FICTION
Michel Tournier
The Red Dwarf
for Jean-Pierre Rudin
When Lucien Gagnere reached the age of twenty-five he
had to give up with a broken heart all hope of ever becoming any
taller than the four-feet-one he had already reached eight years
before. All he could do now was have recourse to special shoes whose
platform soles gave him the extra four inches that elevated him from
the dwarf category to that of the small man. As the years went by,
his vanishing adolescence and youth left him exposed as a stunted
adult who inspired mockery and scorn in the worst moments, pity in
the less bad ones, but never respect or fear, in spite of the enviable
position he occupied in the office of an important Paris lawyer.
His speciality was divorce and, not being able to dream of mar–
riage for himself, he applied himself with avenging ardor to the task
of destroying the marriages of other people . This was why he one
day received a visit from Mrs. Edith Watson. A first marriage to an
American had left this former opera singer extremely wealthy, and
she had then married a lifeguard from Nice who was much younger
than she.
It
was this second union that she now wished to dissolve
and, through the numerous and confused grievances she had against
her Bob, Lucien scented secrets and humiliations that more than in–
terested him . He felt personally concerned in the wreck of this cou–
ple, even more so, perhaps, since he had had a chance to see Bob.
The young man was a colossus, with a sweet, naive face -like an
athletic girl, Lucien thought - a beautiful, golden pulpy fruit on the
beach, designed to arouse all kinds of appetites .
Lucien prided himself on his literary talents and was most
meticulous in refining the style of the insulting letters which, accord–
ing to French law, couples have to exchange in order to achieve an
Editor's Note: From the book,
The Fetishist,
by Michel Tournier. English translation
copyright
<Cl
1983 by Doubleday
&
Co., Inc. and Wm. Collins Sons
&
Co. Ltd. T o
be published by Doubleday
&
Co. Inc.
