Hallucinating Foucault by Patricia Duncker

This is a brilliant novel. The book revolves around an unnamed 22-year-old Cambridge graduate student in French literature, who is writing a thesis on the work of Paul Michel, a fictitious homosexual French novelist. In the beginning, our narrator is not interested in Michel the man, but only in his written work, which first emerged in the 1960s. However, after his girlfriend tells him that Michel has been held for years in a mental institution after being diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, he decides to go to France to meet the author of the books he is studying.

Once in France, the narrator meets Michel and falls in love with him. After pleading with the hospital to release the famous author, the two men embark on a road trip that changes both of their lives. Hiding in the background, meanwhile, is the ghost of French philosopher Michel Foucault, and his mysterious relationship with Paul Michel.

The central theme of this book is the relationship between author and reader. Some hold the view that this relationship should be limited to the printed page, and that the life of a writer outside the confines of their work is not important. In this excellent novel, however, Duncker turns this proposition on its head, by presenting a vivid portrait of the novelist Paul Michel, while keeping anonymous the name of the “reader”, presented in the form of the young Cambridge student.

In the hands of a less talented writer, this book could have been incredibly pretentious. In the skillful hands of Duncker, however, questions of love, human relations, the role of literature, and the symbiotic interaction between author and audience are presented in a captivating and thought provoking way.

A great book that should be read by anyone who loves literature.

5 out of 5 stars