Tropisms - New Directions Pearls Author:Nathalie Sarraute Nathalie Sarraute's stunning debut?vignettes of "inner movements"?foreshadowed the rise of the nouveau roman. Hailed as a masterpiece by Jean Genet, Marguerite Duras, and Jean-Paul Sartre, Tropisms is considered one of the defining texts of the nouveau roman movement. Nathalie Sarraute has defined her work as the ?movements that are hidden under... more » the commonplace, harmless instances of our everyday lives.? Like figures in a grainy photograph, Sarraute?s characters are blurred and shadowy, while her narrative never develops beyond a stressed moment. Instead, Sarraute brilliantly finds and elaborates subtle details?when a relationship changes, when we fall slightly deeper into love, or when something innocent tilts to the smallest degree toward suspicion.« less