Scratches

Description

Michel Leiris, a French intellectual whose literary works inspired high praise from the likes of Simone de Beauvoir and Claude Lévi-Strauss, began the first volume of his autobiographical project at the age of 40, an endeavor that would ultimately require 35 years and three additional volumes. In Volume 1, Scratches, Leiris sets out to invent a savoir vivre, a mode of living that would have a place for both his poetics and his personal morality. "I can scarcely see the literary use of speech as anything but a means of sharpening one's consciousness in order to be more--and in a better way--alive," he declares. He begins the project of uncovering memories, returning to moments and images of childhood--his father's recording machine, the letters of the alphabet coming to life--and then of his later life--Paris under Occupation, a journey to Africa, and a troubling fear of death.