19 July 2014

The Book Sill: 14


14
14 by Jean Echenoz

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Echenoz's lightness and wonderful irony lets the terrifying background of World War One dominate this short novel. A joy to read, as always. If only Echenoz could write a new book every month...



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The Book Sill: Le Sens de ma vie


Le Sens de ma vie
Le Sens de ma vie by Romain Gary

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Highly entertaining series of interviews conducted few months before the writer killed himself, and revealing a whole life shaped by fiction.
From an early age, Romain Gary will try to conform to the life his mother had imagined for him, that in spite of being born Russian he would become a famous French writer and diplomat. He will lie to her, hiding his failure to become an officer in the French air force. She will lie to him, hiding her own death for three whole years ! He will lie to the whole world and to himself, during his years as the French speaker for the United Nations. He will lie to the publishing world by winning the Prix Goncourt under a false name.
Romain Gary reveals these lies all along these short interviews, in the exact opposite attempt of Cendrars's tetralogy: use his talents as a writer to de-mystify his own life.



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14 July 2014

The Book Sill: Situations Delicates


Situations Delicates
Situations Delicates by Serge Joncour

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I was looking for a lazy Sunday book. I found a lazy Sunday book. Situations Delicates shows why, of all the talents to participate in Les Papous Dans la Tete, Serge Joncour is the most entertaining one. Light, ferocious and self deprecating, Joncour made me laugh in 154 pages of everyday situations more than Wodehouse in 600 - and Wodehouse does make me laugh. in other words, this was the perfect little book to see me through 2 days of football world cup finals.



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