#Paris in July Fini!

Heading into the weekend….A French woman with her baguette and six bottles of wine, Paris, France, 1945. (Photo by Branson Decou)

• Many thanks to Thyme for Tea for hosting
• #ParisInJuly
• To all the participants
• ….I enjoyed
• reading your posts!
• See you all next year!

July 2021:

1. La maison du chat qui pelote – H. Balzac (1830)  REVIEW
2. La cagnotte – E. Labiche (1864)  REVIEW
3. Pour une nuit d’amour – E. Zola (1880)  REVIEW
4. Le Bourgeois gentilhomme – Molière (1670)  REVIEW
5. J’Accuse – Émile Zola   REVIEW
6. Âme brisée – A. Mizubayashi  REVIEW
7. Charlotte – D. Foenkinos  REVIEW
8. 4 French Films – REVIEW
9. Le Dossier 113 – E. Gaboriau  REVIEW
10. Une amie de la famille – J. Laclavetine  REVIEW
11. La promesse de l’aube – Romain Gary  REVIEW
12. Sign-up “Summer reading in other languages”
13. Salammbô – G. Flaubert  REVIEW
14. Henri Matisse: Rooms with a view – S. Blum  REVIEW

#Paris In July Henri Matisse

• Author: S. Blum
• Title: Henri Matisse: Rooms with a view
• Published: 2010
• #ParisInJuly

 

Quick Scan:

1. Matisse studied and rearranged his rooms constantly.
2. When he lived in hotels and small apartments his living quarters
3. usually doubled as his studio.
4. In a continuous engagement with these spaces he produced
5. not only singular masterpieces but also developed a
6. theme as rich as the traditional landscape or portrait.
7. In each new phase of his art and with every change of residence.
8. Matisse reinvented the theme of the window.

 

Conclusion:

1. This books weighs 3,5 pounds…a real ‘coffee table book’.
2. But it is so worth your effort to carry it home from the library!
3. 5 chapters with so many beautiful images and illuminating
4. information about Matisse’s paintings
5. Shirley Neilsen Blum (1932) is an
6. American art historian, professor and author.
7. She taught me that Matisse loved goldfish in bowls,
8. that there is so much beauty in a window with curtains and awnings….
9. and showed me Matisse’s magnificent design (pg 172-179)
10. of a Catholic chapel in Vence France.
11. I’ve been to the Vatican in Rome, to St. Patrick’s in NYC,
12. ….visited the Notre Dame in Paris….but I would love to
13. visit the South of France and bask in the artistic wonder
14. that is “The Chapel of the Rosary”  (see Google) by Henri Matisse!

 

#Paris In July Flaubert

• Author: Gustave Flaubert
• Genre:  novel
• Title:  Salammbô
• Published:  1862
• #ParisInJuly

• Just awful!!
• Avoid this book like the plague.
• Greatest flaw…fraud.
• Title Salammbo …you would think this
• temptress was the main character.
• One expects delicate moonlit gardens
• ….one finds instead manure and blood and bone mixture.
• War is the central character…and it was so boring.
• Salammbo appears around 3 times in the book
• …then she just fades away.
• Flaubert is a great writer and I loved Mme Bovary.
• In this book the author just wanted to show off his
• vocabulary grounded in historical military dictionaries.
• Honestly, I made it through 50% of the book.
• The first couple of chapters give us dead burnt monkeys
• falling onto banquet tables
• …crucified lions, and a corrupt leper who
• …drinks tisanes of powdered weasel.
• Red flag:
• …time to skim to last chapter and then throw the Livre de Poche
• in the box titled “worst ever”!

#Sign-up post: Summer in other languages

• During the pandemic 2020 I could not focus on my reading.
• 2021 has been completely different.
• I’ve discovered my French language skills again.
• After a year with NO French….it took me just one book to
• …tap into my vocabulary.
• French ..it is just like riding a bike
• ….get in the saddle and off you go!

• I discovered (…a bit late in a post on The Classics Club)
• this wonderful challenge that “has my name on it”!
• Lory at Entering the Enchanted Castle is running a new meme, 
• Summer in Other Languages, which with its three levels of
• commitment encourages bloggers to read works in foreign languages
• other than English or at least in translation.
• To find out more, take a look at Lory’s post here
• This challenge runs officiallly from June 1 to August 31, 2021
• …I’m tweaking it to my circumstances 1 July – 30 September.
• I will read ONLY in French during these months.

• Reading French in July:
• La maison du chat qui pelote – H. Balzac (1830)  REVIEW
• La cagnotte – E. Labiche (1864)  REVIEW
• Pour une nuit d’amour – E. Zola (1880)  REVIEW
• Le Bourgeois gentilhomme – Molière (1670)  REVIEW
• J’Accuse – Émile Zola   REVIEW
• Âme brisée – A. Mizubayashi (2019)  REVIEW
• Charlotte – D. Foenkinos (2014) REVIEW
• Le Dossier 113 – E. Gaboriau (1867)  REVIEW
• Une amie de la famille – J. Laclavetine (2019) REVIEW
• Un promesse de l’aube – Romain Gary (1960) REVIEW

• Reading French in August:
• ?

#Paris In July Romain Gary

• Author: Romain Gary (1914-1980)
• Genre:  memoir
• Title:  La promesse de l’aube
• Published:  1960
• #ParisInJuly

• I did not like this book
• Weak point: the moments in history RG refers to are not linked
• in chronological order (confusing).
• Weak point: the book concentrated too much on Gary’s
• mother. (…felt more like a homage to her than
• autobiography of the author).
• Weak point: What we did read about his life is uselessly detailed.
• —“Romain Gary en rajoute”. (over did it)
• — “C’est amploué”. (pompous, bombastic)
• This book was a waste of my reading time.
• #Décevant (…very disappointing)

Last thoughts:

• If you want to read very touching story (autobiographical)
• in French to brush up on your language skills
• “… j’aurais préféré “Petit Pays”
• …beaucoup plus émouvant et plus accessible”.
• The book is by Gaël Faye….available also in English Amazon.

#Paris In July Laclavetine

Author: Jean-Marie Laclavetine
Genre: memoir
Title: Une amie de la famille
Published: 2019
Table of Contents: 222 pages
#ParisInJuly

Introduction:

• I discovered this book while searching the list of French literary prizes.
• Laclavetine wrote Un amie de la famille fifty years after his sister Annie’s death.
• He decided to reveal his heartbreak…
• about the memory of one who is no longer spoken about.
• Years after the accident when Annie’s parents saw a
• a photo found in a shoebox….told their youngest son
• who was 6 when his sister died that
• it was “une amie de la famille”…never admitting their loss.

Conclusion:

• 30% of this book is a revelation of the strong love
• between the author’s parents through letters found in the attic.
• 30 % is about Laclavetine’s sister Annie (20 yr)
• who died in an accident.
• The most striking part of the
• book is the moment Laclavetine receives his sister’s
• letters that she wrote to her boyfriend a year before she died.
• We discover a very troubled soul….that she kept hidden.
• 40% is about the author’s thoughts feelings of trauma
• that haunted his the rest of his life.
• Quest: discover if the images the author remembers
• of Annie and the accident correlate with reality.

Last thoughts:

• This is a book full of reminiscences, reflexions and encounters
• not a funeral monument for Annie…“une amie de la famille.”
• Laclavetine leads us where memories live…in the depths of his childhood.
• This is a very touching book but it just is not a great book.
• In fact, I felt the book was more about the author than his sister.
• Quote: Death made me what I am.
• Weak point: I missed a feeling of deep loss with dignity.
• It all centered around the author’s need to set the record straight
• …and write a book!
• By the way….he wrote a follow up this year
• ….again squeezing yet another book out of Annie’s life.
• #À éviter…vous gagnerez du temp
• Avoid….and save your time!

Last thoughts:

• Une amie de la famille reminds me of other books
• in which the authors take the reader on a journey
• about why they wrote their very personal books:
• Retour à Killybegs – S. Chalandon (The Troubles in Northern Ireland)
• Available in english: Return to Killybegs
• Le Lambeau – P Lançon (attack on Charlie Hebdo writers)
• Available in english: Surviving Charlie Hebdo
• This genre seems to capture the reader’s imagination.
• Recommendation? leave Une amie de la famille on the shelf and open
• Delphine de Vigan’s book Rien ne s’oppose à la nuit.
• It is a stunning book about her mother – daughter relationship.
• Available in english Nothing Holds Back the Night.

#Paris In July Gaboriau

• Author: Émile Gaboriau (1832-1873)
• Genre:  Crime fiction (pg 612)
• Trivia: French writer, novelist, journalist,
• …pioneer of detective fiction
• Title:  Dossier 113
• Published:  1867
• #ParisInJuly

• On the surface, the crime seems simple.
• A bank’s secure safe is robbed.
• One of the two men who holds the key must be guilty.
• One key-holder is the bank’s owner who lives above the bank.
• The other is the bank’s trusted manager
• …a man like a son to the owner.
• What if neither is guilty?
• How did this safe, with every security measure known
• and employed at the time, get robbed?
• Leave it to Monsieur Lecoq of the Surete, a policeman of many disguises.
• Book in 5 words:
• Truth – deceit – betrayal – lies – murder.

Last thoughts:

• Strong point: What a convoluted plot!!
• I wanted to read something I could sink my teeth into
• …well I got it!
• Strong point: M. Lecoq seems to be 2 steps ahead of everyone!
• The book is filled with all the delights of detective CF:
• Letters:
• Plot turns on the bundle of letters.
• They are passed from character to character.
• The reader feels tension about the letters
• …concealment, interception, destruction or revelation ?

• Eavesdropping behind curtains
• Spying through keyholes
• Secretly removing bullets from a gun
• Carriage (fiacre) trick (…very clever!)

• Disguise!
• M. Lecoq is a master in disguise.
• This reader had to really concentrate
• Another name, description …”Is this Lecoq or not?”
• The sleuth even managed to disguise himself
• …while he was already in another costume.
• When I think of M. Lecoq the best description
• …he is a series of Russian babushka dolls!
• The reader is always waiting to see when the
• outer layer will disappear!

• It is a pity the name Émile Gaboriau has been
• rather forgotten in the list of great detectives.
• He was a source of inspiration for Conan Doyle.
• I find his novels are anchored in reality
• his investigations are skillfully crafted and
• …in the end Gaboriau ties up all the loose ends!
• The book also paints a naturalist
• …painting of the ‘belle epoque’ in Paris!
• Don’t hesitate to try one of Gaboriau’s books
• I read in in French and it took me 10 days.
• The language was easy to read but I read word for word
• …not wanting to miss a clue!
• Book is available in English on Amazon.