Summary

“Chapter One: France in the Time of Iraq: Anti-americain” opens with a section entitled, “Invisible Ink.” In this section, Martin describes the perfect life he led at one point, when he and his wife Elena went to France so that Elena could accept an award from the Prix Mirabeau. Martin states that the disadvantage of happiness, however, is that “happiness, in literature, is a void and a vacuum…What can the pen do with happiness—with the invisible ink of happiness?” (145).

In the next section, “The struggle for coffee,” Martin and Elena go for coffee, and Elena warns Martin no to “take any of France’s shit” (146). Elena is referring to the fact that the couple is visiting France during a time of anti-Americanism due to the imminent Iraq War. Seeing the seaside, Martin quotes from a Philip Larkin poem, at which Elena...