A young man, twenty, walking in Paris at night is grazed by a car driven by a woman named Jacqueline Beausergent. He feels he has known her in the past. He leaves the encounter with a bandage and an envelope of cash after recovering in a hospital.

Written from the perspective of an older man, he recalls this incident, other memories of his younger self, and of his estranged father; Patrick Modiano’s favorite themes. The young man is alone. His father had him arrested at 17, an attempt “to get rid of him.” A woman that is possibly his mother attacks him outside his apartment building.

He searches for Jacqueline Beausergent, moving through Paris at night, looking for clues and her car. Dreams feature prominently in the story, and some of the things that happen to him at night are possibly dreams. He observes and moves and knows he will find her again. “Remain still and silent and blend into the background.”

A passage describes the purpose and beauty of his night wanderings:
“…at certain hours of the night, you can slip into a parallel world: an empty apartment where the light wasn’t switched off, even a small dead-end street. It’s where you find objects lost long ago: a lucky charm, a letter, an umbrella, a key, and cats, dogs and horses that were lost over the course of your life.” ( )

fter an automobile accident in which he is struck, as a pedestrian, by a woman driving a sea-green Fiat, our 20-year-old unnamed narrator becomes obsessed with finding the woman and understanding the bizarre events in the hours and days immediately following the accident. Narrated with a detached, disimpassioned tone, the novel recounts emotional reactions with the same voice as a description of a list of addresses found in the narrator's dead father's notebook. The result is less than fully satisfying for a reader who most responds to character development, but it was also oddly compelling. Themes of memory, illusion, and the vague boundary between dreams and reality kept me engaged.

A 2015 article in the New York Times about Nobel-winning Modiano suggested that reading more than one of his novels will enhance the experience of reading any individual work. Having read that article, I was admittedly a bit proud to have set the novel, in my mind because it was not provided directly in the narrative, in the year immediately after the Nazi occupation of France. That sombre air was present throughout. ( )

Our unnamed narrator is hit by a car and injured slightly. The female driver appears familiar to him. Over the next several weeks, he tries to find her and to put together the possible connection: to his disappeared father? to his childhood? To a crime boss? We watch his obsession and are drawn into his search.

Unfortunately, I found that the effort to deal with all the ambiguity during the quest was not "rewarded" by the ultimate resolution. I liked the book more a few days after finishing it, but still am not rating it very highly. ( )

Gallimard, folio 4184. I love the touch and feel of these folio editions - and in this case the atmospheric subdued front cover.