A MAN WITH NO TITLE by Xavier Le Clerc

Translated by William Rodarmor

A few years ago, I read a book that changed the way I view the world. Granted it wasn’t fiction, but it was short and by a novelist, so I like to consider it novella adjacent. Édouard Louis’s Who Killed My Father? was a socio-econimic J’Accuse; a scathing vivisection of French capitalist society and the way it crushed his working class father into the grave. It was also a reckoning with the author’s sexuality and its impact on the relationship he had with his dad. I say all this by way of introduction because A Man With No Title very much reminded me of Louis’s book.

In this work of intense autofiction, Le Clerc seeks to understand his father - an Algerian immigrant - by finding dignity in the man’s life of poverty and exploitation. It’s an act of love as much as one of rescue, giving meaning and purpose to someone who seemed otherwise invisible. Le Clerc is less overtly angry than Louis. His project is driven by curiosity rather than fury. As such, the book can feel rather procedural at times, objective to a fault. But it’s a beautiful read with a deeply moving denouement.

A Man With No Title by Xavier Le Clerc (Tr. William Rodamor)
Saqi Books, 2024
126 pages

Review of Who Killed my Father on my old blog