Le drame familial dans les romans de Richard Millet

The disintegration of the family is a major motif in the novels of Richard Millet. At the root of the family drama is the divorce of the parents that condemns the child to an internal exile. Abandoned by the father and left to the care of an emotionally absent mother, the child is rescued by figures of maternal substitution. Grandmothers, aunts, and sisters thus manage to compensate for original failings by giving us a glimpse of the possibilities of a new form of “living together”.