A French Book Reading Resource

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Carmody
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Wed Feb 23, 2022 3:31 pm

kanewai »
@Carmody - I quit. I think there’s a lot of people who it would appeal to though. Think of it as a proto-Jane Austen, but with royalty. Those who like Austen might like this.
Thank you for your brilliant summary; always greatly appreciated. It also saved me a lot of time and embarassment....
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Sun Feb 27, 2022 7:50 pm

Having already read 5 books on Vichy and the Holocaust, I keep wanting to give it a break, however, this is a book I am truly grateful to have read. It comes by way of MorkTheFiddle who has passed it on to me. Many thanks!

La Vie was written by Simone Veil, a French Jewish woman who was a Holocaust survivor, of both Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen and lived to tell the tale; it is one very sobering book.

By the second half of 1942, Jews made up a majority of the prisoner population. They account for somewhat more than half of the 400 thousand prisoners registered in Auschwitz. The majority of them died either while they were in Auschwitz or after transfer to other camps.


I have heard said that one death is seen as a tragedy while more than one death becomes a statistic. Well, Simone Veil writes of her journey before, during and after the Camps with a soberness and clarity that is truly rare and riveting.

She also writes about Jacques Chirac at long last accepting responsibility of the French gov’t. for Vichy and its crimes…….

Chirac was the first President of France to take responsibility for the deportation of Jews during the Vichy regime. In a speech made on 16 July 1995 at the site of the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, where 13,000 Jews had been held for deportation to concentration camps in July 1942, Chirac said, "France, on that day, committed the irreparable". Those responsible for the roundup were "4,500 policemen and gendarmes, French, under the authority of their leaders [who] obeyed the demands of the Nazis. ... the criminal folly of the occupiers was seconded by the French, by the French State".

Simone Veil’s gratitude to him for making this acknowledgement is a welcome breath of fresh air in the whole post war trauma that France experienced. Not explained in this book, but in other books I have read is that 70% of the French Assembly actually voted approval for handing the French Republic over to the Vichy govt. (Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944) The government voted to transform the French Third Republic into the French State or Vichy France.

Please note that the book deals in only one chapter with her life after in the camps. The remainder of the chapters deal with her accomplishments afterwards. However, if you read the first four chapters of this 343 page book you will be richly rewarded.

Level of reading: B2
Score for the book: 7/10
Score for the woman: 10/10 +++
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby rdearman » Mon Feb 28, 2022 6:36 pm

Carmody wrote:I have heard said that one death is seen as a tragedy while more than one death becomes a statistic.

The quote:
A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.
is frequently attributed to Joseph Stalin, but cannot be proved conclusively.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/2 ... statistic/
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Carmody
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Tue Mar 01, 2022 12:48 am

rdearman » Mon Feb 28, 2022

Carmody wrote:
I have heard said that one death is seen as a tragedy while more than one death becomes a statistic.

The quote:

A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.

is frequently attributed to Joseph Stalin, but cannot be proved conclusively.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/2 ... statistic/
Well, speaking with total objectivity and sincerity I must confess that I definitely prefer my quote over what''s his names quote.
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Sun Mar 27, 2022 1:36 am

My local Alliance Française has just put out their Spring reading list. Please note that it is not often that there is a listing for Beginner Books, so, people interested in that level might want to check it out.

Beginner Books
Enquête capitale - Marine Decourtis
Mystère sur le vieux port - Pascale Paoli
La dernière nuit au phare - Pascale Paoli
Lancelot - Chrétien de Troyes
La nuit blanche de Zoé - Mirela Vardi
Rémi et le mystère de Saint-Péray - Annie Coutelle
Si c’était vrai - Sylvie Bataille
Le match de Thomas - Nicolas Boyer
Rémi et Juliette - Léo Lamarche
Double Je - Virginie Guérin

Intermediate
Chevreuse - Patrick Modiano
Premier Sang - Amélie Nothomb
Celle que vous croyez - Camille Laurens
Le dernier jour d'un condamné - Victor Hugo
Thérèse Raquin - Émile Zola
Arbre de l'oubli - Nancy Huston
Le mystère Henri Pick - David Foenkinos
Un océan, deux mers, trois continents - Wilfried N'Sondé
Nos richesses - Kaouther Adimi,….
Enfant de salaud - Sorj Chalandon.
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby jackb » Mon Mar 28, 2022 2:02 pm

Hi Carmody, Are a member of Alliance Française? The DC branch looks like it has a pretty good library and isn't too far for a monthly (or more often) trip. Do you thin a membership is worth it?
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Mon Mar 28, 2022 5:06 pm

jackb » Mon Mar 28, 2022 3:02 am
Hi Carmody, Are a member of Alliance Française? The DC branch looks like it has a pretty good library and isn't too far for a monthly (or more often) trip. Do you thin a membership is worth it?
I am not a member but I should be; however it is too far a trip for me.

If you join, share with us what it is like.
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby kanewai » Mon Mar 28, 2022 9:09 pm

Re-reading books is always risky - sometimes I realize that a book I loved the first time is actually full of plot holes and ridiculous contrivances. Sometimes I'm just bored and impatient, since I already know the plot. Other times I discover new depths in a book, and am swept away again by the magic of the writing.

La plus secrète mémoire des hommes by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr was a five-star book when I read it last year, and a five-star book when I listened to the audiobook this month. The novel won the Prix Goncourt in 2021, with the president of the Academy calling it "un hymne à la littérature."


From the review on France Culture:

En 2018, Diégane Latyr Faye, jeune écrivain sénégalais, découvre à Paris un livre mythique, paru en 1938 : Le labyrinthe de l’inhumain. On a perdu la trace de son auteur, qualifié en son temps de « Rimbaud nègre », depuis le scandale que déclencha la parution de son texte. Diégane s’engage alors, fasciné, sur la piste du mystérieux T.C. Elimane, se confrontant aux grandes tragédies que sont le colonialisme ou la Shoah. Du Sénégal à la France en passant par l’Argentine, quelle vérité l’attend au centre de ce labyrinthe ?

Sans jamais perdre le fil de cette quête qui l’accapare, Diégane, à Paris, fréquente un groupe de jeunes auteurs africains : tous s’observent, discutent, boivent, font beaucoup l’amour, et s’interrogent sur la nécessité de la création à partir de l’exil. Il va surtout s’attacher à deux femmes : la sulfureuse Siga, détentrice de secrets, et la fugace photojournaliste Aïda…

D’une perpétuelle inventivité, La plus secrète mémoire des hommes est un roman étourdissant, dominé par l’exigence du choix entre l’écriture et la vie, ou encore par le désir de dépasser la question du face-à-face entre Afrique et Occident. Il est surtout un chant d’amour à la littérature et à son pouvoir intemporel.
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby jeffers » Fri Apr 01, 2022 11:29 am

Carmody wrote:My local Alliance Française has just put out their Spring reading list. Please note that it is not often that there is a listing for Beginner Books, so, people interested in that level might want to check it out.

Beginner Books
Enquête capitale - Marine Decourtis
Mystère sur le vieux port - Pascale Paoli
La dernière nuit au phare - Pascale Paoli
Lancelot - Chrétien de Troyes
La nuit blanche de Zoé - Mirela Vardi
Rémi et le mystère de Saint-Péray - Annie Coutelle
Si c’était vrai - Sylvie Bataille
Le match de Thomas - Nicolas Boyer
Rémi et Juliette - Léo Lamarche
Double Je - Virginie Guérin


I have a few of those beginner books (in editions that came with a CD), and have read them several times. On the first Super Challenge Rémi et le mystère de Saint-Péray was the first book I read for the challenge, and for some reason I have read it first for all the subsequent SCs. It's okay; as a beginner there was a lot of new vocab for me, and as a more experienced French reader I find it mildy diverting for 20 minutes.

Enquête capitale is actually a fairly interesting story, which is surprising for a beginner's book. I would love to visit Paris and retrace the main character's footsteps.
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French SC Books: 0 / 5000 (0/5000 pp)
French SC Films: 0 / 9000 (0/9000 mins)

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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby kanewai » Sat Apr 09, 2022 2:53 am

I've got one more for you: Leon L'Africain, by Amin Maalouf (1986). It's based on the life story of al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan al-Fasi, a 16th century Andalusian Moor who was at times a diplomat, a trader, an exile, and a slave. The novel is based on his autobiography.

Here's the opening paragraph

Moi, Hassan, fils de Mohamed le peseur, moi, Jean-Léon de Médicis, circoncis de la main d'un barbier et baptisé de la main d'un pape, on me nomme aujourd'hui l'Africain, mais d'Afrique ne suis, ni d'Europe, ni d'Arabie. On m'appelle aussi le Grenadin, le Fassi, le Zayyati, mais je ne viens d'aucun pays, d'aucune cité, d'aucune tribu. Je suis fils de la route, ma patrie est caravane, et ma vie la plus inattendue des traversées. Mes poignets ont connu tour à tour les caresses de la soie et les injures de la laine, l'or des princes et les chaînes des esclaves. Mes doigts ont écarté mille voiles, mes lèvres ont fait rougir mille vierges, mes yeux ont vu agoniser des villes et mourir des empires.

In English

I, Hasan the son of Muhammad the weigher, I, Jean-Leon de Medici, circumcised at the hand of a barber and baptized at the hand of a pope, they now call me the African, but I am not from Africa, nor from Europe, nor from Arabia. They also call me the Grenadian, the Fassi, the Zayyati, but I come from no country, from no city, from no tribe. I am the son of the road, my country is the caravan, my life the most unexpected of voyages. My wrists have known at times the caresses of silk and the insults of wool, the gold of princes and the chains of the enslaved. My fingers have lifted a thousand veils, my lips have made a thousand virgins blush, my eyes have seen the sacking of cities and the death of empires.

For any fans of historical novels, this is an easy five-star recommendation, though I think others would enjoy it too. The action ranges across the Renaissance world, from al-Andalus to Fez to Timbuctou to Cairo to Istanbul to Rome ... where Hasan is gifted as a slave to Pope Leo X, only to have the pope free him and adopt him into the Medici family. He led an amazing life.
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Italian: 11 / 50
Spanish: 50 / 50
French: 16 / 50


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