DAUGHTERS BEYOND COMMAND

Repercussions from seismic changes in French culture resonate within a provincial family.

Agnès and Bruno Malivieri’s daughters—Sabine, Hélène, and Mariette—are being raised in Aix-en-Provence in a working-class environment, with all the traditional gender, class, and religious constraints present in France until the late 1960s, when the book opens. Sabine, the eldest, yearns for a life in Paris and the arts. Mariette, the “mouse” of the family, is dogged by chronic asthma and has a quiet, dreamy way about her. In between the two is Hélène, who lives the most unconventional life of all the Malivieris: Her summer vacations, school breaks, and holidays are spent in the bourgeois Parisian home of her maternal aunt and uncle, the Tavels. (The arrangement, which takes Hélène years to understand on a psychological level, allows her to lead a life of privilege and comfort while providing her family in Provence with some financial relief.) As the young women’s roles are redefined during decades of social tumult, their roles within the family shift as well. Sabine’s artistic efforts take her in unanticipated directions, while Hélène’s passion for animal rights propels her out of the security of the Tavels' cocoon. After her older sisters leave the family home,Mariette grows into an awareness of the realities of the world and discovers music (always in the background of the girl’s lives in one way or another) as a transcendent force. Bruno’s role as the traditional paterfamilias shifts, and even Agnès takes steps toward self-determination. By the time François Mitterand is elected (a realization of almost all of Agnès and Bruno’s fears), the entire Malivieri family architecture is rearranged.

The personal is political for Olmi’s finely drawn characters.