OK, quick review of this book. The spine of the book had some wonderful glue, it didn't break or crack and all the pages stayed in. OK, now that I've covered everything good about the book...
About halfway through, I had a look online at some reviews. I thought perhaps it was just me since this book had won some literary prize (Prix de Flore), but many of the reviewers had the same view as me. Chiant, chiant, chiant (Boring, boring, boring).
C'est atrocement mauvais !!! autant sur le fond que sur la forme. Un auteur surestimé !!! On se moque des lecteurs…
I generally prefer genre books, scifi, murder, action, thriller, etc. I like those books because the characters do stuff! They kill a dragon, have a car chase, shoot a blaster, investigate a murder, they do something. This book is all about navel-gazing. Any action happens "off-stage" and is generally related back by the POV character. The scifi book was bad because it was just a crazy mixture of words, this book is bad because it sucks. It does however appear to be a bit like marmite, you love it, or you hate it. I'm firmly in the hate it camps. I persevered however and learned a lot of words, which I probably don't need. Lots of swear words, slang words for homosexuals, Jewish people, condoms, etc. Many medical terms relating to HIV & AIDS and associated issues.
There was one section I didn't understand anything, even though I knew the words. I think this part was referring to something which happened in France in the 80's or 90's and I just didn't have the social context to figure it out. Sometimes, knowing all the words still won't let you comprehend what is going on!
Next up:
In 1978, la ruche d'Hellstrom (Hellstrom's Hive) won the Prix Tour-Apollo Award for best science fiction novel published in French. I have read most of Frank Herbert's books, but I don't remember reading this one. I've looked quickly through it, and it is going to be difficult for me. It is 400+ pages of very small print dense text.
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So you might be wondering if after 10 of the 21 books if I'm actually improving? Errr... probably? The last book I was averaging about 90 pages a day, and I think actually it was more like 120 per day since I had a longish break from it for about a day and a half, (OMG it is boring, anyway) so I think I'm still averaging a little less than a page per minute. After I'd looked up most of the slang and swear words, I rarely had to stop to look anything up, so I'm going to say that I'm improving even if I'm not, and I'm just self-delusional.