Exit, by Nelly Arcan
This piece originally appeared in issue 83 of Canadian Notes & Queries under the title “Half In Love With Death.” Viktor Frankl, founder of the Viennese school of existential psychotherapy called “logotherapy,” wrote that happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to “be happy.” Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically. As we see, a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy, last but not least, through actualizing the potential meaning inherent and dormant in a given situation. There is just such an existential void at the core of Exit (Paradis, clef en main, 2009, ably translated by David Scott Hamilton), Nelly Arcan’s final novel. Antoinette Beauchamp, who narrates from her hospital bed—left paraplegic after a failed suicide attempt involving a guillotine—has spent her entire life unhappy, dominated by a… Continue Reading