Portrait d'un Inconnu is a novel concerned with its own composition. It draws on many fields of imagery—notably biological and zoological—but it is particularly the imagery of childhood, sustained throughout the novel, which introduces the reader to the core of the novel's preoccupations…. [A] systematic use of childhood imagery serves two related purposes.

First, it is a stylistic device for conveying the fluid sub-surface of consciousness to the reader, without falling into the pitfalls of psychological abstraction, or over-precise definition…. Nathalie Sarraute reaches down to the universal experiences of childhood in order to surmount the difficulties faced by the narrator, and to overcome the resistance of readers who may resent the unfamiliar matter.

Secondly, childhood imagery illuminates for the reader the uncertain situation of the narrator in relation to the world of his experience. This uncertainty is not peculiar to the narrator, but reflects the problematic...