The Book Sill - Chourmo

Chourmo by Jean-Claude Izzo

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Chourmo is one of these novels I had always promised myself to read, because it was held is such high regards by people whose opinion I trust.

Las ! The context might grasp the interest of any reader familiar with or fascinated by this graal of all cities that is Marseille. But as for the novel, I can barely see anything good to say. Political comments ooze from the author in every scene - not that Izzo has his heart in the wrong place ; more that he has his pen in the wrong hand, if not in the wrong limb. The style is full of teenage pathos without ever reaching the beautiful rough poetry that a James Lee Burke, a writer with an equal tendency towards whingeing, achieves. The situations are often predictable and the characters lacking the depth or idiosyncrasy that would make them attaching to me. As a social mirror, Chourmo is far from any of Georges Simenon's novels. As a pure noir novel, it is nowhere near any of Manchette's stories.



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The Book Sill - Aurélia et autres textes autobiographiques

Aurélia et autres textes autobiographiques by Gérard de Nerval

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Four stars only for the confusing succession of notices and notes, sliced and spread out throughout the book. I would have preferred to have them held in one place - but other, less easily distracted readers will not find it an issue. This collection of works is indispensable for whoever is interested in the rising of the subject at the centre of our societies in the XIXth century. It links beautifully Rousseau and Chateaubriand to Proust and Cendrars.



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