What you need from the night by Lauren Petitmangin

What You Need From The Night by Laurent Petitmangin

French fiction

Original title –Ce qu‘il faut de nuit

Translator – Shaun Whiteside

Source – Personal copy

I brought this in York on our trip just before Christmas. I felt there is always a french novel that I hadn’t know of on the booker longlist. But I also liked the fact it was a father bringing up his sons after the death of the mother. This is a subject not often tackled in Fiction. I hadn’t heard of Laurent Petitmangin or this book it had won several prizes in France when it came out. The writer came from a family of rail workers in the East of France. I would imagine it is in the Metz area, where the book itself is set in the 54th department  of France. near Lens and Metz (I’m sure Eric Cantona had played for one of them back in the day )

FOR WEEKS WE were invited to Jacky’s and to other people’s houses too. Wed never had so many invitations in the three years of illness, or even before. It was nice, but it made me feel sorry for la moman. She hadn’t been able to take advantage of any of that, of those endless drinks and snacks that led so nicely into a good meal.

We got pretty drunk quite quickly so that we didn’t have to talk, or else so that the flood of words came more easily. The most important was to break that awkward moment that would inevitably come. Feeling obliged to talk about la moman in a lower voice so that the kids carried on playing and didn’t listen.

The weeks after his wife died they are hel;ped by all those around them

When a father loses his wife to Cancer he promises her he will do his best with the kids as they grow up. Of the two sons, Gilou is the younger son. After the loss of his mother, he becomes a studious young man after his mother dies. It is almost as though he throws himself into his studies to deal with his grief. This is not really discussed in the book; it is just my observation of the book. Then there is the older son, Fus, who was actually doing just as well as his brother when their mother passed. But unlike his brother, he goes the other way and starts slipping. But on top of this, he is close with his father and brother, both staunch socialists. So when he comes home wearing Lazio’s symbolic scarves of the Ultras. He is drawn by the feeling of brother he gets from these new friends. This sets father and son on a head course. The book’s backbone is the love between them and the football the father uses for them to bond when the mother dies. But it also shows how easily someone can get caught by the seemingly charming right-wingers he falls in with.

‘What’s that, Fus, your scarf?’ Gillou asked him.

‘No, fatso, that’s not a scarf, it’s a bandana.

I took a look at the bandana myself and I was puzzled.

‘Fus, what’s that cross on there?’

‘Dad, I don’t know anything about it, it’s just a bandana that a mate lent me.

‘Fus, if you don’t know then I’m going to tell you, it’s a Celtic cross! A Celtic cross! My God, Fus, are you wearing fascist gear these days?’

When he sees his brother wearing a Ultras symbol in the form of a bandana

I’m pleased I read this I hadn’t seen it talked about much. But it is my sort of book I like books around family buit this has a little bit of football thrown in. Also, growing up and being tempted by those dark charmers we all meet when we are younger, whether into drugs, drinking, or her, in this case, being right-wing, anything to form a sense of comradeship. I think of the film This is England, where we see a young man drawn down the same path by another charmer in the form of Combo or even a French take on the same story where we see the young Quin Quin drawn to be right-wing in part of the series. The unnamed father had done his best, but it shows what happens when political extremes appear, and they all have to deal with the fallout from this and its effect on the whole family. I am pleased I picked it up as I hadn’t seen it mentioned. I just liked the description when I read it: Waterstones York, where they had it up as maybe a staff pick. Anyway, a book that can be read in the evening lingers with you after you finish it! Have you heard of this book ?

Winston score – B solid novella around grief moving on political extremes and family at the heart of it

The Most precious of Cargoes by Jean-Claude Grumberg

The Most Precious of Cargoes by Jean-Claude Grumberg

French fiction

Original title – La Plus Précieuse des marchandises

Translator – Frank Wynne

Source – Library book

I headed to the library the other day to try and pick up some novellas I could read, as I just fancied a few short books to read. I think they are great when the days get warmer and lighter nights. I usually finish them in a day. This was the case with this the French writer and Playwright Jean-Claude Grumberg. He has been haunted since childhood by his father’s death in the Holocaust. This has been a theme in many of his works, as in this book.

Outside, the train had been slowed by drifts of snow. It suddenly stopped for a moment, then once more juddered into life, as though it, too, were suddenly asthmatic. It was then that it dawned on him.

Elbowing his way back through the crowd, he made his way to the woollen Pyrenean shawl. The important thing was not to choose, the important thing was not to think, but to scoop one of them up, without choosing between boy and girl. He took the child nearest to him. From his pocket, he had already taken his prayer shawl. The child was dozing.Dinah looked at him for a moment then she, too, closed her eyes and hugged the other twin to her.

The momnet he chose which twn to throw through the window

The book has a fable-like feel as it is a simple story of a woman living in the forest. She is the wife of the woodcutter that has always wanted children. But thinks that time has gone. So when she goes out foraging every day, the train line goes through the forest. But now the trains she sees daily taking people to their death. Then one morning, she happens as a father and husband in his jacket pockets on one of the trains in the convey of trains, this is 49 his beloved newborn twins. He sees a chance to let one of them go to freedom, so he makes it to the small window on the train and throws his daughter, wrapped in his prayer shawl, into the forest. This is rural Poland as they head to one of those death camps. He is lucky that he throws it near the woodcutter’s wife, who takes in the child and hides her and raises her. Meanwhile, will the rest of the family leave the camp will they see each other again?

 

The poor woodcutter’s wife feeds it a little of the cooking water, then once again holds out her finger and the child sucks again. Little by little, as the cooking water quenches its thirst and the kasha staves off its hunger, the child in the arms of the new mother grows calm and the poor woodcutter’s wife whispers a song in its ear, a lullaby that resurfaces from the shadowy past, surprising even her.

‘Sleep, sleep my little cargo, sleep, sleep my own little bundle, sleep, sleep my own little child, sleep.’ Then she delicately sets her precious treasure in the hollow of the bed. Her eyes alight on the unfurled shawl, which she hangs on the end of the bed to dry. It is a magnificent shawl woven from slender chreads, twined and knotted, fringed at both ends and embroidered with gold and silver threads.

She helps takes her in and looks after her most precious cargoe

This short book I read in a couple of hours; shows that goodness and hope can live through the darkest moments, and hope can live through horrors. It is partly based on his father as the train is the same one his father went to his death on. He was a small child at the same time as this happened. The book tackles the darkest moments of one man’s life that become a moment of light for a lonely wife. Grumberg has stripped the story and made it into a fable, and it becomes more powerful for the horror of the events in the camp. But the world of the simple Woodcutter and his wife in the forest world try to raise and hide this child in the Hope of it making it through the war. The man faced the choice of his twins to save from the window. The woodcutter’s wife feels blessed but also becomes the child’s protector. It is a powerful little book that will be remembered for a long time after I have finished it, and wonderfully translated by Frank. He seems to capture the spirit of books like this so well in Engish. Have you a favourite novella about the Holocaust? Also, I loved this cover not sure what it has to do with the book other than being trees, but very eye-catching.

WInstns score – A powerful new spin on the Holocaust novella that works as it has power and seems like a fairytale at the same time, a fine line to work.

A whole life by Robert Seethaler

A Whole life by Robert Seethaler

Austrian fiction

Original title – Ein ganzes Leben

Translator – Charlotte Collins

Source – Library book

Every year on the Old IFFP and now on the first man booker there is a book on the list that I hadn’t heard of and a writer that is new to me and this was this years book. Robert Seethaler is an austrian writer, the german wiki page says he has sight problems so went to a school for the blind. Then drama school , he is an actor as well as a scriptwriter. He has also written five novels this is his fifth novel.His first to be translated . I am pleased to see his fourth novel The tobacconist is in the pipeline to be translated.

 In 1910 a school was built in the village, and every morning, after tending to the livestock, little Egger sat with the other children, in a classroom that stank of fresh tar, learning reading, writing and arithmetic. He learned slowly and as if against a hidden inner resistance, but over time a kind of meaning began to crystallize out of the chaos of dots and dashes on the school blackboard until at last he was able to read books without pictures, which awoke in him ideas and also certain anxieties about the worlds beyond the valley.

I was reminded of the Herzog actor Bruno S a man who never is in time with the world either .

I must admit I am so pleased this was on the longlist as it may have passed me by maybe until,a german lit month. This book is the story of one mans life Andreas Egger a man who arrives and then spend the rest of his life in one small mountain valley. This is the early 20th century and the world Andreas is living in is slowly giving way to the modern world as we see through his eyes bit by bit his life but the world he lives in getting to grips with the modern world. From his arrival to work on his uncles farm where he first met the woman he loves over time Marie but this is a love that will never be.So as Andreas First build cable cars, then help electricity then the war take him away from the farm and the valley he always come back to the world he is meant to be in. As much as he tried to escape .

That was in the late fifties. It was only much later, in the summer of 1969, that Egger had a second encounter with the television – which in most households by then already constituted the central focus and primary purpose of the evening family gathering – that made a profound impression on him, albeit in an entirely different way. This time he was sitting with almost a hundred and fifty other villages in the assembly room of the new parish hall, watching two young americans walk on the moon for the first time.

A world no gone without tv or wanting to see a tv Eggger is really a man out of time in his valley .

I must admit I loved this book  it is a really pretty gem. I was reminded of  one of my favourite books Stones in a landslide Andreas life and the way he lives in the valley that is sort of out of time with the world around them remind me of the world in Stones in a landslide. I also pictured this in a way as being a lost script for a Werner  Herzog film on the other hand Andreas is a simple man like most of the classic roles in the 70’s Herzog films, a man who has the world against him in the way like the classic Bruno S films  Herzog made . A beautiful world of the valley is like quicksand slowly killing the man but not just the man but also his spirit is slowly dragged into the ground of the valley.As for man booker I feel the simple sparse nature of the narrative that as the Irish times review saaid remind that review of Stoner as for me I felt this is a better book than Stoner which I may be the one person that felt stoner was like a  afternoon film of one mans life. No egger is a character you believe in he is like a man in the background of Heidi brought to the fore.

Have you read this book ?

Wilful Disregard by Lena Andersson

 

Wilful disregard a novel about love  by Lena Andersson

Swedish fiction

Original title – Egenmäktigt förfarande – en roman om kärlek

Translator – Sarah Death

Source – Review copy

You spurn my natural emotions
You make me feel I’m dirt
And I’m hurt
And if I start a commotion
I run the risk of losing you
And that’s worse

Ever fallen in love with someone?
Ever fallen in love?
In love with someone
Ever fallen in love? (Love…)
In love with someone
You shouldn’t’ve fallen in love with

I can’t see much of a future
Unless we find out what’s to blame
What a shame
And we won’t be together much longer
Unless we realize that we are the same

I thought of Buzzcocks Ever fallen in love with just for the line Ever fallen in love with some one you shouldn’t fall in love with , just perfect for this book .

Well I move to Sweden for the second book for this women in translation month .A prize-winning novel from Lena  Andersson .A well-known Journalist and radio presenter, she has hosted a show called summer over a number of years  .She also writers a columnist for the Dagens Nyheter  .She has so far published seven books this is her fifth novel and won the August prizeone of the biggest book prizes in Sweden .This is her first book in English .

Two weeks had passed by the time she went to him , one carefully chosen evening .In the course of those weeks she had thought of nothing else .The fact he had asked her to drop round to the studio for copies of his early works meant she had the right to seek him out ,So as not to seem too eager , she waited for as long as she could bear to

I was reminded of a scene in the film swingers where they talk about how long before you should contact some one . Has Ester waited to long .

Wilful disregard is as it says a novel about love and being in love and maybe not being in Love  .The say love comes in all shapes , sizes and they say you never know when it is going to hit you .This is the love story of Ester Nilsson , she is a sensible girl in a steady relationship .When she gives a talk about an artist she loves Hugo Rask .She doesn’t know the man himself is there .He introduces himself and ask her to come to his studio , but is this just an innocent invite . They talk and then start meeting this becomes a pursuit for Ester ,as Hugo isn’t maybe quite what he seems to her and maybe what she sees he doesn’t .His disinterest is hard for her to get over .As one woman risks losing it all .

When you love and someone receives that love , the body feels light .When the opposite happens , one kilo weights three .Love that is just beginning is like dancing on a finely honed edge .It can happen that kilo never regains its proper weight , which generates a degree of apprehension in the fearful , the experienced and far-sighted .And in those who do not have esters extraordinary capacity for hope .

Haven’t we all felt this before when in love that light then heavy feeling as we start on the road of love

This is a book about love and how it makes us each act .I was sent this pleased I wouldn’t pick this to read my self and even though I read it early in the year . I knew it would be perfect for woman in translation month .The book is about what we view in others Ester has put as we used to say on a pedestal , so no matter what he does she sees no wrong .In reading swedish interviews with the writer and about the book , the events in the book thou not directly about her , events in her life had an effect on the writing of the book  and some of what Ester went through she has gone through herself .I have maybe been painting a black picture , but no this has humour in it as well a sort of comedy of modern loving in some ways .Lena takes love and breaks apart what makes one woman rick in Ester , how we maybe don’t always take the easiest path in life

Have you a favourite book about love ?