Golden Droplet [Hardcover]

Michel Tournier (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

One of France's most important contemporary novelists, Tournier (The Fetishist) ponders a favorite themetwinning and cloningin this story of 15-year-old Idris, an Algerian shepherd lured to the menial workforce of Paris. When a charming blonde tourist snaps his picture in the desert, Idris is changed by this "ordeal of photography." The erotic power of the camera eye snatches away his image, as he thinks, and he must quest for the unknown woman. Assailed by the European gaze, both human and filmic, Idris feels himself sliding further into the state of despised victim and esthetic object. A stunning sequence in a mannequin factory temporarily entombs him in molten plastic, so his image can be endlessly multiplied as a shop-window dummy. The golden droplet Idris wears, a talisman once owned by a Saharan dancer, remains a mystical sign of his identity until it too is stolen, only to reappear in a luxury jeweler's display. Along with his omniscient deliberations on cultural difference and the self, on Arab portraiture and calligraphy, Tournier enchants with the dazzling visual quality of his storytelling.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This novel, one of Tournier's most appealing, follows a 15-year-old Berber shepherd's rites de passage as he leaves his Sahara oasis for the Arabic quarters of Marseilles and Paris. Manipulated by the icons of both cultures, he finally succumbs to his chief obsession: a drop of gold ("la goutte d'or" of the title). It is seen first as a navel ornament of a black female dancer in his oasis; it is seen last in a Place Vendome jeweler's window. Tournier's narrative style alternates between the traditions of Maghrebian oral literature and those of French indirect discourse. He has carefully researched his material and has provided helpful footnotes and bibliography, though Anglicizing the Maghrebian cultual and geographical terms would have helped. Marilyn Gaddis Rose, Comparative Literature Dept., State Univ. of New York at Binghamton
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 206 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (September 16, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385237596
• ISBN-13: 978-0385237598
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,643,575 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Golden Droplet, November 19, 2002

By 

Sheila Rimmer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Golden Droplet (Hardcover)

This was the first of Michel Tournier's book that I had read in translation and not in the original French, but I was not disappointed. Tournier has the capacity to relate closely to the cultures in which his stories are set and to describe in a very believable way the reactions of his characters when they move from one culture to another. This is the story of a young boy whose fortunes take him from his native North Africa to the streets of Paris. Prepare for culture shock: if you have only ever taken a tour bus round that great city, imagine this young lad leading a camel through the streets at night looking for a slaughterhouse (in the end the animal has a pleasanter fate!). The Golden Droplet in the title is a jewel that the lad tries to hold onto and in some ways it decides the direction of his fate. I loved this book. I hope others will find it and read it, or better BUY IT here.