“Eleazar, Exodus to the West” by Michel Tournier (1996) – 89 pages – Translated by Jonathan F. Krell

“From one book to the next, [Tournier] has been developing and extending a set of themes that are radically at odds with the common views of Western society…. This is his crime. In another age he would have been burned at the stake.” – Sven Birkerts

By all means, read Michel Tournier.  He has written more than a few of the most provocative, fascinating, and controversial novels such as ‘Friday” which is a re-imagining of the Robinson Crusoe story and “The Four Wise Men” which is a re-imagining of the birth of Jesus.  From these novels, one could conclude that Tournier is an inspired recycler of mythical, biblical, and other stories.  Tournier has also written more original powerful novels such as “The Ogre” and “The Golden Droplet” and “Gemini”.  I have read all these novels, and no matter what controversy these novels engender among Christians and other audiences, from a literary standpoint all these novels are superb.   They are deep imaginings which could not have been written by any other writer.  Michel Tournier is unique among living novelists because of the deep philosophical underpinnings of his books.  But don’t let that scare you away.  The novels are so richly imagined, they are easy to follow and understand.
I discovered an interesting discussion about “The Four Wise Men” among four Christian writers on the Internet.  Of course with the novel having the name “The Four Wise Men”, it would be of interest to these four Christians.  Three of the Christian writers argued that the novel was an anti-Christian work that sought to undermine Christianity, while the other Christian writer argued that it was a Christian novel.  The arguments were quite deep and perplexing, so I won’t go into the details.  This is just an example of the controversy Tournier’s work usually causes.  Tournier never shies away from the perverse or the wayward.   Tournier’s writing is often strange, rich, distorted, and cruel.

Where should a reader begin when reading Michel Tournier?   The novels “Friday” and “The Four Wise Men” are very accessible, because they are based on familiar stories.  Another good place to start is “The Ogre” which won the Prix Goncourt by unanimous acclaim in 1970.  “The Ogre” is Tournier’s perverse masterpiece about the Nazi era.   

I have read all of Tournier’s major works and still wanted to read more, so recently I read “Eleazar, Exodus to the West”.  This short novel did not work for me.  It was supposed to be a retelling of Moses and the Exodus story with the main protagonists being an Irish family immigrating to the United States and crossing the west to California.  All this occurs in 89 pages along with a quite a lot of philosophical speculation on fire and water, etc.  It all comes across as terribly sketchy, with none of the special qualities I have come to associate with Tournier.  Tournier obviously has no understanding of crossing the great American western prairie and these scenes have no credibility whatsoever.  In fact, I consider this novella so poor, it almost detracted from my opinion of Tournier generally.  Sooner or later, if you keep reading an author, usually you’ll encounter some of these lesser works that just don’t have the quality of their major work. 

So if you are interested in an intense reading experience with one of the greatest living authors read “The Ogre”, “The Four Wise Men” or “Friday”, but avoid “Eleazar, Exodus to the West” at all costs.