Faces on The Tip of My Tongue Book Review

by Catalina Bonati

3.75/5 stars

Emmanuelle Pagano’s 2019 book Faces on the Tip of My Tongue, translated from French by Jennifer Higgins and Sophie Lewis, is a collection of short stories, some of which intertwine, that portray small mundane moments of everyday life in a cinematic way. The 128-page Faces on the Tip of My Tongue is taken from the longer French collection Un renard à mains nues of 340-pages, as the translation is published by Peirene Press which focuses on publishing books that can be read in as much time as it takes to watch a film.

The collection is deeply focused on nostalgia; all stories are told through memories and flashbacks and half of them are adults recalling childhood events and places. The first two vignettes, “The Lake’s Favourite” and “The Jigsaw Puzzle”  are a recollection of a childhood place—a home surrounded by woodland in which a specific tree or a particular lake take on a special meaning to the protagonist. The third story, “The Short Cut” narrates a woman’s interesting take on her process of grieving. “Three Press-ups and Unable to Die” is the story of the woman’s cousin and her suicide attempts, and how she is stopped short of staging her death by a child. The stories “Blind Spot” and “The Mini-pilgrimage” are two sides to the same story in which a person who surprises drivers by lurking on the side of the road stops a car in the middle of summer and as the car stops a layer of snow falls over the hood. These stories are told from the point of view of the lurker/hitchhiker and the driver. “The Loony and the Bright Spark” centers around the same highway surpriser (referred to as the roadside loony” and the re-routing of the road and the creation of a new road. Told in blurred sightings and fuzzy recollections, a driver of the town tells of the roadside loony’s new habits after the building of the new road. “Mum at the Park” is a lighthearted memory of a child’s day at the park and the mom’s behaviour towards her child and their friend. “The Automatic Tour Guide” is about a child living on a touristy farm and about Uncle Ukalo, who is a storyteller and who cannot stop telling stories to the tourists. “Just a Dad” is about a child who has killed a fox with her bare hands and must now attend therapy. “Over the Aqueduct” is about a child and their friend and their tendency to stare at women’s underskirts from under a bridge. They become infatuated with a specific girl and trick her and her mother into believing that a doctor is coming to marry her. “The Dropout” is a story of one of the cousins in the grieving stories in which they confront a wrongly invited guest at their daughter’s wedding, told again through hazy connections and recollections. The last story, “Glitter” is about a woman who reads library books in the bath and who reflects on the personal stories left behind on the pages of a book by its readers.

As has been mentioned, nostalgia is the main theme and sentiment of these stories. Some vignettes have a clear plot but some seem not to be about anything other than the meaning that they will give to another story, such as “The Blind Spot.” Many of the stories are focused on driving, roads, highways, and cars, and are centered around a particular unnamed French village. Some stories are childhood recollections of spending summers in this village and making friends in the park and others portray adults who also remember their childhoods there and are now going through a rough time dealing with grief and loss. Faces on the Tip of My Tongue is a collection that feels like walking through an old childhood home; its melancholic sentiment and general aversion towards adult activities such as driving and attending funerals brings this book to life.