“I shall discuss these things without pre-established order, and according to the mood of the moment which lets whatever survives survive” (23)

[Nadja] was never an easy book to understand fully in one reading. In fact, the first impression of the book was pure confusion — it never goes as time passes generally, and it even seems a collection of unconnected events. The author, André Breton, just listed down depicted incidents of what he saw and felt. It, as a story, is not a story which helps us to understand what he actually tries to say.

However, as I continued reading, and eventually finished the reading, I could find the fascination of this book. As the main themes are obsession and madness in a surrealistic style, and they would be discussed even if I don’t, I want to point out two main things I found fascinating.

“Is there anything more detestable than these systems of so-called social conservation which, for a peccadillo, some initial and exterior rejection of respectability or common sense, hurl an individual among others whose association can only be harmful to him and, above all, systematically deprive him of relations with everyone whose moral or practical sense is more firmly established than his own?” (139)

One thing I was surprised by as I read the book was the way the author depicts the dark side of “freedom” in the real world, and how he criticizes the world. Unlike the other literature which merely delivers the story per se, Breton tries to claim his opinion toward the real world. This is the point where I felt it was not just a novel, but it is more of a critique or a column which shows the “dark side”. It was surprising that he drastically stated his opinion with a surrealistic story of a mad woman.

“Those are your thoughts and mine. Look where they all start from, how high they reach, and then how it’s still prettier when they fall back. And then they dissolve immediately, driven back up with the same strength, then there’s that broken spurt again, that fall…and so on indefinitely.” (86)

Another thing I felt fascinated by was the dreamy and beautiful metaphors and expressions throughout the book — not only in the quotation above but also in many other parts. Despite its beauty and splendour, it provides warmth to the story that can be just a dry journal of Breton. Furthermore, these metaphors allude the Breton and Nadja’s inner notions more elegantly.

To conclude, I want to ask one simple question, “Do you think freedom needs to be controlled, or even confiscated, just like Nadja?”