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Mathias Enard: La Perfection du tir (Perfecting the Sho)t
War is hell. There are quite a few novels on this website in which is a basic theme. While there may be some which are more horrifying. – novels about the atom bombs on Japan for example – this one certainly comes quite high up in the grim stakes.
It is set in an unnamed city in an unnamed country, though presumably more or less in modern times. There is a war going on and it appears to be a civil war. Perhaps the nearest equivalent to an actual war might well be wars rules that took place after the fall of Yugoslavia. There are only two named characters and they are called.Zak and Myrna. These are clearly not French names but could quite easily be Eastern European names.
Our narrator and main character is not named. He is a sniper. That is what he does. As the title tells us he wants to be the best sniper. He hides out on roofs and will shoot anyone who is deemed to be part of the enemy. He shoots a lady doing her shopping and an old man and even a cat. He is proud of his shooting.
He is not always shooting. Sometimes, with the assistance of his best friend Zak he is manning roadblocks. He is cruel but Zak is worse, happy to terrorise, beat up or even kill drivers whom he feels are not following his rules.
Our narrator lives with his mother in the divided city. She is only around 50 years old but seems to have serious dementia. He is naturally concerned for her when he is off shooting and eventually hires Myrna, fifteen year-old girl ,who has lost her father, to look after his mother. He has no qualms about spying on her dressing and undressing though, on the whole, he keeps in his hands to himself. There will later be complaints that it is inappropriate for the two be together.
If you want to know how to be a sniper, he gives us the details. The wind is your worst enemy and don’t use a Kalashnikov as they are not very good. Keep very calm and very still whilst shooting.
At he beginning of the war, when he shot a man, a taxi driver, he felt guilty but no longer. For example, he and Zak will pull wounded enemy fighters from a Red Cross ambulance and take no heed of the complaint by the Red Cross officials . All morality is gone.
There are occasional ceasefires, but they do not seem to last long and he is soon back on the job. He feels he is becoming more attracted toMyrna realises this is not a good idea because being romantic makes you take risks as a sniper which of course you cannot afford to do. He does get in one hand to hand fight with one of the enemy and though he is somewhat wounded, he does of course win. He has been cut in the arm with a dagger and this goes septic, so it takes some time to heal and because of his sore arm he cannot shoot properly for a while, so he spends some time with Myrna walking by the sea and going to the cinema.
But as soon as
as he has recovered he is back on the job and takes more risks going into enemy territory to get the perfect shot,
But the war takes the turn for the worse . It is more intense and, on one occasion their building is hit several times. He seems more concerned about the safety of Myrna than of his mother.
But then things get worse.Myrna and her aunt disappear, possibly having gone to family in the hills for safety. However, he sees it entirely as rejection and vows revenge on both of them. Yes, he even wants to kill the only woman whom he has ever loved. He even shoots some school girls imagining them to be likeMyrna.
However, things change and they are sent to fight in the hills. We get along and detailed account of this particular campaign which shows that the officers are generally incompetent but in which once again he shows his prowess as a sniper. He even shows some human feeling by stopping.Zak from raping a female prisoner. This campaign seems to end without having achieved all that much and once again he is back in the city shooting various targets and generally succeeding in killing them.
He decides to go to the aunt’s house to see if by chance they have returned and indeed they have. The aunt apologises for the hasty withdrawal explains they felt in great danger and had to leave suddenly. His murderous intent calms down somewhat and Myrna agrees to come back for issues while and look after his mother who seems to have become more self-sufficient, taking her pills as necessary, but still needing some help when he is away fighting.Do you think the war will last much longer?’ ‘I don’t know. It’s possible.’ ‘It’s as if no one wants to stop. However, she blames people like him for keeping the war going.
As mentioned there are quite a few books on this site showing the horrors of war. This one seems somewhat different as it is more personal, not least as we follow not the generally innocent victims. But, in the case of our narrator, the person with no morality except his occasional concern for Myrna and the occasional good deed such as stopping Zak from raping the woman prisoner. However, overall he has a little to redeem him with such evil deeds shooting innocent people, including the school girls who remind him of.Myrna and even a cat. His cruelty goes further as he hits his mother more than once when she screams. As I said at the beginning war as hell and this book certainly shows that.
3>Publishing history
First published by Actes Sud, in 2003
First English translation by Fitzcarraldo in 2026
Translated by Charlotte Mandell