In French the book is called Solange te parle, and the title, for all its apparent simplicity, is tricky to render in English. Solange talks to you, is talking to you, is speaking to you? Or just Solange is talking? I've opted for Solange Speaks to You because it has the connotation of relevance. And this little book does "speak to me".

I found it via the Youtube channel of the same name, and I found the channel via a recommendation from All Language Resources. It's aimed at native speakers, but I find her French very clear, and she is an excellent performer. (All her videos have optional subtitles, so they're accessible even if you don't speak much French.) 

Solange is the creation of Ina Mihalache, who was born in 1985 in Montreal. Her mother is Quebecoise, and her father a Romanian who sought political asylum in Canada in 1976. Mihalache moved to France in 2004, but well before that point, she decided she was going to ditch her Quebec French and adopt the form of the language that she was hearing on radio and TV channels from Metropolitan France.

Interesting decision... As one who consciously subverted her original accent on arriving at university, I identify to a certain degree. But this is quite radical. She recalls watching TV5 as a little girl: "I was seduced by the vocabulary, by the sentences, the diction, to the point of wanting to transform myself." (She later did a lovely video on the characteristics of Quebecois French. And if you're a language nerd like me, you can find more on that here.)

An actress and visual artist, Mihalache started the Solange te parle channel in 2011, and the book (her first) came out in 2016. 

The name on the cover is Solange, but the opening "presentation" clearly explains that this is a pseudonym for Ina Mihalache. The book ends by asking: "So, which do you prefer? Solange or Ina? Ina or Solange? It's your call."


Originals and reflections, Alor Setar, Malaysia, 2012

Nevertheless, there seems to have been some confusion over Solange's identity, and a very moving little piece, entitled "Solange does not exist", came out on Youtube in December last year. 

As is characteristic for Mihalache, her explanation is full of astute psychological observation:

"Nine years ago when I created Solange I really wanted to become somebody. Meaning: I thought I was nobody. I was very depressed... I very much needed to exist... [A combination of things] made me believe that I needed to do and be something in order to exist...That's a very powerful and very devastating energy. You could say it was thanks to this energy that I created Solange te parle. You could say that because of this energy I suffered for years... What does it mean to 'exist'?"

When she created the character, she was often asked: "Who is it? What is it? Is it you?" Her answer: "I don't know, it's who you want it to be! Solange is 400,000 people." Then people would start to complain that the character had stopped being Solange, and had become "much more Ina": "You're no longer the Solange that I loved..." She found herself increasingly pressured by the need to please, the need to be successful with the character. All of which became oppressive: "I don't want to let myself be locked up anymore by this 'Solange' who is a nebulous abstraction. It's obviously me. For ever... And you are Solange if you want... Everybody is Solange..."

Whereas the enterprise had started with the need to "be somebody", she now recognizes: "Today, from the place where I'm speaking to you, I want to be nobody. And I want to give you that right too. I authorize you to be nobody."

Nobody? What does she mean? Well, she says, if you want to, then go ahead and follow whatever expectations, duties, goals, or objectives you're driven by. But if these things are making you miserable, then drop them: "You absolutely don't have to do anything to be somebody. You are somebody... And also, supreme relief, you are also nobody. Like everybody. And it feels good. It's a relief... I'll never be the one pretending to know what I'm doing and where I'm going. I have no idea. But if that speaks to you [si ca te parle], well, I will continue to speak to you... It doesn't make sense to define ourselves. We can try, and it will change every day, every hour. I am Solange. I am Ina. I am the world. I am the void. I am nothing at all. I am you. I am life speaking to you [la vie qui te parle]."



So much for the character, what about the book? "Refreshing" is the first word I'd choose. Solange/Ina is, as I've said, perceptive, honest, precise, and good at expressing emotion. A lot of the topics she writes about resonate with me: the difficulties of buying clothes, or researching medical matters on the internet, or finding somewhere to pee when you're on the road, or planning sensible amounts of tasks for the month ahead...

But some really stood out. Here is the first batch of my favourites:

-- On "talking weird"
"Doing what is normally done in life doesn't interest me. Because life weighs on me. I like to do things differently. This is what I love. Doing not-as-you-do-in-life. That's why I talk weird... People can access very subtle and gratifying pleasures when they agree to be unsettled by things they find a bit strange. Can you admit to being unsettled?"

-- On the "62 revelations"
Like me, Solange sees touch-typing as being up there with the most useful things she's ever learnt... And this one: "I was the best pupil, but that didn't help me in life." Ouch...

-- On living your life
Many of us have been through this... If you're happy with your "normal working week", then you have no problem. But if you're not..., then it's really worth asking yourself whether you could be doing something different. "Because if you don't like your job, and you get up early, and go to bed when you can, and haven't really done what your heart and stomach are programmed to want, then what is your life actually?" If dreading Monday starts as early as Saturday night, then something is wrong. Ah yes, work... How to make it your servant and not your master... I never figured that out, even though I basically liked most of my jobs. For me, the answer was retirement, but I'm sure many of her readers are much more imaginative.



The above pieces are probably on YouTube too. I haven't looked. But my other favourites I had actually already seen Mihalache "perform". Ultimately, I guess I prefer the performance to the written word, as she is a really excellent monologist, but it's interesting to have the two media, and I've learnt something from both, I think.

-- On saying "I love you"
This -- a little offering to all those who find it hard to express their appreciation of others -- is very sweet.

-- On being a "bobo"
Aka a bohemian bourgeois... (There's a bit more depth, should you desire such, here, and a really interesting update on the bobo phenomenon here.) Mihalache is aware that being a bobo involves a bundle of contradictory impulses. But does this amorphous group really deserve so much negativity, she asks. After all, alongside their undoubted potential for narcissism and judgmentalism, bobos have plenty of fine qualities: "No, bobo doesn't mean elitist; the bobo adapts, searches, gets things wrong, finds. The bobo wants to make her life a success, which has nothing to do with being successful in life. The bobo is curious about you at this very minute, and would like to talk to you." OK, this is a little naive. But at least she's honest... And better bobo than boubour (no, Malay/Indonesian speakers, this has nothing to do with porridge; it's short for brutal bourgeois, "bourgeois-bourrin" -- it works better in French...)


Probably the height of our bobo-dom: Our first house in Auckland, 1998-2004



-- On feeling powerless in the face of poverty
Solange/Mihalache comments that the number of homeless people has increased significantly in the 10  years she's lived in Paris. And she talks, again very honestly, about not knowing how to react to these people, or what to do for them, about feeling compassionate but completely helpless -- and about never completely shaking off the fear that she too might end up in this situation. "I am petty," she says, "I am selfish, I save my skin because I'm afraid. I'm afraid for myself and those I love, I close my eyes, I protect myself, I don't want this to happen to me, I don't want it to concern me, I want it to be sorted out, and I tell myself it's not up to me to do that. A wave of misfortune washes up at the foot of the block where I live, but I climb the stairs, and cling to my little bit of luck." Critics might say that this doesn't take us anywhere, but it certainly expresses the utter impotence many of us feel in face of the rising tide of problems in the world.

The article I quoted earlier comes across as somewhat hostile to Mihalache's whole enterprise. It closes like this: "Leaving Quebec, the writer-Youtuber did not want to flee a country, but rather a language (which is basically the same)... She does not take selfies, but has self-portraits in all media. She espouses not feminism but the "not feminine". Between paradoxes and enigmas, Ina loses us. Between smoke screens, mirrors and artistic blurs, Solange confuses us. Is it art? Is it literature?... Ina-Solange lacks body. Her universe is too vaporous. Aesthetic and controlled. A little empty. What does she want to tell us? Recounting your life is a perilous exercise."

I find this rather unfair, and the author seems determined not to recognize the distinctions that Mihalache carefully explains. No, a country is not the same as a language; nor does a selfie equate to other, more subtle, more self-aware forms of self-depiction; and no, feminism might well be too burdensome a concept to work with in the Solange format, whereas resisting societal expectations of femininity might still be a useful path towards change. And ultimately, Mihalache (at least in what she presents by way of Solange) is an artist, not an activist; her forte is psychology, not politics.

Her self-reflections are not big on analysis or explanations or solutions. But we can go elsewhere for these, no? If Solange's performances help us just a little to recognize, ponder, express, and digest the things that confront us in our lives, and if they do that with humour and grace, then surely they have fulfilled their objective.