HHhH by Laurent Binet
17 May 2012 20 Comments
in france Tags: 2012, debut novel, french lit, literature, prix goncourt, prize winners, right hand man, TRANSLATIONS
HHhH by Laurent Binet
French fiction
Translator – Sam Taylor
Laurent Binet is one of the hottest new writers in France ,this his debut novel won the Prix Goncourt prize for debut novel rather like our Costa prize for a first novel in the UK .He was Born and grew up in Paris, his father is a historian .He recently chronicled the campaign of the new french president Hollande .He currently teaches in Paris .
Well I think every one has heard of HHhH by now .I do wish every book in translation was given as much press time as this book has been .I think this is help in a large part by the wonderful job Harvill ecker have done on the book as an item of book art in its self a stunning cover shot, is match by a nice grey marble hardback and the use of a germanic style font for the HHhH which is also follow through on the edge of the pages a bit like a huge red ink stamp ,you may have seen in countless world war two movies .So I give it away the book is about the second world war and mainly about three people three people the first is the character of the tile as the title is an acronym for Herr Himmler gesicht heisst Heydrich or Himler’s brain is called Heydrich – Heydrich was Himler’s right hand man and for those of you who remember was played by Kenneth Branagh in the film (well tv play here but think a film abroad ) Conspiracy ,I have include the trailer here give an idea of the man we are talking about in the book .Binet opens the book with the build up of Heydrich from his youth ,then in the army and then as an officer in the S.S and how he ended up as the one that started the final solution he was the one the proposed the mass killing of the Jews in europe .
Little Heydrich – cute blond ,studious ,hardworking ,loved by his parents .Violinist ,pianist ,junior chemist .A boy with a shrill voice which earns him a nickname the first in a long list : at school ,they called him the goat .
A little boy who grew into ? well watch the trailer for an idea
So we see how the boy they called the ” goat ” became” the butcher of Prague” .As he rises in power and ends up in Czechoslovakia ,he becomes a target for assassination by the Czech resistance and this is the second part of the book to men are sent by Czechoslovakian resistance to kill him in Operation Anthripod the two men chosen are Gabik and Kubis are two very different men to one another but are sent with one purpose sent with one purpose to Kill the butcher of Prague .
Gabcik the Slovak and Kubis the Moravian have never been to Prague ,and in fact this is one of the reasons they were chosen .If they don’t know anyone the won’t be recognized .But lack of local knowledge is a handicap ,so part of the training involves studying maps of the beautiful city .
Is it a handicap the lack of knowledge you’ll have to read the book.
Well now I have a problem ,I liked this book a lot. But I did have one or two problems with it .The historic narrative is great the long passages of action are worthy to stand up with all great war fiction ,he captures the build up of Heydrich as an SS officer well and then the tension of the two men in pursuit of Heydrich well as well .No my problem is the third narrative strain which is Binet breaking out of the book and talking to you as the reader this is rather like Calvino did at time in if on a winter’s night, he address you as a reader ,the main drive of this discussion is a comparison between his book HHhH and the book the Kindly ones by Jonathan Littell (he is american but grew up speaking french and writes in french this book is the only book in the last ten years I ve not finished ) ,Now I didn’t particularly like the kindly ones but Binet really didn’t like it ,the french publisher had to remove twenty pages of his words about the kindly ones from the french edition of this book .I like some of his comments about writing in general but others seem less important .The book hasn’t page numbers just chapters number I do wonder if the chapters are like bits he collect as he thought of the book as some just half-dozen lines others tens of pages like he almost decide to include his own notes as he progressed through the book . The book remind a bit in style of the bits of USA by John dos Passos I read when I got it to read a few years ago a mish mash of narrative, fact and commentary thus build a novel a bit like you may a collage out of little bits of pictures to build a bigger picture that is HHhH .Now I ve read that some people having problems with the translation some names have been change from the French edition I m not overly concerned the change of the surname Veil in french to Weil in english as it is a germanic name the V is said like “vow” in english anyway so could sound like a w in english .As a first job of translating from french to english Sam Taylor has done a sterling job .
Have you read this book what did you think ?
The panda theory by Pascal Garnier
11 May 2012 6 Comments
in france Tags: 2012, breton town, french lit, literature, NEW VOICES, pascal garnier, TRANSLATIONS, travel
The Panda Theory by Pascal Garnier
French Fiction
Translator – Svein Cloustin
Pascal Garnier was a french writer he had a number of jobs including being in a number of rock and roll bands before turning to a writing career in his mid thirties ,he unfortunately died in 2010 age 61 ,Gallic books have taken to translate three of his books .In france he was frequently compared to Simenon and Bove .The Panda Theory is the first of these books to be published .
Now Panda theory is a strange book it falls between categories of books lit,detective ,darkly humourous and also a slight surreal air .A strange turns up in a Breton Town his name is Gabriel as the book went on I saw him as a catalyst rather like Spencer Tracy’s character in Bad day at black rock a man come to sort things out .He makes friend he is a chef and connects well with the locals a pretty Hotel receptionist Madeline ,then there is a Junkie pair and a stuffed panda in a bar that which was won at a fun fair by Gabriel .This is all added by the fact the Gabriel is seemingly from nowhere ,you do wonder if his name has a meaning Gabriel being the name of the most famous angel and this man seems on one level to angelic helping people with their lives and the cooker of wonderful food .But then there is always a feeling that this is too good to be true .I found the feeling of something else at work apart from the goodness we see very dark .I think this is in dept in some part to the french love of existentialism the moral questions we ask and in this way is this why Gabriel is here ? is he real ? As I said like spencer Tracy he is here to make people think .This is another take on the stranger comes to town ,we see so much in western films .
He was sitting alone at the end of a bench on a deserted railway platform .Above him a tangle of metal girders merged into the gloom ,It was the station of a small Breton town on a Sunday in October – a completely nondescript town but certainly Brittany ,the interior the sea was far away its presence unimaginable .
The opening very like bad day at black rock the feeling of being nowhere in particular .
Garnier has woven a strange unusual tale here it is very unlike anything I ve read for years I m going to be eagerly awaiting the other two books the publisher has got in the pipeline from him .I ve not read enough of the other writers he is compared too I m assuming it is more Simenon non Maigret books the french readers have in mind when comparing his work to Simenon and I have only read one of them ,numerous Maigret’s thou and that said ,in some ways there is a dry humor that also seeps through Maigret the slipped comments he sometimes makes that make you smile especially with his wife are maybe sometimes echoed in Gabriel comments to people .It was a shame he passed so early in his writing career I feel Garnier would be a major french writer at some point .
Have you read this book ?
The Patagonian Hare by Claude Lanzmann
08 May 2012 4 Comments
in favourites, france, TRANSLATIONS Tags: 2012, frank wynne, non fiction, TRANSLATIONS
The Patagonian Hare by Claude Lanzmann
French Non-fiction biography
Translator – Frank Wynne
Making a history was not what I wanted to do .I wanted to construct something more powerful than that – Claude Lanzmann on Shoah
Where to start with Claude Lanzmann ,he is maybe one of the most interesting figures in France .He hid as a jew from the Nazis ,then joined the french resistance during second world war post war he joined Sartre as editor of the magazine Les temps Mordernes and also he made the film Shoah .That is Just the tip of the iceberg ,this guy has really lived a number of lives in one life time .
Anyway so we move on too The Patagonian Hare is his autobiography ,to a Life that has touch every part of french history and Jewish history since the second world war .He begins talking about his family ,what his father imagines for him in the future a postman but boy how different his life was ,how they had to escape and hid at first in the second world war in france ,then how he joined the resistance movement in france fighting the Nazis .He did this with the communist ,this maybe served him well later when he made Shoah behind the Iron curtain .The style of telling his personal story is very personal almost throwaway. This is an interesting life, but he tells it with out glamour or the seeming need for praise from you as a reader thus drawing you into his life I like his wartime experiences but for me the most interesting part of the book is after the war when he joins Sartre at les temps Modernes the lit magazine that shaped Sartre’s view of lit in france and maybe lead french lit , Lanzmann edited from the early days and still does . The look inside the magazine his involvement with the founder and his Girlfriend and lover Simone de Beauvoir ,the way the opposed the Algerian war in the 1960 joining the anti-war movement and the fallout from this decision also how they viewed various figure in french lit in the fifties and sixties most of which I knew very little about (this is a dream for googling and learning about french lit ).
It is here that the adventure of Shoah begins :my friend Alouph Hareven ,director-general of the Isareli ministry of foerign affairs invited me in and spoke to me with gravity and a solemneity I had never experienced from him .Having congratulated me on Pourquoi Isarel ,this is in substance what he said to me “there is no film about the shoah ,no film that takes what happened in all its magnitude ,no film that shows it from our point of view ,the viewpoint of the Jews .
How he decided to make the film Shoah !!
Then you come to the last third of the book as thou the first two-thirds were not enough of a life lived is mainly dealing with his epic film Shoah for those of you who haven’t seen it you should Shoah is the film that examine the holocaust and is a bit like the world at war as it is mainly eyewitness testament, as at the time when Lanzmann started making the film a lot of people involve with the holocaust where still alive to give their stories over to him for posterity .He spent years filming people getting them to open up and visiting the sites across Europe involved (yet again for the third book some figures from Treblinka are mentioned ) also getting Nazis to admit what really happened in the camps . I personally would put any one that ever denies holocaust in a chair for nine hours to watch this and then still denied what happened during the second world war .I loved his descriptions of making the film this is where you felt this guy’s passion flow of the page this was more than a project it became a mission to him to get across what had really happened . Then when it was made we saw how people reacted and how he tried to get it to as wide as audience as possible .Also we get a chunk of the writers own insight into his own sex life through out the book ,you have a rare book indeed .
I find it hard to fault this book I m not a big non fiction reader ,but when I see a book I d like to read ,like this I know I love it even before I open the cover . I even asked for a copy of this from the publisher, after its translator Frank suggested I read it ,needless to say frank has made the book seem as thou it was written in english the actual writing by Lanzmann involved him dictating too two women Juliette Simont a Sartrianne and Lanzmann own secretary Sarah Strelinski a writer in her own right they manage to pull together his memories of a life live into a book that has been described rightly so as a master piece by Le monde, Der Spiegel and FAZ . Lanzmann is one of those rare people who has made a difference and this book shows a man close up from the french left-wing and literary world .
Have you seen Shoah ?
Have you heard of him before ?
Hate A romance by Tristan Garcia
31 Mar 2012 13 Comments
in france, shadow IFFP 2012, TRANSLATIONS Tags: french lit, NEW VOICES, prize winners, TRANSLATIONS
Tristan Garcia was born in 1981 (so very young ) ,his parents are teachers .He studied Philosophy and is a published writer on philosophy .This book is his debut.He has also worked on french television .He currently teaches at the university of Picardy .You can find out a little more about him via an interview here from bomb magazine
I read the blurb about this book when I got it from library as it was one of the books on the list that had dropped under my radar so intrigued me as to why I’d missed it when on the surface it would be a book I d read .Hate a romance is a story of four people and follows them from late teens through growing up although Leibo is older than the other three They are three men and one women in the early 80′s .This as an idea for the book made me thing of two things. When I read it the first as AIDS is mention was it going to be a’” french Line of beauty “Hollinghurst novel set in 1980′s also about the gay experience at the time also we a good chunk of politics like this book .The other thing that sprung to mind was this life the tv series that had a Gay character but also young hip people at the heart of it ,also at times they used have state of the world discussions which this book has also conflict between the gay and straight characters as this does .So who are these four – Will
Will never understood what happened ,though he worried and worried about it .Something occurred between them something scandalous and wrong…,
from first chapter that describe Will a bit .
Now will and Doume end up as really close the sort people you can’t separate as they fall in love on first meeting .But Doume is a trouble man at the time he advocates having unprotected sex early on in the AIDS crisis .He also struggles as his best friend changes over time .
Dominique Rossi had alway looked handsome in a mature way ,responsible and lightly chiseled .The trouble was when he was twenty it didn’t suit him .He had to wait to look his age .
I love thought of Moume having to grow to look right I remember people I grew up with looking wrong then right when older .
We find out about these two via Liz an art journalist and the main narrator of the book she knew these two men and Jean Michael Lebiowitz her professor and Doume best friend she is the link between them all .As she meet will and introduced him to Doume and Leibo .So that is how it starts we find a twisted web of love politics ,aids ,backbiting as love does turn to hate as in the title .We see Liz watch these three men grow up .
I loved this in parts it has a choppy style shortish chapters ,almost a non fiction style ,but it has been described as a good example of the Roman A Clef style of fiction where real life crosses over into fiction .So these must be people Tristan has come across at some point on the paris arts/culture scene So has first hand knowledge of the people who may be the characters as the review for this book in the guardian revealed the real people who the characters maybe based on names aren’t two different to the real characters .I also think his other job as a philosopher has a large part to play with the way the book is maybe more about concepts and how people react to certain situations the main ones in this book are love ,betrayal and the Aids crisis oh and maybe a bit about the attraction of Leibo as he seem to move more to the right during the reign of Mitterrand .My only quibble was it maybe need fleshing out a bit at times also could have been double the length .He won the well-known french prize the prix de Flore which has a number of well-known earlier winners including Michel Houellebecq .
WHat did you think of this book ?
Do you like books in the Roman a clef style ?
The way of the kings by Andre Malraux
22 Feb 2012 5 Comments
in EUROPEAN FICTION, france, TRANSLATIONS Tags: 2012, french lit, TRANSLATIONS
The way of the kings by Andre Malraux
French fiction
Translator Howard Curtis
Andre Malraux is one of the major figures of pre and post war French fiction .That said he wasn’t just a writer but also a statesman as part of De Gaulle government as minister of information and cultural affairs .He also spent time in early in his life with his wife spent time Indo china but he fell foul of the local authorities at the time and joined the republican forces during the Spanish civil war and for the French resistance during the second world war .
The book starts on a liner heading to Indo china two men meet a young man Claude this guy is youngster in some ways maybe an early gap year wanting adventure and in some ways an easy way to the top ,he meets an older chap a dutch man who is an explorer that is off to darkest Siam enthralled by the old mans tales and also his many talks of women he has met as well ,so this man Perken persuades his young friend to join him although he doesn’t take much persuasion,I was reminded of Richard in Alex Garlands the beach another young man wanting the more adventurous side of Indo -china .So on the face of it is it a book in the vein of Conrad Heart darkness .But also I suppose you can compare it too Francis ford Coppola Apocalypse now which in turn is an homage to Conrad’s book and the action in that is also set in Indo china .The recent extended redux cut we see a french family living in the wild parts of Vietnam talk about Frances part in Indo china history .This part of the world even inspired this years Prix Goncourt winner whose book was a history of french involvement in indo china .
So the men set of you have a feeling that there is something going to go wrong with this trip from the start .But like in heart of darkness get drawn in by the beauty they see wonderful statues As the men come closer we sense a sense of manhood and comrades .
The obsession overwhelmed him once again ,like an attack of fever he could question about the fearsome game to which he was about to bind his life .
Claude first meets Perken
Maybe you feel this is in part from Malraux own experiences in the area he travelled with his wife in the mid twenties but he fell foul of the authorities .This book was written five years after that .THE first part of the book is told by Claude but as things get worse in the jungle it is Perken that takes over the narration .later in the book the men spilt lose there guides and bad injuries .I found this a pleasant read one evening the book would fall into what Meike from Peirene press calls a two-hour book to read instead of watching a film 170 pages long and the boys own feel in the early parts really got me into the book as some one who used to write his own jungle adventure stories as a young kid I enjoyed this book .The book is translated by the ever reliable Howard Curtis.
Have you read Malraux ?
Do you have a favourite jungle based story ?
The flight of Icarus by Raymond Queneau
11 Oct 2011 24 Comments
in EUROPEAN FICTION, france Tags: 2011, french lit, Oulipo, Raymond Queneau
The flight of Icarus by Raymond Queneau
French Fiction (OULIPO movement )
Translator – Barbara Wright
I ve long been interested in the oulipo movement of which Queneau was the co-founder ,inventive and constrained fiction and poetry .Well the flight of Icarus is firmly in the inventive side of Oulipo .What is it about well we meet Hubert a writer in Paris in 1895 .He is working on a new novel .Well he comes on morning to discover that the main character in his book has disappeared searching through what he has written he has no luck no Icarus has flown the text so to speak . THe book then is told in two storylines well short scenes really 74 in all in 158 pages .the first follows Hubert trying to find Icarus ,first by talking to fellow writers to see if one of them has stolen Icarus then he hires a detective .the second story line follows Icarus as he has broken the constraint of his book discovering new pleasures in the seedy part of Paris .THE two storyline draw closer as we reach a wonderful climax .
Hubert – he doesn’t seem to be here
Surget – He ? Who’s he ?
Hubert – You remember the other day .I read you the first few pages of my new book ….
Surget – No reason to come and turn mine upside down !
Hubert – You were good enough to think highly of my chief character though I had barely begun to outline him .You complimented me on him
Surget – perhaps
Hubert – He was called Icarus
Surget – I remember
Hubert – Well – he’s disappeared !
Surget – He can’t have ! What a joke
Hubert searches his rooms for the missing Icarus to see if he has jumped book .
As you can see the novel is in script form a novel Oulipo idea I would think .So Icarus has done what the call in tv terms broken the fourth wall and that is escape the confines of his book .Hed goes round tasting the pleasures of Paris at that time absinthe and such very much in the style of the classic Belle Époque fiction of the time from the likes of Proust and Musil Icarus is a man discovering the world for the first time .Hubert himself is an homage to Humbert Humbert the main character of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita like Hubert a writer in paris .Icarus is like his greek namesake a man who gets unstuck once he tries to escape his confines this being a book he has been written in . The book is typical of th other Oulipo works I ve read by Calvino ,Perec and Mathews .It works well where as a couple of the others I have read in the past are oft style over content this one has a workable narrative and is very funny in parts .
All – he ‘s falling ! he’s falling to his death !
Icarus falls
But what happens well you’ll have to find out .The translation was done by Barbara Wright translated most of his worked and lived in Paris and was a specialist in translating surreal and existentialist writing .
Have you read any Oulipo movement books ?
Have you read Queneau ?
Thomas the Impostor by Jean Cocteau
26 Sep 2011 17 Comments
in france Tags: 2011, classics, french lit, war stories
Thomas the impostor by Jean Cocteau
French Fiction
Translated by Dorothy Willliams
This is another of my recent library haul ,I ve not read Cocteau but was aware of him but hadn’t known he wrote this particular book .Thomas the imposter is set during the world war one ,I ve not read a french view on the first world war so was keen to get his take on the war .it opens in paris in 1914 ,the Government has left the city, we meet princess de bromes who is treating the wounded solders from the front line in her house ,she sets off to near the frontline and a young boy Thomas de Fontenoy joins the army even thou he was too young to he is assumed by mistake to be the relative of a famous general that share his surname he is sent with the princesses who was caught by the fighting as she was treating injured men and is waning t to return to paris Thomas does this but then decides he want to see more of the action returning to a unit right on the front line in the trenches at a time when the battles are at their most violent .although he left behind the daughter of de Bromes that has fallen in love with him .if you want to find out what happens well read the book !
Now this book is in part based on Cocteau’s world war experiences he was a lot older than Thomas .when he survived at the front line as a red cross ambulance driver serving with many fellow poets and writers ,but sure Thomas is in some part based on some one he saw during the war it shows the horror of war like events in Sasson and Graves books two of my favourite war books .
“Who are you ? ” asked Verne with his usual bluntness
“Guillaume Thomas de Fontenoy ” was the reply
“relative of general de Fontenoy ?”
The general was appearing in all the headlines all the time
“Yes his nephew “
The reply took effect at once ,for the doctor always had his cross in mind .It was his guiding star .
Thomas lies about who he is when he joins a new unit
The book has a number of small pen sketches by Cocteau of princess and Thomas are placed throughout the book .On the back it says a coming of age story and it is a bit like catcher in the rye in respect of the fact that Thomas is some one that has to grow in a hurry I would call it a war story more than coming of age ,but also it shows how names can effect Peoples destiny ,love and loss and the horror of war and all this in 130 pages it shows Cocteau as a talented writer as well as artist and poet .I enjoyed this book I always thought Cocteau a little to high brow for my self but I will try him again after this one .
Have you read Jean Cocteau ?
Do you have a favourite world war one book ?
The Most Beautiful walk in the world by John Baxter
09 Jun 2011 35 Comments
in australia, france, non fiction Tags: 2011, non fiction, travel books
Source – Review copy
John Baxter is an Ex-pat australian writer that has lived in Paris for a number of years ,he is also well-known for writing Film biographies of people such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas to name two .He currently gives guided Literary tours of Paris and has done so for a number of years ,this book is a collection of thoughts memories and information he has gathered in doing this for the past few years .He has also written two earlier books on Paris .
Now the books the most beautiful walk in the world is set up in short chapters each a little tale about the city and the people who have lived there .One main area’s John touches on is the 20′s the swinging paris of Hemingway , Fitzgerald ,Joyce and Gertrude Stein .He evokes the Spirit of these writers books as he describes ,Joyce’s Ulysses being published by Sylvia Beach the owner and publisher that ran Shakespeare and company in the 20′s ,Now that great shop keeps cropping up ,you sense John’s love for it history and how much it has touched writing and writers in the past .Elsewhere we get the darker side of paris ,opium dens ,Underground attractions that were scary and popular in late 1800′s .He also tells of his and his families connection to the city christmas there ,meeting people and just the everyday ebb and flow he experiences .Another thread of chapters is of course food and cafes ,from how important the right tin of sardines can be to a french man to the great cafes of the twenties and how they have faired through to the present day .
Connetable produces a “vintage” sardine that retails for $14 a can.Buyers are advised to “put down” these like wine for a few years ,turning them occasionally to spread the flavour .
“what really threw me “,tim said later “was the fact you didn’t bat an eyelash .I thought it was some sort of practical Joke.”
He should have realized that the french ,serious at the best of times ,become positively reverent when it comes to food .
John buying sardines ,this made me laugh at how serious the french can be !!
I m so please I picked this from the e-mail I get from time to time from Harper perennial .It was one of the best travel books I ve ever read John’s love for paris just drips of the pages and like a good Bordeaux ,slowly gets you drunk with the city your self ,he breathes life into the figures you know that lived there ,but he makes the spirits still seem part of the fabric of Paris today .The short chapter and constant flow of little nuggets of info make you want to continue turning the pages ,he flies from places to places keeping the reader interested from page one to the end .I wanted to jump on the next flight with My darling wife and spend a week reliving this book Visiting the Various sights and sounds he described ,trying sardines at $14 dollars ,having a coffee in a famous cafe ,seeing Gertrude Stein favourite garden .I ve had a brief visit to Paris a number of years ago and this has made me want to return more than ever to breathe up more of this wonderful city ,but also pick up his two earlier books also about Paris .John has a website ,you can e-mail him to maybe try a walk in Paris with him ,if I do get to go there I may well do that and bring this book along !!!
What cities do you love ?
Have you been to Paris what did you enjoy ?
Tarantula By Thierry Jonquet or the skin I live in
22 May 2011 9 Comments
in france Tags: crime fiction, french lit, TRANSLATIONS
Source – review copy from serpents tail to tie in with the film coming out .
Translator – Donald Nicholson-Smith
Thierry Jonquet was a french writer ,he grew up in Paris and studied Philosophy at university ,His books were part of the well-known French book collection ” the black series “,the collection of novels all have a noir ,feel tarantula was one of these ,Jonquet said he his main source of inspiration is the daily newspaper a treasure trove of anecdotal evidence of ,in his words the barbarity of life .I feel he does this in this book it is a little extreme in places but not too much to make it far-fetched .Thierry died in 2009 aged 55 .
The story is two tales that start separate and end up classing into a shocking stand-off in the end .The first tale is of a Parisian Plastic surgeon called Richard Lafargue ,a successful man ,but also a dark character that Keep his wife Eve locked up naked sometimes in a bedroom ,only letting her out dressed in very revealing and sexy clothing to go to parties or to perform sexual acts with people as he watches her voyeuristically get his kicks from this via a one way Mirror .He also has a secret operating theatre in his basements this is where he performs operations that he wants to keep on the hush-hush .He seems like a man who has it all but has lost his way and end up in a very dark place .
“Get yourself ready,” ordered Lafargue .”they won’t be long now “
Eve opened a closet and undressed .first putting her own clothes away ,she proceeded to dress in long black thigh boot ,black leather skirt,and fishnet stockings ,She made herself up ,using whited face powder and bright red lipstick ,the sat down on the bed .
Eve gets ready to perform for her Husband as he sits behind the mirror .
The second trail follows a bungled robbery and the man committing it Alex barney ,we see him on the run after killing a cop ,also he needs to find a new identity this leads him to Larfargue ,they have met in passing through the book ,he ends up at the house stuck in a great stand-off between the three ,from which there lives will change .
Alex Barny rested on a camp bed in an attic room .He had nothing to do ,except wait .The chatter of the curadas in the garriage was an unrelenting racket .Though the window Alex could see the crooked silhouettes of olive trees in the night ,forms fixed in bizarre poses .
We’re introduced to Alex .
I love noir and Novellas ,so read this short book it is only 120 pages long in an evening it packs a hell of a lot into those 120 pages .Thierry shines a light on the dark corners of the human soul and how even the most professional of people can have darkness in their characters ,Eve is trapped ,she loves richard but is trapped by richard performing for him .Richard has trouble having sex so makes eve perform also likes the danger of performing secret operations .Alex is criminal and like a runaway train through the book on a course for a huge crash .The book was sold to be made into a film by Pedro Almodovar ,he read the book when it came out and want to film it over ten years .Now the film the skin i live in has just come out at this years Cannes festival the storyline in the film is far removed from the but the main thread is there the relationship between surgeon and wife ,renamed Robert legard and Vera in the film Robert is played by the well-known actor Antonio Banderas .
Have you read French Noir ?
Do you like Pedro Almodovar films ?
Monsieur Linh and his child by Philippe Claudel
02 Apr 2011 12 Comments
in france Tags: french lit, prize winners, TRANSLATIONS
Source – review copy
Translator – Euan Cameron
The french writer Philippe Claudel won the Independent foreign fiction prize in 2010 for his book the brodeck’s report ,he is a writer and also a film director ,this book was written before the brodeck’s report .
Monsieur Linh of the title is an elderly gent from well we don’t know where from just a war-torn country ,he is on a boat with his young granddaughter heading to a new land to start a new life ,he arrives ends up in a centre with the other refugees ,this is the point we meet the other main character of this book Monsieur Bark ,they meet as every day Linh escapes to the park to sit on the bench and just be ,the two men don’t speak the same language but meet and make a connection maybe its the fact that they both have things to say but maybe don’t want the answers that draws them close ,eventually traveling to the seaside ,having drinks in the cafe .But then Linh is found a place a long distance away from his friend ,Linh health drops and well he dies (sorry that might be a bit of spoiler but it is obvious from early in book Linh is old )at this point Bark finds his friend and you get a huge OMG moment ,it has been a long time since a book made me go damm I didn’t see that, but this did.
He places a cigarette between his lips ,in a simple and smooth motion .He lights it ,inhales the first puff deeply ,and closes his eyes .
“It’s good all the same …” he murmurs eventually.
The old man doesn’t understand anything the ,man who has just sat down is saying .Nevertheless ,he senses that the words are not unfriendly .
Lind and Barks first meeting on the bench .
At heart of this book is what is it to be a refugee and friendship ? Linh and Bark’s friendship remind me of the Jim Jarmusch’s film ghost dog there is a friendship between Forest Whitaker character and an Haitian ice cream man were they speak in different languages but know each other really well some how .Claudel did a great job blurring the lines here Linh could be a name from anywhere and as recent history shows being a refugee isn’t just african problem ,I worked in Germany in early nineties with Bosnian and Croat refugees we had similar chats to bark and Linh my broken German and there broken German and English ,but in some ways the struggle made us closer than talking to someone in your own language for same period of time ,anyway back to the book ,although the fact are thin on the ground this is about people, Linh his granddaughter and monsieur Bark are the three people a triangle brought together by war .Another thing the book remind me of was Dahl’s tales of the unexpected ,this one has such a twist in the tale it would have made a great episode of that series .
Do you like surprises ?
have you read Claudel ?
