The Charm Buyers

Trying to focus on the topic of historical memory and the question of how to prepare a reliable narration while reading The Charm Buyers really stumped me. Historical memory, in and of itself, is massively unreliable. History is so often told from the perspective of those in power at the time. Our knowledge today of what happened in the past largely comes from what was recorded back then and from word of mouth reiterated through the generations; both of which are not entirely verifiable. Memory is just as untrustworthy as history, if not more so. If we learned anything from Tell Me Everything You Don’t Remember, it’s that memory does not equate to truth. Plus, a lot of The Charm Buyers was focused on highly subjective and abstract concepts like love and magic.
            The Charm Buyers has a richly developed setting and a whole host of subplots, but to me, the heart of Lillian Howen’s novel was centered on Marc Antoine and his relationships with other characters. Marc is fixated defining love, if it even exists. His attempts are futile, of course, because love is such an obscure notion; it’s both an idea and a feeling that is neither tangible nor easily describable. It is not simply an emotion, like happiness or anger, but instead, it’s a collection of intensified emotions as well as a strong attachment. This is how I see love, and this is why, even if Marc might disagree, I’d argue that there’s some kind of love in all his relationships. If you’ve heard of John Lee’s love styles, you’re likely to see them exemplified in The Charm Buyers. There’s the self-sacrificial love that Marc has for Marie-Laure: Agape. The love-at-first-sight infatuation Aurore feels for Marc: Ludus. The practical, seemingly nonexistent love between Marc and his parents: Pragma. But I digress.
            Despite my belief in love, I do not think love creates a good basis for a reliable narration . And more to that point, neither does magic. Charms, in the novel, are a kind of magic. So, essentially, The Charm Buyers is about buying magic. Marc Antoine doesn’t logically believe in magic, and for good reason: magic is even more impossible to prove than love. But, he obviously still hopes for it, considering he was willing to give up everything to get it. Yet, this just adds to the unreliability. There is no clear answer whether Marie-Laure got better on her own or if it was due to the magic.

So, was The Charm Buyers a good novel? Certainly. Did it have reliable narration? Certainly not.

-Erin

Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 24, 2017 at 11:51 PM

    I liked how you emphasized that love was a huge motivating force in Marc's life. He isn't a romantic character or one that thinks about love and emotions in an idolized way, but his unquestioning devotion to Marie-Laure is very sweet and heart warming. He repeatedly gets punished for the love he feels. His father doesn't approve of his interest in Marie-Laure and later on Aurore leaves him. His commitment to the women in his life is probably one of the most consistent aspects of this character, there's no other interest or profession that holds his attention like romantic love.

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  2. Anna EriceSeptember 26, 2017 at 10:19 AM

    Erin,
    I think it's really interesting how you linked the novel's reliance on love as the basis for its lack of reliable narration. In your opinion, are all romantic narratives or narratives that rely heavily on love unreliable? I can definitely see how people in love are definitely not the most reliable narrators because all that they see is shaped by their emotions. For example, the object of their devotion is going to be colored as better than he or she truly is. But all people have biases in their judgement based on emotions and loyalties, so I shouldn't see that as a criteria for an unreliable narrative. Then we would never have a reliable narrator. I definitely see Marc as an unreliable narrator though, perhaps in part due to the extent to which he feels and relies on love.
    Thanks,
    Anna

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  3. AnonymousSeptember 27, 2017 at 2:40 PM

    Hi Erin,
    Your comments about love are intriguing. Although he didn't express it in words, Marc is clearly searching for love, and discovering what love is and isn't. How would you define what Marc feels for Aurore? We see that he evidences love through his actions, not his words. What holds him back? Is it just the male, "I'm a tough guy and I don't share my feelings" thing? Or is it something more complicated. What are the different expectations for each kind of love, for both parties? How do we know if Marc is successful, at any of them? How do you measure that success? By how much you love? Or by how much you are loved by others? (paraphrasing the Wizard of Oz here!). Based on the different prototypes of love that you describe, what are the predicted outcomes/consequences? Can any parallels be drawn with the larger themes of cultural identity and belonging?
    What do charms and love have in common? It seems to me that both involve elements of belief, risk and faith. In that case, it would seem that Marie-Laure's use of charms during her time together with Marc, and Marc's use of a charm when Marie-Laure is sick, are both successful --- in part. Is there something that prevents the charms from being totally successful? Some character deficiency in Marc? Or is it more about fate, and the luck of the draw, so to speak, without any direct causation?
    Good lord --- so many questions! So much material to mine! Thank you for getting the dialogue going!

    Incidentally, I'm curious about John Lee's framework for defining love. The different categories of love that you describe aren't new concepts; but I'm wondering what his field is and what he bases his definitions on: psychology? literary archetypes? Please share more.

    Thanks Erin.

    Lisa

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