these ridiculous family ceremonies, had laid particular stress on it this year, being suspicious of you, with even more justification than she knew, and hoping to hold you, to ensnare you in this net of petty rites, not out of love — of course all that came to an end between you long ago (and if there had been some sort of youthful passion once, it had never been anything comparable to that feeling of release and enchantment that Cecile brought you) — but from her dread, increasing daily (how she was ageing!) of seeing any alteration ii the order of things to which she was accustomed, not really out oi jealousy but out of the haunting fear that some rash step on your part or some violent disagreement might ruin her comfort and the children's, although there was no danger of that, and because she had never really trusted you, or at least had long ago ceased to do so, which was undoubtedly the cause of that rift between you which had grown deeper through the years, and because your undoubted success, to which she owed that handsome flat that meant so much to her, had never really convinced her, so that you were increasingly aware of her mute reproaches and her watchful gaze even before you had given her valid cause.

It is particularly fascinating to read Changing Track after the essay collection, as it employs many of the techniques that he describes there.

- the narration is, unusually, in the second person, with either Delmont himself, or the narrator, describing Delmont's thoughts back to himself, in the present tense, adding to the psychologically intensity of the text;

- the action is concentrated in the c.24 hours of the journey and the interior of the train, and yet Delmont's thoughts roam wider, into his past;

- the narrator provides us minutely detailed, almost frame-by-frame at times, descriptions of the railway carriage and his travelling companions, and the scenes through the window (one interesting repeated motif has vehicles - cars, lorries etc - driving parallel with the train for a period before their tracks diverge), in an ultra-realist style;

Beyond the corridor, a black Citroën 11CV starts off in front of a church, follows a road alongside the railway, races the train, draws near, moves away, disappears behind a wood, reappears, crosses a little river with willow trees and a deserted boar, drops behind, catches up, then halts at a crossroad, turns off and escapes towards a village the steeple of which soon vanishes behind a fold of land. Montereau station has gone by.

- he, in observing his fellow travellers, imagines their stories and even their names (it's almost a disappointment when he catches sight of one's passports and finds they have another name, which doesn't fit the role he has assigned them), in a way strongly reminiscent of, and perhaps inspired by, the technique Woolf imagines in her wonderful essay Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown "I believe that all novels begin with an old lady in the corner opposite."

You stare at the back of the book, and then at your hands and the cuffs of your shirt which you put on clean this morning but which is already soiled, and which you won't be able to change until you get there, until this night and this journey are over, when you'll be feeling utterly weary before the dawn of the new day which must inevitably be a blighted day, since you can indeed tell yourself that the die is cast, the step's been taken, but not the step you expected to take when you got into this train, a different step, the discarding of your plan in its original form which had seemed to you so clear and so secure, the discarding of that luminous vision of your future towards which, you had thought, this engine was carrying you, that life of happiness and love in Paris with Cecile; you must be calm and rational and stop thinking about it, while Pierre, who has come back into the compartment, sits down beside Agnes, gives her a furtive kiss on the forehead and looks around him while she drops her eyes sleepily (but the light will stay on for some time yet), then reopens his Italian Assimil and begins to read with her, their lips forming the syllables without letting any sound escape them, the Blue Guide jumping about a little on the seat beside them: while old Zachariah in his black coat pulls a big silver watch out of his waistcoat pocket, opens it, listens to it (how can he hope to hear it ticking amidst the noisy commotion of the train), looks at it (and you too can see that it's only half-past nine), shuts it up and puts it back; while the two workmen make signs to their friend passing along the corridor, who's urging them to join him, winking and wriggling his whole body, then both get up, lay their knapsacks on their seats, go past, saying "scuff, scusi", start talking noisily as soon as they have crossed the threshold, move off and go into another compartment.

The old Italian woman next you still keeps her arms folded over her stomach, but her lips have begun moving now as if she were mumbling to herself some prayer to safeguard her against the perils of the journey, her worn features hardening from time to time as if she were uttering imprecations against the demons that haunt crossroads, her eyes widening suddenly in a sort of terror and determination, then she settles down, her eyelids droop, the movement of her lips becomes almost imperceptible, and you wonder if it's not merely the motion of the train that makes her jaw quiver and sends a slight tremor through the folds of her ancient skin.

As for her husband opposite you, his face too has begun to show emotion; he looks at you, smiles to himself, tells himself a story as if you reminded him of somebody, and suddenly a gleam i cruelty and vindictiveness passes through his old eyes, as if he had some bitter grudge against you.

Novi Ligure station has gone by. The electric bulbs are shaking inside the globe. On the further side of the corridor you see the effected light swaying distortedly against black slopes patterned with small windows of brightness.

- but at the same time, Delmont's thoughts become increasingly feverish. As he recalls other journeys he has taken on the train from Paris to Rome, and back, starting with his pre-war honeymoon with Henrietta, through a trip with Cécile, to his most recent business trip, the different journeys blur into one another in the narrative, and the narration also imagines another, more surreal and nightmarish trip, and his resolution in his decision, and indeed his confidence in his own security, crumbles as the journey progresses.

Another wonderful novel from a brilliant author. 4.5 stars.

[İpek Dadakçı · Rating 5 out of 5]

Değişim, Fransız Yeni Roman akımı denince akla ilk gelen eserlerden birisi. Senelerdir baskısı bulunmuyordu, nihayet yeni çevirisiyle yayımlandı. Hakikaten çok iyi bir metin.

1950’lerin sonunda, Paris’te İtalyan bir daktilo şirketinde çalışan, evli ve dört çocuklu bir adamın, Roma’ya, sevgilisini görmeye giderken trende geçirdiği yaklaşık yirmi bir saatlik süreçte kafasından geçenleri, yaşadığı içsel çatışmaları, duygusal dünyasındaki gitgelleri, anılarını, hem eşi hem sevgilisiyle geçmişini, uyuyakaldığında gördüğü rüyaları ve trendeki diğer yolcularla ilgili kafasında kurduğu dünyaları anlatıyor. Yani bir yandan Paris’ten Roma’ya doğru bir seyahatteyiz, diğer yandan karakterimizin iç dünyasına ve geçmişine bir yolculuk bu. Eşi ve sevgiliyle geçmişini, zamanın farklı noktalarından parça parça anılarla öğreniyoruz. Adım adım Paris ve Roma sokaklarını geziyoruz; bu iki şehir de adeta ete kemiğe bürünen birer karakter oluyor ya da eşi ve sevgilisiyle bütünleşiyor sanki. Yolculuk boyunca trene çok farklı kesimlerden insanlar da biniyor; karakterimizin onlara taktığı isimler ve kurguladığı dünyalarla yine bir yerde onun iç dünyasının yansımalarına şahit oluyoruz.

Anlaşılacağı üzere pek fazla olay yok, hatta kitap baştan sona yirmi bir saatlik bir içsel konuşma. Ama anlatım yağ gibi öyle bir kayıp gidiyor ki karakterin zihninin labirentlerinde çok keyifli bir yolculuk bu. Bu akıcılığın yanı sıra, Butor’un ikinci çoğul şahıs kullanımı da hem metni farklı bir yere taşımış, hem de okurken karakterle okurun kurduğu bağı kuvvetlendirmiş bence. Karakterin dünyasıyla beraber, hayata ve ilişkilere dair aslında çok yeni olmayan tespitleri klişe tuzağına düşmeden işlemesi de şüphesiz anlatımın ve dilin gücünden kaynaklanıyor.

Keyif almak için okuyanları edebiyata doyururken alıp başka dünyalara götürecek, didikleyerek okumayı sevenleri de fazlasıyla tatmin edecek çok güçlü bir metin. Başta Godard, Truffaut, Rohmer, Resnais filmleri olmak üzere Fransız Yeni Dalga filmlerini de çok seviyorum ben, Değişim’i okurken de aynı keyfi aldım.

[Korcan Derinsu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Değişim, olay örgüsünden ziyade bilinç akışıyla ilerleyen, yirmi bir saatlik bir tren yolculuğunun aynı zamanda bir içsel yolculuğa dönüşmesinin metni. Paris’ten Roma’ya doğru giden bir trenin içinde bir adamın zihnine hapsoluyoruz: evli, dört çocuklu ama Roma’da bir sevgilisi var. Yol boyunca kendi hayatını didik didik inceliyor kahramanımız. Olanları, olabilirliği olanları ve olacak olanları tek tek anlatıyor bize. Tabii bunu sadece kendi hayatı için değil trendeki diğer yolcular için de yapıyor. İhtimaller, tahminler, hayaller, gözlemler vs. hepsi birbirinin içine giriyor. Yapısı gereği ister istemez bir yerden sonra tekdüze hissettirmeye başlasa da yazarın akıcı anlatımıyla kendini de merakla okutmayı başarıyor. Yazarın ikinci çoğul kişi kullanımı da üzerine düşünülmeyi hak edecek türden. Ben ve diğerleri arasındaki mesafe bu kullanımla kolayca daralıyor. Uzun lafı kısası, Değişim günümüzden bakınca -benzerlerini de okuduğumuz için- biraz eskimiş gibi dursa da çok iyi tasarlanmış, çok iyi yazılmış bir roman.

[Nate D · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've actually got the omnibus edition of this with Passing Time, which I picked up down the street for four dollars, and now see is upwards of $70 on Abebooks. Seriously, no English reprint since the sixties?!

It's a very subtly-handled treatment of incrementally passing time and shifting perspective (remembered -- rose- or black-tinted -- past interleaving with concrete present and imagined/rehearsed near future, guided by the progress of a train in every direction, later dovetailing with a self-mapped literary template). A little boring in places in its precision of quotidian thought (and arguably quotidianly tiresome protagonist in the throes of abandoning wife and family for mistress), but the shifts and mental uncertainties accelerate as it goes, presaging potential fascinations to come when reality slips in the dead of night.

Ultimately, despite my general desire not to identify with the protagonist, the effect was depressing: relationships founder, psychology is self-defeating, unfulfilling careers entangling, and the passage of time is an inescapable corruptor of all we hold dear. Of course, OF COURSE I mean to escape this pattern, but don't we all?

[Philippe Malzieu]

Butor died last month. The thurifier (sycophant, I do not know the translation) used their trump : Genius, apostle of the nouveau roman, innovative...and what I know. In short, they raised a monument to him ant interdiction to discuuss on that. Thus, "la modification" is an universal masterpiece and you are complain to kneel down behind it. Sublime necessarly sublime.
I had a bad memory of it when I hat to read it at the highschool. I hate le nouveau roman because it killed littérature in France. Since this time, exciting novel are in US, Germany, India...
But I said to me, perhaps I was too Young si I decided to try to read it. It s a vaudeville, The man, his wife (grumbling) and the mistress. But it is not Marivaux, nor Labiche. Perhaps a Courteline under valium and prozac. A man take the train to Roma. He goes to live with his mistress and quits his family. An the end of the travel, he decides to return to his wife, so "la modification". Alleluia, morale is safe. The only trick, it is that all the novel is write not with I but with You. It is sensible to allow the substition, you become the character. This maneuvre seemed to me totally artificial. In brief, I always hate this book as much as when I was at the high school.

[HAMiD · Rating 4 out of 5]

و بعد خیره هستی به جاده. ره می سپاری به غربِ ایران، از همدان گذشته ای و می روی سوی سنندج که یادها می آید، یادت می افتد، می خواهی بلندش کنی از جا
چون تو جانان منی جان بی تو خرم کِی شود
چون تو در کس ننگری کس با تو همدم کی شود
پس از سالها دوباره روانه ی آن دیار هستی. و تنها راه افتاده ای و جاده خلوت است و رادیو دیو گوش می دهی و آسمان صاف ترین شکل ممکن اش را دارد، آهسته می روی، هیچ شتاب نمی کنی برای رسیدن
چون مرا دلخستگی از آرزوی روی توست
این چنین دل خستگی زایل به مرهم کی شود
و بعد یادت می آید همه ی آن سالها، این سالها را. شیشه را پایین تر می دهی و باد می پیچد و صورتت را می نوازد و چه آسوده هستی حالا که رهسپار هستی
خلوتی می‌بایدم با تو زهی کار کمال
ذره‌ای هم ‌خلوت خورشید عالم کی شود
غروب که بشود دیگر خواهی رسید به مریوان. همه چیز را پشت سرت گذاشته ای و آمده ای. جز یک خیالِ روشن را. همه جا با تو هست. با تو خواهد بود

بیست و هشتم بهمن ماه 1397خورشیدی
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[Paul Dembina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A man is travelling by train from Paris to Rome to rendezvous with his lover. During the course of the journey he recalls previous journeys to and from Rome, with and without his wife and /or lover and considers his next move

I've come late to the Nouveau Roman but so far (2 Robbe-Grillet plus this one) I've found them very interesting.

[Mathias Chouvier · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vous prenez un train jusqu'à Rome pour rejoindre votre maîtresse. Vous allez lui annoncer que vous lui avez trouvé du travail à Paris. Enfin vous allez quitter votre vie minable et votre appartement de rêve. Sauf que vous vous rappelez que la vie c'est dur. Figure du nouveau roman, La Modification de Michel Butor est entièrement écrit à la deuxième personne du pluriel, et raconte un voyage en train au cours duquel les flashback s'enchaînent. C'est très bien écrit, le style évoque vaguement du Proust contemporain avec ses phrases à rallonge, mais franchement qu'est ce que c'est chiant... Trois cent pages à chouiner sur sa vie, alternant entre réjouissance de revoir sa maîtresse et constat d'échec. Le pire reste encore que le roman vous force à vous identifier à ce personnage. Vous en venez donc à vous détester. Très perturbant.

[Mohammed omran · Rating 3 out of 5]

إن رواية ما بعد الحداثة هي أولا فكر ينبثق من كل ما هو منفصل، ومتغاير عن خصائص رواية الحداثة وتجلياتها في رواية تيار الوعي والرواية الجديدة، كما وإنها لديها خصائصها وتقنياتها السردية الأخرى، مثل: الكولاج، الشذرات، تهجين النص، حيث يعبر الكولاج عن تجربة توافقية، وهي تزامن سرد حدثين أو أكثر في أماكن مختلفة، من غير انتقال، وهذه الوسيلة تعبر اليوم عن تغاير تجربتنا للواقع، حيث يخلق النقل الجوي تجاورا بين الثقافات المختلفة مما يسبب تمثيلا متقطعا، إن هذا الاختزال الزمني الذي تحققه الرحلة في الطائرة يتصاحب مع العولمة الثقافية، وتضاعف المعلومة الثقافية، كما أن ازدياد الوسائل والصور داخل الفضاء الإعلامي أدى إلى ممارسة مابعد حداثية تتمثل في الانتقال السريع في مشاهدة محطات التلفزيون، والتنقل من محطة إلى أخرى، وكأننا نحيا في عالم التراكب والكولاج، حيث أصبح المتقطع وسيلة كونية.
وقد بين ميشيل بوتور بعد أن تخلى عن التجريب الروائي في رواية " المتحرك" كيف تتحلل السردية داخل الكولاج كليا، وقد سعى إلى إعادة إنتاج الأثر الموزائيكي طبقا للصيغة الجدولية، وعبر في هذه الرواية عن التنوع اللامتناه لقارة أميركا الشمالية، وهو نوع من الممارسات الما بعد حداثية للكتابة، ثم دشن بوتور في روايته "المرتدة" شكلا استطيقيا قديما هو "الشذرات" وكممارسة تقنية فإن الشذرات تعود إلى الماضي، إلى العصور القديمة، فإن عبرت عن فوضى العالم لدى فاليري، وامتازت بالقصدية الفنية، فإنها تهتز أمام الرواية الجديدة وتفسح المجال لانزياح القول المأثور من بيان الحقيقة الكلية في حداثة فاليري إلى بيان حقيقة الذاتية المشوشة المنسحرة بالكلام، وتصبح الشذرة عبارة عن ملاحظة تتحرك بالضد من الصيغة السردية، وهي في الوقت ذاته –كما في الظلال الهاربة لباسكال كينيار-ممارسة نصية تمنح الامتياز للانعزالية الجزرية، وإلى التشرذم المتعدد العناصر، ولا تشكل خليطا مؤلفا، إنما هي كتابة شذرانية متقطعة، تدخل متجانسة مع حالة ما بعد الحداثة.
إنها رواية متعددة اللسان، متعددة الثقافات، وقد حولت مفهوم الهوية من مفهوم الهوية – الجذر نحو مفهوم الهوية المتحولة والمنشطرة والمتعددة، وقد أصبحت الرواية متعددة العناصر، ومنزاحة عن الثقافة الأصل، كما نجدها في روايات جزر الأنتيل، وروايات المغرب العربي، روايات الطاهر بن جلون الأخيرة، وروايات عبد الكبير الخطيبي

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

Get this shit, if you can: the whole novel takes place on a train whilst the protagonist—in present tense—considers all of the events that have lead him to this point of absconding. He is, hold your breath, physicalizing a TRAIN OF THOUGHT. Holy God; the minutia of station names, towns, cities, streets, addresses, inventory-inventory is enough to drive Rand-McNally to joint suicide.

And then there’s the entire nightmare sequence. God damn me if I want to read protracted nightmare sequences; invariably, they don’t work. This one was so pointlessly, historically Gaulist that I wanted only a trident to impale myself on. But…it’s a TRAIN OF THOUGHT!

I think it’s technically written well, it’s purported ‘epiphany’ (dj blurb) as broadcast as network news, and I just don’t give a fuck enough to be moved one way or another.

Far be it germaine to counter one of France’s better regarded mid-century authors with lyrics from a beardy Amerindie band of the 90s, but if the espadrille fits that’s no fault of mine:

“No one wants to hear/what you dreamt about/unless you dreamt about them.”

TRAIN OF THOUGHT! Really?!?

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without a doubt a top 3 read this year. Absolutely incredible on every level.

[ُEmanMarhoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

التحول

على الرغم من اسلوبها المربك نوعا ما ، لن تترك هذه الرواية فأنت معني بها بقدر ما عني بها بطلها ، ستشعر بأنك كلما توغلت في القراءة أنك القارئ الذي من الممكن أن يغير مسار الاحداث وينقذ الآخر من الغرق في غربته ، ليس هذا فحسب بل أنك ستعترض وتتبرم من قرارات الأنا الداخليه للبطل

بطل الرواية هش وضعيف يحاول التبرير لكنه لا يفلح في ذلك ، يبدأ برحله يعتقد فيها أنه سيد القرار ، وان له الحق في تغيير مصيره لكن يتضح له أنه لا يستطيع ، الجزء المرعب لك كونك قارئ هو اكتشاف مقدار الغربه التي يحبس فيها البطل ذاته الهشه ، ولكنه على الرغم من ذلك يعيش وهم انه يفعل كل ما تراه لمصلحه الآخر بينما تقرأ بين السطور أن هنرييت وسسيليا كلامها ليستا بحاجه له بل العكس صحيح

تبدأ الرواية بالأمل الفاعل في حياة البطل لتتحول شيئا فشيئا إلى ظلام كالح الشكل من شكوك وأحلام و روئ ليعود في النهاية إلى محاولة انقاذ نفسه بتحويل مسار الحياة إلى رواية يجدر بك أنت كقارئ روايتها فهو ليس الوحيد الذي وقع في مصيدة الحياة، بل أنت ذاتك إذا سنحت لك الفرصه بظروف مواتيه أن تحلل أفعالك وتصرفاتك ستشعر بقدر أكبر من الرعب

في رواية بوتور تستطيع أن تترك الرواية في موضع معين وتبدأ من أخر لكنك لن تشعر بأنك تركت جزء مهم منها فأنت ستكون تائه على أي حال ، بين الماضي والحاضر والمستقبل ، بين الاماني المتخيله والواقع العنيد

شخصيا لم أعتقد أنني سأكمل الرواية في البدء بل أنني اطلقت عليها حكما أوليا - مضجرة - لكنها خبرة جديدة من نوع مختلف ستظل هذه الرواية والاسئلة العالقة من وراها زمنا طويلا في إطار التفكير شكرا للصديقة إبتهال على أختيارتها الصارمه


اربع نجوم

[Martin Koerner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Although working, broadly, within the confines of the Noveau Roman style, this is an altogether more emotive, and human tale. More romantic than Robbe-Grillet and more straightforward than Claude Simon, Changing Track is a tale told during a long train journey; a tale about that train journey, and about other similar journeys and, at its heart, is about the relationship between a man and two women and, in turn, is about the deeper relationship between person and place. It is a meditative, slow-winding tale, and little ‘happens’ but in its repetition, its gentle lulling, its refractive qualities, it manages to convey that which a more traditional novel cannot. Compelling and heartbreaking.

[Abed Alivand · Rating 2 out of 5]

بعد از خوندن تهوع فقط همین کتاب رو کم داشتم که دوم شخص نوشته شده بود و اذیت‌ کردنم رو کامل کرد. داستان یکی از کارکنان شرکتی توی پاریسه که مونده بین زن و بچه‌هاش و زندگی روزمره‌ش و دختری اهل ایتالیا که اون رو نه به خاطر خودش بلکه به‌خاطر ایتالیا دوست داره، مونده کدوم رو انتخاب کنه. البته بیش‌تر بین انتخاب دو شهر مردد مونده و نه بین دو زن. و بعد رفته رفته به این موضوع پی می‌بره. و این‌که خوندن این کتاب خیلی خیلی زمان برد.

[Fanny R.J. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ca m'arrive très rarement ; à vrai dire je crois que ce n'est que le 2ème livre à subir ce sort de ma part mais je n'ai pas eu la force de finir. C'est long, beaucoup trop long. Trop de descriptions inutiles, trop de détails inintéressants. Dommage car le style est la.

[Mostafa · Rating 2 out of 5]

نتونستم باهاش ارتباط بگیرم و به سختی خوندمش

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

If men aren't going to therapy, they need to ride more trains.

[Fatema Hassan , bahrain · Rating 2 out of 5]

رواية ذات جو محبط و لغة استعراضية بمقدورها مخاطبتك عن كل شيء لأنها تتخذ طريقة سرد مباشرة و آمرة توجهك و تعطيك الأوامر جعلني هذا استفيق أثناء قرائتها أكثر مرة رغم توهاني في غموضها، تسحرك ب جوّها السياحي فالوصف امتصّ العمل بالكامل وترك الأحداث منثورة بحماقة .. مترددة بكل معنى الكلمة التي سينطقها رجل الرواية الفرنسي المسافر إلى روما.. شاردًا من زوجته هنرييت و أولاده نحو عشّ جديد ليجدد شبابه مع محبوبته سيسيل .. قناعاته غير ثابتة فكل ما يشعر به طوق نجاة لحظة صعوده قد لا يبقى كذلك خلال استراحات القطار ولا حين وصوله لمحطته .. يسافر هذا الرجل الدقيق الملاحظة ككل منا مع حقائب و مسافرين و مواقف قديمة تقحم نفسها في الذاكرة لتعيد مشاعر رافقت تلك المواقف من سباتها العميق، رحلة القطار كرحلة العمر تحتاج تحويلة لتغيير مسار الرحلة نحو الوجهة الآمنة، الكثير منا تنقصه الجرأة للقيام بتلك التحويلة المفاجأة !

[Mintaka Amaranta · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story telling with the second person; it makes you think like you're the pricipal person. I agree with most of the people in here that in some places the descriptions get way too long and boring. But apart from this, it's interesting, and beautiful expression of how one's mind can change.

[Neïla DRISS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trop long.
Au début, c'était intéressant et inhabituel. Mais il s'est perdu dans les longueurs. Dommage.

[Diana Ardu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mi-a fost destul de greu să citesc această carte cu un fir epic foarte simplu, de altfel. Un parizian de 45 de ani, în plină criză a vârstei a doua, sătul de rutina căsniciei, decide să înceapă o viață nouă, alături de amanta Cecilia, din Roma. Vrea să își părăsească soția și să o aducă pe iubita sa la Paris. Cartea cuprinde, așadar, călătoria lui cu trenul, spre Roma și implicit spre noua sa viață, moment în care are loc o extrem de amănunțită analiză a relațiilor personajului cu soția și cu amanta. Tipul stă în tren vreo 350 de pagini!! Amintirile și descrierile peisajelor văzute de la fereastra vagonului se suprapun, fluxul conștiinței, dacă vreți, se dezlănțuie, alături de ochiul profund al unui estet, care în timp ce o iubește pe Cecilia, iubește, de fapt, sublimul artistic al Romei. Nu vreau să zic mai mult decât că, în definitiv, este cartea unei revelații pe care vă invit să o descoperiți singuri. Aaa, mai e și tehnica narativă inedită, narațiunea se face la persoana a 2-a, ceea ce aduce, din punctul meu de vedere, o încercare de obiectivare/dedublare.

[Ebtihal Salman · Rating 4 out of 5]

لا يبدو عنوان هذه الرواية مغريا، أو كاشفا عن طبيعتها. لكنه وصورة الغلاف: أي سكك الحديد المتقاطعة يقول كل شيء عنها.

في صورتها الأبسط: هذه الرواية هي رحلة ليون ديلمون من باريس إلى روما حيث تقيم عشيقته، ليصارحها بقرار ترتيبه لانتقالها للإقامة معه في باريس وهجره لزوجته. أو هكذا كان ينوي. لكنها في العمق رحلة أفكاره وصراعاته الداخلية حول ما ينويه، وما ينتهي إليه من قرار. طوال هذه الرحلة، يحاول تشتيت أفكاره بالتركيز على المسافرين المحيطين به، والمناطق التي يمر بها، لكن بالنسبة لكونه قد أخذ هذا الخط باريس-روما مرات عديدة في السابق، ذهابا وإيابا، وحيدا أو مع المرأتين في حياته، كان صعبا أن يمنع سيل الذكريات من مهاجمته، وسيل الأفكار من التدفق، محدثين الذبذبة في إتجاه قراره.

هكذا نتابع معه، وفيما هو طوال هذا الكتاب جالسا في مقصورة القطار البطيء إلى روما، لكنه يتنقل مرارا عبر الزمان وعبر المكان، مرة إلى تخيلات في المستقبل، ومرة إلى ذكريات في الماضي، لنشهد معه الرحلات السابقة: رحلته مع زوجته إلى روما، في شهر عسلهما ثم بعد سنوات في محاولة استعادة الشغف القديم، ورحلته مع سيسيل من روما إلى باريس، التجربة الأولى التي هزت ثقته لمعنى إقامتها الباريسية، ورحلاته الفردية نحو روما/سيسيل، أو عائدا منها. لقد كان لكل رحلة، وحسب اتجاهها أبعادها العاطفية، من ذكريات بداية العلاقة السعيدة، إلى الأوقات الحرجة التي مرت بها، الذكريات التي ارتبطت بمنعطفات معينة في الرحلة، بمقصورة القطار، بالكتب التي تقرأ وبالمسافرين، وعادت لتهاجمه دون مفر منها في مقصورة القطار تلك.

لا يسري الزمن في اتجاه واحد في هذه الرواية، وقد يكون عسيرا -دون التركيز- الاحتفاظ بإدراك المرحلة التي يتحدث عنها، لاسيما حين تتداخل رحلات القطار كلها في تلك المقصورة. يسير القطار بطيئا، في رحلة الواحد وعشرين ساعة نحو باريس، لكننا نعرف صباحات وليال عديدة في ذكريات وأفكار وأحلام ليون الجالس في القطار، ونشهد كلما تقدم القطار أقرب نحو باريس، كيف تتغير الخطة، مرة بعد مرة، كما يغير القطار مساره عبر السكك. نتابع الأفكار الدقيقة وهي تتشكل، وهو يعيد التأمل في حياته ويحلل خطته، كيف يحاول ليون الاستقرار -بينما القطار متحرك غير مستقر - على قرار نهائي لما ينوي فعله بحبه وحياته.

تمتلأ الرواية بوصف التفاصيل، الزمنية والمكانية وللشخصيات، التي نراها عبر رؤى ليون نفسه، وبهذا فهو يعكس عليها وعبرها أفكاره ومشاعره (تخيلاته حول الزوجين العاشقين الذين يرافقانه في الرحلة مثلا و كيف بدأ بتخيل سعادتها، وانتهى إلى تخيل انهيارها بعد سنوات)، كما أنه ينقلنا، كمرشد سياحي لنشاهد معه آثار روما التي يفتتن بها ويعجب بها منذ أيام دراسته، ويضاعف من تعلقه بها علاقته بالفتاة الرومانية. هذه الرواية قد لا تثير مشاعر انفعالية ولا تنطوي على اثارة في المشهد، لكنها تنطوي على التشويق الكامن في تأمل التفاصيل والتفكير في معانيها والعلاقة بينها. أظن أنك تنتهي إلى إدراك قيمة كل هذه التفاصيل المترابطة وإن لم يبد ذلك واضحا منذ البدء.

تسرد الرواية بضمير المخاطب، الذي يقول الكاتب عنه أنه يعطيه المساحة للغوص في دخيلة الشخصية وبلغتها، دون الإلتزام بالوعي المتحفظ الذي قد يرتبط بضمير المتكلم المباشر.

تترك هذه الرواية زخما كبيرا من الأفكار في القاريء بعد الإنتهاء منها، وينبغي الإشارة إلى اللعبة السردية التي مارسها الكاتب، عن طريق إدخال الكتب في الحكاية، والإنتهاء بها.

الترجمة تستحق التقدير.

[Sang_d'Encre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michel Butor was very young by the time he wrote this novel, and the most conservative among the French critics (like R. Lalou) celebrated it as a masterpiece. But Butor was the first to understand that the Nouveau Roman was a dead-end street and only wrote 4 novels. He then became a poet, which was his ambition from the start and a rather conservative literary scholar himself. In the last, intimate, interview he gave before his death, last year, to the French polymath Emmanuel Legeard, his opinion on a number of things going from global politics to French literature could be unsettling to some pre-formatted minds! The most ridiculous thing is that the mainstream media celebrated a version of Michel Butor which Butor himself had repudiated 50 years sooner!

[Macoco G.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Usted se encuentra con este libro y empieza a leerlo con cierta incertidumbre.
Usted encuentra una técnica totalmente innovadora, en la que se utiliza la tercera persona y se mezclan recuerdos del pasado con acciones a realizar en el futuro, dentro de enormes frases que quitan el aliento, pero que disfruta leyendo, describiendo a las personas que le rodean en su viaje en tren desde París a Roma para ver a su amante, una amante que no le espera y a la que desea sorprender, cambiando con ello la vida se ambos.
Usted a veces se aburre leyendo, otras se pierde y en ocasiones le aturde tanto realismo.
Usted sigue leyendo y descubre un gran libro, que cuesta pero al final recompensa.
Usted lo termina y busca algo más sencillo.

[Yas]

راوی از دوم شخص جمع استفاده میکنه و حس عجیبی داره.

[Yuri Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Principally set in mid-November 1957 on a rail journey (third class) from Paris to Rome, but intercut with previous journeys and incidents in Paris and Rome, Changing Track is constructed with the clarity and purpose of a well-edited film. The narrative may become fragmentary – by the middle of the novel the narrator is literally coming and going – but Butor writes so much detail into each journey that the reader has no trouble knowing who is where when. And the second thoughts on a love going stale that trigger the then logical change of heart at the centre of this journey in search of the Eternal City are also clear, despite their disconcerting suddenness.
My main problem with this otherwise mature and impressive work is the difficulty in engaging with the central character (despite him being presented in the second person singular) because he is such a prat.
It is also interesting to note that although, as part of the nouveau roman genre, the novel has a distinctly modern feel, the social behaviour and technology dates it to a world most of us could not have experienced, especially as adults.