Laure (the novel)

Tree Hugger

Laure
by Emmanuelle Arsan
Granada
ISBN 0583130291

Trigger warning: Taboo and illegal practices discussed and condemned.

Okay, I’m going to say up front that I almost wish I hadn’t started reading some of Emmanuelle Arsan’s books for this blog because, well, I found a sinister and dark underbelly to her celebrated writing that is somehow not publicised or addressed when people discuss or write about these ‘classic’ novels... at least that I could find. 

Anyway, apart from a few scenes, I mostly enjoyed Laure and it’s a strange book. Whether it’s written by Arsan or her husband is somewhat debatable but, again, certain inconsistencies in the writing and the fact that I’d heard Arsan used to be constantly slaving away over a hot typewriter leads me to believe this was a truly collaborative effort between her and her husband.

Now then... this book tells the story of Laure, a minister’s daughter who, along with some friends who also study at the Lance Institute of Pacific Studies (LIPS... that’s subtle then), goes off into the jungle on a trek to find the mostly lost and hard to find Mara tribe and rebirth herself in the ‘ritual of the new sun’. It’s full of sexual experiences since, of course, the characters all practice the philosophies of sexuality as expounded upon already in the Emmanuelle novels. And I was kinda hoping that certain elements would not come up in this one but... oh yeah, by the end of the book, things get quite blatant concerning certain illegal practices. 

Okay, so the novel has a strange structure in that it tells the tale as first person narrative from three different characters... none of them actually Laure. So part one is called Nicholas and is seen through the eyes of Laure’s soon-to-be boyfriend and then husband, who is a photographer and film artist. This chapter lasts for about two thirds of the book. It involves a really odd sexual scene too, which I hope made it into the movie adaptation because it’s so strange, where Laure makes love to Nicholas’ camera, eventually leaving it totally covered in saliva and other bodily fluids. 

Then we have a second chapter called Myrte, which lasts only twelve pages and is told from the point of view of her character, who I believe is the character that Emmanuelle Arsan actually plays herself in the movie version of this one. It’s odd because the wedding of Nicholas and Laure, which wasn’t even something you could see coming from the first section, is mentioned as something that has already happened by this part of the story as it jumps a little in time. So... I dunno... somewhat expository dialogue dressed up as something else, I guess.

Finally, we have the last section told from the eyes of Gaultier, which also features a bizarre revenge/death scene from one of the characters, with the character who is the target of said revenge not even noticing that her enemy (she doesn’t even realise she has one) has unwittingly met his demise. Which is done quite well and almost acts like a jump scare to the reader. 

There’s also an amazing scene where the four friends find a tree with big penises growing from it (one of many such foliage it would seem), as opposed to carvings but they are identical to the real thing and give out sap when... well, you can see where this is going. Laure spends an awful lot of time making love to two such protuberances on the tree, one in her mouth and one in her nether regions (Annie Sprinkle, with her current ecosexual philosophies, would surely embrace this concept and has surely done a version of this stuff) over and over, where she possibly fertilises herself by the tree. Or so it’s set up as a possibility here. 

The end of the novel, I suspect, differs from the end of the film but I won’t know until I watch that (I went to a lot of trouble, including two bizarre dead ends to get hold of an out of print DVD of the film put out by Severin back in the day) but, I hope another way it differs is not to include the absolutely vile scenes of underage sexuality, which are somehow even more invasive than those found in the Emmanuelle books... and I really didn’t expect to see them here, they do come out of the blue, somewhat. 

But that’s enough of that other than to say, I looked into the legality of these books because I couldn’t believe they’ve been allowed to be published and, somehow through loopholes in the legal system, they’ve been allowed by various governments around the world. Which, okay, I can understand that (Lady Chatterley’s Lover etc) but, what I find unbelievable is why this element of these books has not been called out by readers over the years so people know what they’re getting into when they read these things. 

But that’s enough of my unexpected (even to me) preaching. I actually thought that, out of the three Arsan novels I’ve read, Laure was the most interesting and entertaining. Although, the writing is somewhat shaky in places because it keeps drifting between past and present tense (perhaps an unwitting sign of dual authorship?). And I’ll leave it at that... I guess the next review on here will be the movie version. So hopefully you’ll look in tomorrow.