Argentieri, an amateur writer who has come late to writing, was born in Italy in 1924, emigrated to France while still an infant and published her work in 2005 at the age of 81. Her stories are written in simple, elegant French and they evoke feelings as varied as apprehension, pride, fear and contentment all the while avoiding sentimentality.
Argentieri describes certain small events that mark the family’s initiation into French society from their early encounters with authority (the police, the school teacher) and neighbours and co-workers (both French and Italian). These stories, however, are much more than gentle, episodic recollections of people’s struggles to assimilate into a foreign culture - they are also cleverly wrought little morality tales. The author’s narrative skills keep her audience curious about the outcome of the little adventures and indignities suffered by her family.
Argentieri manages the expectations of the reader, inserts details into the stories only when needed, and she uses dialogue to impart information that cannot be delivered any other way. Her style is economical and her narrative decisions are effective. The bicycle story exemplifies the author’s story telling skills. We travel with young Marie and her father to the commissariat's office to pay a fine they cannot easily afford, passing by the building’s facade upon which is sculpted an image of the scales of justice, “perfectly even”, according to Marie but which “sometimes tip in one direction” warns her father. Inside, we hear the father defending himself in broken French, sentences immediately followed by Marie’s clever translation of his words. She is politic and the fine is reduced. We all cheer - justice, dosed with humanity has been served. The story of the crayons is equally lovely and well worth reading.
These stories have not yet been translated into English but the language is not difficult if readers have only secondary school French. Follow @deltorniv
