‘Strait is the Gate’ by Andre Gide  (1909) – 102 pages                  Translated from the French by Dorothy Bussy

This novella is the love story between two cousins, Jerome and Alissa, which begins when they are still very young, adolescents. No mention is made in the novella that a love between cousins might be inappropriate.

As cousins, Jerome and Alissa have always been close, but when they find Alissa’s mother making out with an army officer not her husband, the two children become even closer.

“With my mind rapt and as in a dream, I saw my aunt’s room; I saw her lying there on the sofa, laughing; I saw the brilliant officer laughing too… and the very idea of laughter and joy became an offence and an outrage, became, as it were, the hateful exaggeration of sin.”

The next day Alissa’s mother runs off with the officer and leaves her family. After this shock, Jerome becomes devoted to Alissa while Alissa becomes devoted to her religion, rejecting human love. Alissa still is close friends with Jerome, but deep down Alissa has rejected Jerome as anything more than a friend. Jerome does not know this.

Jerome is so enamored of Alissa that he does not notice that her sister Juliette has fallen completely in love with him. Jerome can see only Alissa in his future, and Juliette must settle for a guy she doesn’t really love.

‘Strait is the Gate’ is what would be called an epistolary novel as much of it is taken up with the letters between Jerome and Alissa as well as entries from Alissa’s journal.

“The reasons which make me fly from him? I no longer believe in them…And yet I fly from him, sadly and not understanding why I fly.”

Meanwhile Jerome remains unmarried, still longing for Alissa. I did not fully understand Alissa’s motivation for removing Jerome, the one person who truly loves her, from her life. Perhaps her mother’s behavior has caused Alissa to feel unworthy of Jerome.

“Was he not born for something better than to love me?”

This short novella held my interest throughout.

Grade:   A-