#NovNov week 1 My year in novellas

1. Week 1 (starts Wednesday 1 November): My Year in Novellas
2. Hosted by   746 Books  and Bookish Beck .
3. During this partial week, tell us about any novellas you have read since last NovNov.
4. Well, this will be a very short post of my 2023 novellas!
5. I only read 4…and they were all by French authors.

Moderato Cantabile – M. Duras (150 pg)  English paperback, Amazon

1. Moderato Cantabile is a musical term.
2. It means means being within reasonable limits
3. …and Cantabile means songlike.
4. Unfortunately for Ann Desbaresdes alcohol amplified
5. her song and moved her actions beyond reasonable limits.
6. Duras’s adult life was also marked by personal challenges,
7. including a recurring struggle with alcoholism.
8. What I did enjoy was the vivd and depressing description
9. of a woman struggling with alcohol?
10. Ms Duras writes what she knows….
11. She dramatically represented the character’s
12. by speech, actions and gestures.

The Kiss of the Leper – F. Mauriac (137 pg)  English Kindle, Amazon

1. This is a great book to read if you are doing a challenge “Reading the Nobels”
2. Mauriac won the Nobel Prize in 1952.
3. Bad news: The book was too short
4. …novella just 137 pages.
5. I could have read it as a novel!
6. Mauriac wields a scalpel to construct his sentences.
7. This book is timeless….it feels just like a Jane Austen book.
8. The theme is  that mutual attraction is the most important thing of a marriage.
9. One who betrays his or her heart will never own true love.
   
10. It is much more important than money and social position.

The Stranger – A. Camus (144 pg)   English Kindle/paperback, Amazon

1. Bad news: I was expecting a masterpiece. Pas de tout!
   I didn’t like the style of writing (short sentences, repetative )
   I wonder why this book is part of classic French literature.
2. Good news: The quickest “French” read in my book case!
   French was so simple.
3. Personal: If you want to read an Albert Camus book.
4. …it must be
5. La Peste (1947) (The Plague, 256 pg)…that was excellent!

The Vice-Consul – M. Duras (169 pg)  English paperback, Amazon

1. Good news: I finished it…by pure determination.
2. I will  NOT be defeated by the first book of the year!
3. Bad news: This is a very strange book…
4. I felt like I was in a maze…no direction
5. …no real plot…where is this going?
6. This book is about absolutely nothing.   (Seinfeld-esque!)
7. No, it was not a waste of my time because
8. …I did increase my French vocabulary.
9. Book in 5 words: Confusing. Boring. Unfocused. Rambling. Slapdash.
10. #AvoidAtAllCosts