A French Book Reading Resource

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Carmody
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Fri May 14, 2021 11:42 pm

And here is something special in the way of Oral input having to do with books in French.

Jeune relieuse, Carole restaure de précieux manuscrits anciens
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby kanewai » Tue May 18, 2021 10:36 pm

Just finished Un barrage contre le Pacifique, by Marguerite Duras (1950)

barrage.jpg


On était alors en 1899. Certains dimanches, à la mairie, elle rêvait devant les affiches de propagande coloniale. « Engagez-vous dans l'armée coloniale », « Jeunes, allez aux colonies, la fortune vous y attend. » A l'ombre d'un bananier croulant sous les fruits, le couple colonial, tout de blanc vêtu, se balançait dans des rocking-chairs tandis que des indigènes s'affairaient en souriant autour d'eux.

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"It was back in 1899. Certain Sundays she would stand dreaming in front of the colonial propaganda posters. 'Join the colonial army. Youth, go the colonies, fortune waits for you!' In the shadow of a banana tree full of fruits, the colonial couple, all in white, rested in rocking chairs while the smiling natives gathered around them."

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This is the story of one French family who believed the propaganda, and were destroyed by the colonial adventure. It's based on Margeurite Duras' own childhood. Her parents were teachers in Indochina; her father died young, and her mother played piano in bars until she saved up enough to buy a worthless piece of land from the French concessionaires. The land flooded every year, and the mother's last hope was to build a sea wall to hold back the Pacific Ocean. That failed, and as the novel opens she lives with her two children in abject poverty somewhere on the coast in Vietnam. She's given up hope, and spends her days high on pills; around them the children of the village die of disease and hunger every summer; her kids' only hope of escape is to trade their youth and bodies to the rich in the city for a ticket out.

This is a far different perspective on colonialism than anything I've read in English. Duras, like a lot of French authors, focuses far more on class than on race. I think we in the US forget that the 'colonial adventure' exploited the poor in general, regardless of ethnicity.

It's a slow novel. Not much happens; it's mostly mood and emotion. It's also incredibly sad and depressing. It reminds me of those Irish novels about horrible childhoods, where you wonder how anyone survived.
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Carmody
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Wed May 19, 2021 11:10 am

Many thanks for your thorough review; greatly appreciated.

Yes, I read the book also and would agree with you. I have read quite a number of Duras' books and they certainly are never happy. But for someone at my reading level of B1-2 I find them all manageable when it comes to vocabulary etc.

Thank you again.

By the way if anyone out there knows of any contemporary French authors who write books that are not melancholy then please let me know. Contemporary French literature is good but let's face it, it is melancholic.
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Le Baron » Wed May 19, 2021 8:54 pm

I certainly don't mean this rudely, but to avoid 'melancholy' (I rather think of it as 'not shying away from uncomfortable truths'), it may be better to intersperse the more literary books with pop novels. There are certainly plenty of these in modern French, though most are translations. Though some are home-grown and mirror the same sort of thing in English. I don't mean 'chick lit' specifically, but that itself is sometimes a good read if I want to suspend literary pretensions.

Have you tried Amélie Nothomb's books? Like Stupeur et Tremblements.
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Thu May 20, 2021 12:08 am

Le Baron
Have you tried Amélie Nothomb's books? Like Stupeur et Tremblements.

I totally love Amélie Nothomb's books. I have read 5 or 6 of them and think she is wonderful. If you wish to list other contemporary French authors that you find up beat and an interesting read, then, please by all means do so.
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby AroAro » Thu May 20, 2021 6:07 am

Carmody wrote:By the way if anyone out there knows of any contemporary French authors who write books that are not melancholy then please let me know. Contemporary French literature is good but let's face it, it is melancholic.


I would like to recommend to you Jean-Christophe Rufin, his books are full of adventures, plot twists and occasionally even some humour. I really enjoyed reading his "L'Abyssin", "Sauver Ispahan" and "Rouge Brésil" (it even won him Prix Goncourt). He is a former diplomat so his books are set in different countries, on different continents.

But yes, it's hard to find a French author whose books would be up-beat and end on a positive note... Maybe Maryse Condé or Alain Mabanckou? But they are quite uneven and I haven't read them in a while. Or as suggested by Le Baron, some "chick-lit" (I don't mean this term in a derogatory way) - I think Anna Gavalda ("Ensemble, c'est tout") and Muriel Barbery ("L'Elégance du hérisson") were quite a sensation a few years ago (but I didn't read them). My friends at the university read massively Guillaume Musso (but again, I cannot guarantee if the quality is there).
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Le Baron » Thu May 20, 2021 3:51 pm

Carmody wrote:I totally love Amélie Nothomb's books. I have read 5 or 6 of them and think she is wonderful. If you wish to list other contemporary French authors that you find up beat and an interesting read, then, please by all means do so.

Then you've read even more of them than I have! I find it difficult to think of books off-hand because I don't read as many novels in French as I have in the past.
The last novel I read was On Ne Voyait Que Le Bonheur (Gregoire Delacourt). I also started Petit Pays by Gael Faye, but didn't finish it and it's so long since I'd have to start it again! Both of these are 'bittersweet' type novels.
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Thu May 20, 2021 7:18 pm

AroAro
I would like to recommend to you Jean-Christophe Rufin, his books are full of adventures, plot twists and occasionally even some humour. I really enjoyed reading his "L'Abyssin", "Sauver Ispahan" and "Rouge Brésil" (it even won him Prix Goncourt). He is a former diplomat so his books are set in different countries, on different continents.

But yes, it's hard to find a French author whose books would be up-beat and end on a positive note... Maybe Maryse Condé or Alain Mabanckou? But they are quite uneven and I haven't read them in a while. Or as suggested by Le Baron, some "chick-lit" (I don't mean this term in a derogatory way) - I think Anna Gavalda ("Ensemble, c'est tout") and Muriel Barbery ("L'Elégance du hérisson") were quite a sensation a few years ago (but I didn't read them). My friends at the university read massively Guillaume Musso (but again, I cannot guarantee if the quality is there).


Thanks for the suggestions. Jean-Christophe Rufin is definitely new for me so I will have to try that. Anna Gavalda and Muriel Barbery ("L'Elégance du hérisson") I have read and were interesting. Of course "L'Elégance du hérisson" is a good book but it is about a teenager who wants to commit suicide and then in the last pages decides not to. Musso is also much talked about but I haven't read him.

Thanks so much again.
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Thu May 20, 2021 7:21 pm

Le Baron

Thanks for the ideas I will have to look into them.

One of the reviews of Ne Voyait Que Le Bonheur (Gregoire Delacourt) said:
"It makes for a story that's oddly melancholy and a bit bitter. It also sends some rather mixed messages."
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby AroAro » Fri May 21, 2021 6:46 am

Carmody wrote:Of course "L'Elégance du hérisson" is a good book but it is about a teenager who wants to commit suicide and then in the last pages decides not to.


That reminds me why I should never mention books that I haven't read personally :)
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