SOURCE: Di Bernardi, Dominic. Review of Printemps et autres saisons, by J. M. G. Le Clézio. Review of Contemporary Fiction 11, no. 2 (summer 1991): 262–63.

In the following positive review, Di Bernardi praises Printemps et autres saisons for reexamining the oft-addressed themes of nationalism and racial purity.

J. M. G. Le Clézio's newest collection of short stories, Printemps et autres saisons, might be more accurately described as a novella and four stories, and more aptly titled “Five Young Women.” Writers commonly exploit images of the opposite sex as vehicles for examining broader themes. These narratives, all written in Le Clézio's trademark impassive (and at times disappointingly deadpan) style, are focused on foreign women, mostly North African, whose (mostly failed) encounters with a variety of French males furnish the basic story lines.

For example, “Fascination” romantically evokes a man's pursuit of an ever-elusive Arab woman he first saw performing...