THIS MEMOIR BY Emmanuel Carrère, a French master of literary nonfiction, is ostensibly about depression. Five years ago Carrère was desperate enough to have himself committed to an institution and undergo electric shocks. His book tells of his ordeal and shaky recovery, using his lifelong practice of yoga and meditation as a leitmotif (hence the understated title).
But Yoga is not solely, or even mainly, about mental illness or stretching exercises. The underlying theme emerges in gradual touches. Those familiar with Carrère’s work first note something odd: he is alone. Carrère usually portrays himself, often unflatteringly, as a social butterfly with an eye for the ladies. He has told us about his failed first marriage, sexual wanderings, and his discovery of true love in his mid-forties. He has not spared us intimate digressions. In a biography of Saint Paul, he slipped in a passage about watching online porn with his beloved second wife, Hélène.
But in there is no sign of Hélène (). Nor
