Albertine Sarrazin: L'Astragale | Astragal (1965)

As I wrote in an earlier post, Albertine Sarrazin (1937–67) was essentially rejected by her (semi- adopted) family and escaped from her school-prison to Paris, went on the game, was imprisoned again, escaped again but broke her ankle bone (astragal in English), and was luckily picked up by Julien, also an ex-prisoner, who became her lover and her husband.

This is the autobiographical story of a young prisoner rescued by a man fifteen years older than her, who first takes her to his mother, and then to various boltholes where she can hide until the search for her is over, and where her ankle is operated on at Julien's expense.

They escape to Paris, although the absence of Julien means she has to once more live on her wits, or rather her ass, and her  life is time and time again repeated in the language of the prisons, the language of prostitution, the language of the milieu. A number of reviews talk of the obsolescence of the language, the difficulty with the prison slang, although this is part of the book's charm, of its strange mixture of arcane language and poetic descriptions. This is a very powerful, and very rare, treasure.

My Albertine Sarrazin posts:
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Albertine Sarrazin: La Cavale | Runaway
Jacques Layani: Albertine Sarrazin : une vie
Albertine Sarrazin: L'Astragale | Astragal
Albertine Sarrazin in Doullens, Somme