Elsa Gribinski in West Branch
My translation, “Ode to Jouy,” of Elsa Gribinski’s story “Jouy“ is now out in the latest online issue of West Branch, thanks to guest editor Rose Facchini! Be sure to read her lovely intro!
Here’s an excerpt:
She unrolls several patterns for him, pulls a thousand swatches from their drawers, shows him a modernity that is tightly woven, smooth, garish along the edges, and makes abstraction of it all. She adds that modernity is easy to live with. He thinks that nothing is easy to live with, thinks of Perec’s Things, thinks that the soft grey would go well with her blondeness, her painted lips, retouched by a magazine glossiness. She suggests a floral motif: the dark red of poppies, the purplish red of irises; not so far off, declares she, from a Toile de Jouy. He thinks: not naturalistic enough. He wants characters, he explains, he’s not Rousseau, writing about flowers; a fiction, no matter how short, is worth nothing without the human element. Also, he just isn’t into flowery things. Floral, she corrects him gently. She brings up a semi-plain with a geometric motif, like a landscape—the cubists, after all, Picasso, she notes, abstract shapes are conducive to the imagination. He’s stopped listening; he’s watching her lips, trying to describe their exact shade of red, dreaming of shuttered shops, boutiques obscures from Perec to Modiano, black quadrangles on a fields of black, attempting to picture what a modern, easy-to-live-with Toile de Jouy would look like: the salesgirl in the window, the boutique, the avenue lined with scenic trees where once pall-mall was played, and himself from behind, lost in the abyme of his fading request, the details of the bluish scene repeating to infinity, yards of wallpaper dyed a light red on which he might write.
Cover Art: Ni Los Perros Que Jamás Me Olvidaron, Ni Los Caballos, Ni Los Abrazos Que Me Dan Mis (#3, 8, 9, 15, 16, 17, 19, 25), by Edison Peñafiel (2023–24); acrylic on raw canvas, fabric, iron-on transfers, 45.25” x 55.5” each. Images courtesy of the artist and Sabrina Amrani Gallery.
