“A Man Among Men” in Algerian Paris: Modeling Motivation and Movement in Jake Lamar’s Rendezvous Eighteenth

"A Man Among Men": Valitsa

Second, in earlier expatriate fiction, interracial intimacy occurs on Paris’s Left Bank, but in Rendezvous Eighteenth, most of Ricky’s relationships are interracial, international, and interreligious and take place in the Eighteenth Arrondissement. Ricky’s intimacy with Valitsa is an example of an interracial and international relationship that has similarities to earlier fiction yet departs from it. Ricky’s relationship with Valitsa does not cause him to reflect on the politics of race in the U.S.A. Their relationship makes him feel more American than African-American. This is not a unique experience for an African-American in Paris. Though Ricky and Valitsa’s relationship is primarily as French tutor and tutee, what “defined her, gave meaning to her life [was] the politics of her tortured homeland” (95). Because of this, much of Ricky’s time with Valitsa is spent discussing politics. Valitsa makes Ricky feel American when she discusses the history of her people, the Serbians. She states, “You Americans and your childlike sense of time! How can you say thirteen eighty-nine was a long time ago? To a Serb thirteen eighty-nine is a living memory! Of course this is not the case for you Americans” (93). Here, Ricky’s interracial relationship critiques his American concept of history, but she also critiques NATO’s bombing of Serbia (94). The reality of American international affairs post-1960 are not simply black and white. For Valitsa, the American identity is not one to readily accept, and Ricky being African-American does not make him an exception. Being “a man among men” does not mean fraternitié in Paris; it also means a harsh critique of national politics at the turn-of-the-century.
 

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