Elegant Hedgehogs & other French writings
I’ve been reading a lot in French lately.
[My that sounds pretentious. My apologies. I've been studying la belle langue for work, and my own pleasure, and I read. Seems logical]
Last fall, I read Ensemble, c’est tout by Anna Gavalda…a lovely story of 4 unlikely friends who find themselves sharing an elegant apartment in Paris for a time. It’s an absolutely lovely book, the characters are fascinating and realistic, and some moments will move you to tears. I mentioned it awhile ago on this blog, where the only thing I really said about it is that they’d made a movie out of it. I’ve since read the book and seen the movie — my suggestion? Forget the film. Find the book. The movie hits the bulk of the plot points without delving into the characters at all deeply — and the characters make the story truly live. (The English title chosen was Hunting and Gathering — odd.)
So then the book L’Élégance du hérisson by Muriel Barbery was recommended to me by my tutor. And I would like to thank her deeply for both (1) pointing me in the direction of this brilliant book and (2) assuming that my French was up to the high-brow erudition of this novel en français!
From the first chapter, first paragraph:
I live alone with my cat, a big lazy tom who has no distinguishing features other than the fact that his paws smell bad when he is annoyed. Neither he nor I make any effort to take part in the social doings of our respective kindred species. Because I am rarely friendly—though always polite—I am not liked, but am tolerated nonetheless: I correspond so very well to what social
prejudice has collectively construed to be a typical French concierge that I am one of the multiple cogs that make the great universal illusion turn, the illusion according to which life has a meaning that can be easily deciphered. And since it has been written somewhere that concierges are old, ugly and
sour, so has it been branded in fiery letters on the pediment of that same imbecilic firmament that the aforementioned concierges have rather large dithering cats who sleep all day on cushions that have been covered with crocheted cases.
(Source: the sample chapter on the US publisher’s site)
So there I was, reading this in French, marveling at the gorgeous sentence structure, and then I got bogged down and unfortunately had to put it aside. I found it in the wonderful English translation, and continued reading…and was not disappointed.
The publisher’s reading group guide is available, for those that enjoy filtering their reading through themes.
Any other suggestions pour des livres en français pour moi?
Aim to Thrive
The advantage of having an active book fetish is that it attracts other bookish people, and their books.
I recently received a copy of Kathrin Lake’s new book From Survival to Thrival: How to catch the boat to y our successful, thriving life (even if you thought you’d missed it) from the author:
#1 Thrival Guide for Career, Love and Life
It’s a mouthful of a sub-title, but it reflects Kathrin’s chatty tone quite nicely. (I hope she doesn’t mind me calling her Kathrin…after reading her book, I feel like we’ve chatted more than just briefly through email.) The text does read like you’re having a sit over a cup of tea, and your wise friend keeps refilling your cup and feeding you very useful metaphors along with the plain spoken advice.
I’ve done my own share of self- and soul-searching over the years, and have delved into it all. I’ve read the weird and the wonderful, the odd and the inspiring…but I can say quite definitively that I have not read a self-help guide so down-to-earth.
The simplicity, no, the clarity of Lake’s advice is a bit disconcerting. Her ideas are not revolutionary or novel, just presented without the bells and whistles that jazz up the more colourful (and less credible?) presenters. This unadorned prose resonates with my own thinking and sits quite naturally with me.
As a linguist myself, I appreciate a woman who points out that the word success has other meanings…as in to come after in time or order or follow. And she asks the simple question: What if success were defined as progress, instead of a result? What if success were defined as not where you end up, but how you live your life every day?
What if we stopped keeping our self-praise and self-esteem building blocks for special occasions, like your mother’s good china, and let it out every day (the Good China Syndrome)?
The discussion on need vs. want sets up a very important distinction. It reminds me greatly of June Singer, a Jungian analyst and author, who discussed the difference between using a verb vs. a noun to describe your profession (in the brilliant book Boundaries of the Soul
I will stop here, and recommend that you visit her website — there’s lots to see!
Lori
Another box o’ books…
Well, it’s happened again…I’ve received another box of books to review (here’s a list of the previous batch, and the one before).
This time they look like a lovely mix: 4 books of short stories, 1 memoir, 1 poetry/novel, 2 novels.
Short Stories
Cobalt Blue
Silent Girl
I’m absolutely flumoxed. Tricia, me girl, that was inspired. I’m now terribly eager to read the book. (Book publishers/authors, take note: this woman knows how to market a book on the Internet!).
Out of Cleveland
I must admit, this post is turning into a “Who wins on the Internet marketing front?” — and here’s one that has almost no presence. To get anywhere, you have to put the title in quotes. Publisher — pay attention! I had to search for your site separately! (Hopeless, as web-un-savvy as this group is, they will likely not see this post. Unlike Tricia, above, who will be visiting me shortly, I’m sure!)
Red Rooms
Memoir
The Way It Was: Vignettes from My One-Room Schools
Poetry/Novel
The Given
Novels
The End of East
Living with the Dead
I will try to post something other than my first impressions as I read the books. Please feel free to ask me directly for feedback.
And Tricia? Stop and say hi! 
“Literary Soup” Literature
I’m in the middle of two books, and suddenly I feel like I’m reading one of those artsy-fartsy double features at your local, non-mainstream movie house. You know the ones, where there is a connection between the films, and it is your job as the audience to find it.
The most obscure one I ever came across was where the only link was an ice cream cone in each film. The most delightful was Robert LePage’s Le Confessional (1995) shown with Hitchcock’s I Confess (1953).
So, back to books.
I’m reading two books right now:
- the always erudite, sometimes terribly obscure Umberto Eco’s The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana (2005), and
- a first book by a young woman in the USA, Marisha Pessl’s Specialty Topics in Calamity Physics (Astute BookNook followers will recall that I blogged about the book’s amazing website here!)
While both books are utterly different in plot, character, setting, and genre they have in common a wonderful bookyness to them…they are both a literary soup of references that verge on the border of being overwhelming, but instead are almost inspiring in their bibliophilia.
Two different books, two utterly different characters, but both texts are littered with pop culture:
Eco, being a semiologist, does not really surprise us in this. His other books have been thick with historical references, illuminating his amazing well-readness. This time however, it is a plot point, as our protagonist is an older man suffering from amnesia who uses the books of his lifetime to rebuild his lifeline. The references this time are both classical and current, albeit the focus of the current is on Italian modern history and corresponding pop culture.
Pessl, a young woman writing her first novel, holds her own in general bookyness in comparison to the towering Eco. The character, Blue van der Meer, is not quite 18 but is an astoundingly well-read genius, being the daughter of a rather eccentric, nomadic, genius professor father. As she navigates the teen hell of a yet another new school, her every thought is a literary or pop culture reference, at times against her will. Despite how ponderous that sounds, it is a delightful read, and un-put-down-able once you really get rolling.
I need more books of this genre (is it a meta- or sub-genre?). Any suggestions?
A Hiatus
I have a confession to make…I’ve not read anything new for months! I’ve been re-reading all books by Lois McMaster Bujold, almost obsessively, and in the last couple of weeks, the Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper, one of my favourite authors as a child. (They pass the test of time though, still tasty books!)
Last week, for a couple of reasons, my reading life has changed:
- I took a mid-week Greyhound trip to Vancouver, and finally picked up a Christmas book: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Finished it yesterday — very good. If you haven’t picked this one up, thinking it had something to do with 18th Century England (I did…I wasn’t too terribly enthused about what I expected to be an Austen-wannabe.), do so now. It’s unexpected and a great yarn — wide-sweeping epic-like with very intriguing characters.
- I did recently read Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, and while I was in Vancouver, I stopped at my favourite 2ndhand bookstore there, Albion Books (Hi Dave!), and found a copy of Bourdain’s next book, A Cook’s Tour. Just finished that one this morning — again, very good. Bourdain writes food porn — his relationship to food is definitely not one of merely fuel. If he did write regular porn, it would be nice and earthy, with all the fluids and smells lovingly recorded. His descriptions of the food he eats around the world are bloody, alcohol-soaked, crud-encrusted meals of absolute delight. I dare you to read this without wanting a bowl of fresh pho and a pint of tequila.
- I have also picked up a copy of Anna Gavalda’s Ensemble, c’est tout — quite a popular French novel. Discovered while searching up a link to give you, that it has just been made into a movie with the irrepressible Audrey Tautou.
So, I’m reading new stuff again. Hopefully this will mean that I’ll be posting here more often!
Judge a book by its…website?
Can you?
More and more the author is required to pull together much of their own marketing, and the really savvy ones will come up some really imaginative ideas — like a website. But is a really good web-presence enough to inspire you to buy a book?
Check out this one: a novel entitled Specialty Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. I had never heard of the book until I stumbled upon this brilliant website. It appears to be a mystery, with a very literary main character…and if you dig a bit, you’ll find some tasty buzz for it.
Has anyone out there read this one? I must admit I’m tempted.
Your comments?
Dictionaries, revisited
A while back I wrote about dictionaries, as all bookish bloggers are wont to do (aren’t they?). I really enjoy having dictionaries, knowing they are there for when I need them.
I like them in person, hard and weighty tomes. I enjoy contemplating what they represent — the unfathomable hours of labour by word enthusiasts, the preserving of ever-changing nuance, the slanting of opinion, even the dictating of form and sound.
I have physical dictionaries, dictionaries on my computer, and links to numerous language resources in my bookmarks.
And of course, there are the thesauri, word lists, menus, reverse dictionaries…ooh! I could go on forever!
But then, there are the visual dictionaries. The online Visual Thesaurus used to be something free, but now you have to pay. I’ve never been able to justify it, as I would not use it as intended, I would just follow the visual trails for hours, ignoring the original need for a synonym.
Today I stumbled upon another online dictionary: Merriam-Webster’s Visual Dictionary. Probably more nouns than you’ll ever possibly need, but just in case you needed to know the name of the doohickey on a whatchamacallit, now you can just look for it.
Zed by Elizabeth McClung
One of the books I’m reviewing is, well, rather brilliant — mesmerizing even. Zed, authored by Elizabeth McClung (Arsenal Press).
If you can read the first paragraph and not be drawn in, then okay, you don’t have to buy it. But if you can’t wait to read more, here’s the first chapter online.
Her name? Zed. Age? Eleven, twelve, maybe thirteen – it wasn’t like she was getting three square a day and multivitamins. She was small, four-foot nothing: thin, grubby, but with a thrust to her chin which told you, as you saw her beetling down the hall towards you – best step aside. Most people were fairly certain Zed was female. Her soft features and long lashes were contrasted by grey uniform coveralls, slick and shiny from constant wear. The hair was the deciding factor, because it fell, wildly uneven, to shoulder length. Once a year, Zed assaulted it with her knife, hacking it back above her ears. She had a habit of tilting her head down and staring up at people from under her bangs. She just showed up one day – no relations, no history. No one knew much about her, and those who did never passed it on. People didn’t gossip about her, at least not more than once, because if she caught them she’d stick her knife point somewhere soft on them and ask, “Got anything more to say, Chuckles?” which, invariably, they didn’t.
Yes, she fit right in with the Tower.
C’mon, Elizabeth! Get working on another one!
Hope for the Mediocre
A co-worker and I have discovered that we both read fantasy novels. She took it upon herself to lend me a rather silly series, by a writer I’d never heard of before — Tamora Pierce. A quick Google search tells me that she is a fantasy author who writes books for young people. That just tells me that publishers don’t think young people can handle any richness to their writing. Here’s her motivation for writing, from an interview (quoted here):
I got into this to write about girls who kick butt. In the mid-’70s, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Sheri Tepper, C.J. Cherryh, that crowd particularly, started to change the field. For me, there was a problem that a number of these characters were gay or celibate female warriors, and I was neither. So I wrote fantasy with female warrior heroes who like guys. Robin McKinley and Barbara Hambly both started to publish their fantasy at the same time, so I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
Is she comparing herself to Robin McKinley? Author of The Blue Sword? Funny though, how Pierce’s heroine, Alanna — who isn’t a lesbian, no way no how! — has a series of adventures very similar to those of Harry/Harimad-sol in McKinley’s book. Desert adventure, finding her powers…
Thank goodness, she’s not comparing herself to Bradley, Tepper, or Cherryh!
What problem do I have with this writer?
- She takes absolutely no time to develop her characters beyond the bare minimum.
- She tells, and tells, and tells, and never once shows.
- The plot points are so transparent it’s annoying — since she doesn’t take any time to develop the world or the characters, when someone blinks, you know it’s significant.
- Three words: Deus ex machina. Magic is unexplained, it just bang! is there to save the day.
- Each of the 4 books in the series I read (oh yes! All 4…I’m not complaining on the strength of only reading one — not too onerous, they were quick reads), had enough action for 3 or 4 books. Huge quest material, dealt with in 4 chapters. Move on to the next with a “And they all went back to the city.” Come up with another 3 adventures, some innocent shtupping (’cause remember, she’s not a lesbian. NO. Not a lesbian!), some more ways for Alanna to be utterly wonderful and perfect and strong and the best fighter and . . . ingredients for one more Tamora Pierce book, 3 more for any other writer with a modicum of talent for exposition.
I wish I could say I was exaggerating. But if I’d been introduced to this as a pre-teen, I would have been scarred for life, my ability to appreciate good writing forever damaged.
I’ll go back to Lois McMaster Bujold (or Sheri S. Tepper or . . .) any day.
I interrupted my reading of this tripe to pick up one of Bujold’s latest, that I’d been trying to ignore, trying to prolong the anticipation — The Sharing Knife: Beguilement. (Read the first couple of chapters here!)
Bujold really takes the time to develop her characters, and their world. In one sequence, 2 of the characters ride 3 hours into town…it takes 15, beautifully written pages.
Pierce would have done it more efficiently: “They rode three hours to town.”
Gads. I don’t usually write negative reviews, but I need something to show for the wasted time!
