La promesse de l’aube (Promise at Dawn) by Romain Gary

Romain Gary’s slightly exaggerated (according to some news articles I read about him, anyways) autobiography.
 
The autobiography begins with Romain Gary in a postlapsarian state (note: Romain does not want to make a universal statement through his story), lying down on the beach at the Big Sur surrounded kindred creatures. He then starts his story, moving backwards in time to recount his childhood, his adolescence, his time in the military… all of the stages that have led him to his fall.
 
Episodic stories often lack a connective tissue that keep the story whole. In the case of La Promesse de l’aube, the story is united by Romain Gary’s relationship with his single mother. His mother—eccentric, loud and brazen, entrepreneurial, inexplicably Francophile, endowed with an inhuman resilience, motivated by a fierce love of her son, never without a cigarette between her lips—has an unquestioning faith that the young Romain is destined for greatness, and to please her, the young Romain strives to become someone. Despite her tireless efforts to keep her and Romain afloat, she is never too spent to share with Romain her bottomless maternal love. From her and his experiences, Romain Gary develops his strong sense of justice, his solidarity with the downtrodden and powerless.
 
“Ce fut seulement aux abords de la quarantaine que je commençai à comprendre. Il n’est pas bon d’être tellement aimé, si jeune, si tôt. Ça vous donne de mauvaises habitudes. On crois que c’est arrivé. On crois que ça existe ailleurs, que ça peut se retrouver. On compte là-dessus. On regarde, on espère, on attend. Avec l’amour maternel, la vie vous fait à l’aube une promesse qu’elle ne tient jamais. On est oblige ensuite de manger froid jusqu’à la fin de ses jours. Après cela, chaque fois qu’une femme vous prend dans ses bras et vous serre sur son cœur, ce ne sont plus que des condoléances. On revient toujours gueuler sur la tombe de sa mère comme un chien abandonné…” (p. 43).
 
Romain Gary achieves all that he has promised to achieve and more: he is designated a Companion of the Liberation for his accomplishments in WWII, becomes a recognized and successful writer, is posted in Los Angeles as France’s consul general… but without his mother to share in any of his accomplishments. Romain Gary ends his story back on the beach at the Big Sur, surrounded by kindred creatures… his fall is complete.
 

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