Nadja by André Breton.

Surrealism as a form of art is one of the most intriguing concepts ever. I have seen surrealist films like Charlie Kaufman’s, art pieces like Salvador Dali, but never really dove into the world of surrealism in literature (Does Haruki Murakami count?). Looking more into it, I just now discovered that Breton was one of the founding fathers of surrealism and a major figure of the movement. So, it was my first time reading something that would be really defined as ‘surrealist’.

I wouldn’t say I enjoyed the entirety of the reading, especially the first part. I was anticipating for the introduction of Nadja, so I barely got through the first chapter of rambling about french artists and writers, the theater and whatnot. Perhaps with a second read, when I come back with an increased proficiency in handling complex texts, maybe then I would be able to appreciate it. Also, I chose and read the book with the impression that it was a poetic romance story, with obsession as an element. This was not a love story, but a written portrayal of obsession and self-knowledge. It certainly did not feel like a novel either, but a journal. I found it intriguing, the way Breton jumped from one story to another, like a collection of diary entries with random stories and thoughts and ideas.

Nadja was indeed an interesting character. As every other student has said, I too thought about the ‘manic pixie dream girl’ trope while reading the novel. The way the protagonist diminishes a mentally ill woman into an abstract idea, a vision, a hollow concept, almost a ghost, felt like those movies where the depressed male main character gets infatuated by a quirky girl (who, in most cases is, mentally ill), then as they learn more about the girl and get the hint of an idea that the person is indeed, a real person with real life problems, then their illusions are shattered and they stop getting interested. Moreover, the fact that he did not visit Nadja during her stay at the sanitarium further strengthened my perspective that this is not a love story, but a one about obsession. He was not in love with Nadja, but obsessed with the idea of her, romanticizing her symptoms of mental illness and screams of help into poetic expressions. However, in the last part of the book, Breton starts writing about another character addressed in second-person, which was about Suzanne Muzard. Despite the real life events of her ending their short-lived affair to keep her marriage, the last part felt like it was written with love, in contrast with the main body about Nadja.

As he says: (proving that Nadja was just an enigma for him)

“I know is that this substitution of persons stops with you, because nothing can be substituted for you, and because for me it was for all eternity that this succession of terrible or charming enigmas was to come to an end at your feet.
You are not an enigma for me.”

I also really enjoyed the incorporation of photographs to help us not imagine but really immerse ourselves into the world, see through the lens of the character. It felt almost ironic that a work so surreal in nature could stem from a real life event.

My question is:

What do you think of Breton as a person after reading the novel? Is he an unpleasant character?