New Books Coming From France, yay!

So first of all, thank you all for being awesome and letting me have my time. 

I have like 7 book reviews that will be posted in the next few weeks, and I've realized that it's better to write them as I read them or else I will have a huge stack of books to review and then shit happens and I have no time to write them and then nothing gets blogged. 

Lesson learned.

Now on to fun stuff:
I have ordered my yearly big box of books from FRANCE!!  I am excited.  Super.  Last year's box had mainly newer contemporary stuff because I hadn't read much of it and wanted to give it a try.  I discovered some really great authors, my fave of which is Amélie Nothomb.  But Maryse Condé and Philippe Labro were also pretty kick ass.

This year's box contains mostly classics and whatnot, seeing as I am currently in the process of applying to grad school for French lit.  I figured I should read some classic-y stuff for that.  So, without further ado, the contents of my box of books from FRANCE!!:

1. Les liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) by Pierre-Ambroise-Francois Choderlos de Laclos
2. Le Voyage d'hiver (The Winter Journey) by Amélie Nothomb
3. Oeuvres completes (Complete Works) by Louise Labé
4. L'Amant (The Lover) by Marguerite Duras
5. Le deuxieme sexe (The Second Sex)by Simone de Beauvoir
6. Le rouge et le noir (The Red and the Black) by Stendhal

And #7 I can't put here just yet because it's a gift for Twin for Christmas and she reads by blog because she's pretty much awesome.  Most of the time anyway.

Ahh the temptation..

It's bad.  It's very bad.  There is a certain French website kind of like Amazon that I use to order all of my books from France that I can't find here or on Amazon.ca (or if I don't like the price from Amazon.ca...).  It's called fnac.com and a teacher of mine at Buffalo State College introduced me to it.  I heart it.  I can get paperbacks for like 4 or 5 euros and ship them to the states.  Shipping is based on weight and usually is just about double the book's  price.  It seems like it would be a lot, but it's not because France has so many affordable "poche" books out there (our trade paperbacks are similar).  So once a year, I do a big order of a bunch of books.  I usually wait until around Octobr or November.  But I want my books now.  You see, dear readers, I've read all the books I bought last year.  The only French book I have to read until the end of the year is Zola's Au bonheur des dames.  And the thought of me finishing it and having NO books en français is pretty horrifying.

Now the catch is that much of France is on holiday for the month of August.  If I place my order right at this very instant like I soooo want to do, my books probably won't even ship until September.  Trust me.  I once ordered books for school from fnac.com in August like my teacher told us to.  And then the next day she was freaking out like, "OHMYGOSH did I have you guys order from fnac??  In August??!"  It took over a month to get our books.  Usually when I order from them, the goods come like within a week.  So I guess I could order my books now and I won't be charged until September..  Or I could wait until October or November.  Or until I have a new job.  But then it's like, maybe I should buy my books before I have to start paying those pesky student loans??  And before I change my car over to my own name and have to start making my own car insurance payments every month without the help of my mom (thanks Mom!). 

I guess I'll wait. 

50 Best Books for French Majors and Francophiles

How perfect that this lovely list comes to my attention in the middle of the Paris in July event?!

I got a very sweet email from one of my blog readers about this wonderful list of books about France.  The list is separated into sections: Food, Culture, History and Memoir, Fiction, Travel, and Ex-Pats.  Quite a few of these have been on my "to read" list for a while, but there are a ton of books listed that I've never heard of and want to read asap! 

So without further ado, the link to the great list of books:

50 Best Books for French Majors and Francophiles (click to go to article)

Review: La traversée by Philippe Labro

La traversée is a beautifully told story by French author Philippe Labro. I read it in French, and it was my first experience reading anything by Labro. I often feel like I shouldn't praise writing when it's in French, because I'm obviously not a native French speaker and therefore feel like I might not be "feeling" the language quite as well as a native speaker….but I feel the need right now to praise Labro. I LOVED his writing. It was gorgeous. This is sort of an autobiographical novel. The main character (we never get a name, but I pretty much assumed it was the author speaking himself, since he also had an "out of body experience" while in the hospital), retells of his time spent in a semi-coma in a French hospital. While doctors around him are testing him to try to find out what is causing him to be so sick, the main character is left to his dreams and thoughts, and finds himself back in situations he experienced years ago as a young man. He also is fighting for his life, trying to keep at bay the voices telling him that he is going to die. Throughout his struggle in the semi-coma, the main character discovers certain things that give him strength and keep him going. This is a fascinating story about a man who, through illness, discovers what really is important to him and how to keep those things (and people) close to him.

I thought it made total sense that this book was based on the author's own experiences. It truly seems to come from the heart. Sure, some things within the story might be fiction, but the concepts and the things the main character goes through seem so authentic. You just can't make that stuff up. The entire book really is a journey. A physical journey? Well, yes. The narrator finds himself remembering past travels in his youth. But it's also a mental and emotional journey. He is stuck within himself for weeks and is pretty much forced to face facts, and the experience really leaves him humbled. The title of the book itself represents the narrator's journey: "la traversée" in English is "the crossing". This could relate to a lot of things. The narrator crosses continents in his journeys. The narrator comes very close to crossing into the afterlife in the worst days of his illness. And the narrator also crosses over to a better self because of his illness. There is a beautiful passage at the end of the book where the main character is sitting by a fire, just enjoying life and all that it has given him. The fire is so much more than a fire now that he is healed. It represents LIFE. As Labro puts in (though in a much prettier manner), the fire is beautiful, multicolored, irregular, sharp-all the different things that are life. It's not all black and white. It's not all happy. But it is alive, and you've just got to live it.

I was so enamored with La traversée that it left me contemplating it for days. I especially loved the things the narrator discussed as life-savers for him: first, the will to live and resistance. Second, laughing. Third and most important, love and the people who you love and who love you. There are times when the main character is close to giving in and letting go, and then he realizes how selfish he is. After all, he has a wife who adores him, children, friends. As long as he has a say, he won't let himself leave them. I think that's just beautiful.

One of my favorite passages in right in the beginning, at the very start of the narrator's struggle with life and death. He describes hearing two voices in his head: one tells him that death is near, the other that there is so much more life to live.

I believe the translation of La traversée in English is Dark Tunnel White Light. It might be different in different English-speaking countries though?

Here are some fave quotes (believe me, there were a ton! It was hard to narrow them down to post here!). These are rough translations by the way. I can't find my copy of the book at the moment to verify, but I think when I took notes I did just rough translations? Maybe not, I can't remember ha!:
Page 76: The pieces of your life that you see aren't always the most important events of it.
-This quote was really beautiful in context, because the narrator is discussing the images he saw in his out of body experiences. He didn't see himself receiving writing awards. He didn't see himself being praised for directing great movies. He saw himself living daily life, and made him realize what really was important to him.
Page 277: La vie n'est pas un mot. (Life is not a word.)
-As in, you need to LIVE life. It’s not just a word. It's an action. Powerful stuff.
Page 286: La traversee est la vie. (The crossing is life.)
-This refers back to that scene with the fire. Life can be tough, sad, happy, fun. But it's life and you need to take it as it is and live it.

So, I highly recommend La traversée, and I would love to know what you have to say about it if you've read it! Have you read any other books by Philippe Labro?



Title: La traversée
Author: Philippe Labro
Date of Publication: 1998
Number of Pages: 286
Genre: Fiction
Source: Personal Copy

These are a few of my favorite French things....

Can't you just hear that song from the Sound of Music playing right now??  To kick off Paris in July, I'm posting a list of some of my favorite French things!  A lot of these photos are actually ones that Twin took when she went to France, because I wasn't smart enough to take photos of a lot of things, like food.

French wine that is sold in the grocery store and is super cheap and super awesome:

Fresh baguette and affordable French cheese:

Cafe Creme:

Bakeries and Pastry Shops:

Things that totally remind me of Emile Zola and the class I took on him:

French money (Euros):



Medieval Architecture:

Some things I don't have photos of:
-Pain au chocolat
-Macarons
-Sitting outside all the time at cafes
-The market
-The language
-The people
-The culture

And the best for last (which my sis and her BF found on a road in southern France......), really awesome tourbus company names:

Welcome to Kelly's France Blog's month-long celebration of Paris in July!!

Review: Rêves amers by Maryse Condé

Rêves amers was my first experience reading Maryse Condé and I really enjoyed it.  This story follows young Rose-Aimée from her little poverty-stricken village in the Haitian countryside to the bustling city of Port-au-Prince, where she must work to provide for her family.  Rose-Aimée's employer is really mean and she ends up running away and finding her friend Lisa.  Together, they devise a plan to ensure that they will never again have endure the harsh realities of what is known in Haiti as "restavek". 

So, this book was pretty short and to the point, but it was by no means lacking.  The story was pretty powerful, but not so complex that you have to be an "adult" to read it.  I think it would actually be a great book for middle-grade kids to read to learn a bit about restavek.  For those of you unfamiliar with restavek, it's aHaitian term for a very common practice: wealthy people basically buy children to work for them in their homes, usually under really harsh conditions.  I have a friend who also just graduated from Buff State with a French degree who did an independent study on restavek, and she said once how upset she always got while reading books about it.  More information on restavek can be found here.  Like I said, this story doesn't have a super horrific restavek story, but it's a good introduction to it. 

Rose-Aimée and her friend Lisa are at once likeable characters.  They are both only 12 or 13 years old and already have to work hard for their families.  They desperately want to make a better life for themselves in a place where hardship is just a part of life.  I wasn't surprised at all when they decided to travel illegally to the United States.  Haiti is such a poor country and the US probably seemed like a fairytale land to these young girls.  They are constantly surrounded by two extremes in Port-au-Prince: the extremely wealthy and the extremely poor, as quoted from page 15 (I've translated from French to English): "Inequality, contrasts=that was Port-au-Prince."  Another quote that really stuck with me is this (page 42, also translated): "Why are some people rich, and others so poor that they must leave their own country to find a means of surviving?  Rose-Aimee had turned this question over in her mind many times, but could not find an answer to it."

The ending of this book was very abrupbt and not at all what I had expected.  Though honestly, did I really expect a fairytale ending??  I didn't even cry even though it was pretty sad because it seemed so normal and everyday for people like Lisa and Rose-Aimée.  I do wish that Condé had gone a little more indepth into the story.  I feel like it could have been a lot more intense if certain things had been elaborated on.  At the same time though, the quick storyline and lack of elaboration makes the story seem more real, like these are real people we are watching trying to escape a country they love but can no longer live in.

Some more favorite quotes (translated from French):
Page 62: "However, the spectacle of all this misery did not discourage Rose-Aimee.  On the contary.  She felt a new will wake inside of her."

Page 73: "Who made the world?  They say it was God.  But why did he not give all creatures the means to savour beauty?  Why do some people only think of eating, of dressing, of surviving, without the power to ever lift their heads to admire the leaves on the trees, the vividness of the flowers, the splendeur of the rivers?"

The original name of this book was Haiti cherie in French and it was orginally published in 1987.  I can't find any information about a translation into English, so I'm assuming there isn't one?  In any case, if the current title were to be translated, it would be Bitter Dreams.


Title: Rêves amers
Author: Maryse Condé
Date of Publication: 2005
Number of Pages: 80
Genre: Fiction
Source: Personal Copy

Review: Molière by Christophe Mory

I had to read this biography of the life of the French playwrite Molière for my Molière class this past semester.  It was very interesting, but not really an actually biography.  As my teacher put it, it's "la biographie mythologique" of Molière.  As in, it highlights the main points in Molière's life, like his childhood and his time writing plays.  But Mory also makes a ton of presumptions about the life of Molière.  You can't read Molière as if it were a textbook, because it's not.  The author puts thoughts and words into Molière's mouth and presumes that all of his plays are inspsired by events in Molière's life.  I'm sure a lot of this is true, but because it's all presumption, you can't believe everything to read in it.

This book was an invaluable source for information on the time period.  If you are interested in Louis XIV, "le roi soleil", this book has a ton of information about his court and about what Molière did for him.  Mory assumes that Louis and Molière were pretty close because of Molière's position as "le tapissier du roi" and also because he had the official "troupe du roi", and I have to say I wouldn't be surprised if they were pretty close.  Louis XIV did after all give Molière's troupe a theatre that they could have for ever and always after the death of their main actor and playwrite. 

The relationships that Molière had with his friends, family, and lovers also play a big role in this biography.  A lot of this information is pretty reliable because of first hand accounts from other members of Molière's troupe, but I'm sure of lot of this was also speculation on Mory's part.  Mory was really good at capturing these people and their personalities, and I got really emotional towards the end when Madeleine (Molière's best friend and past lover, and also the co-founder of his troupe) died, and then again when Molière died exactly one year later. 

What really made this book, and what I think drew my teacher to it and makes it a great book for all Molière scholars to read, is the invaluable information on Molière's plays.  Mory discusses what was going on culturally and politically and in the court of Louis XIV when each play was written.  He writes in detail about how well the plays were each received and about the costumes and stage decorations used for each one.  If you are interested in 1700th century theatre or you are studying Molière, this book is perfect for you to read. 

I read this book in French and I'm not sure if there is an English translation out yet.  This seems to be the #1 book on the life of Molière even though a lot of it is speculation, so I wouldn't be surprised if a translation was available in the future.  (LOL can I please be hired to do the translation?!  I need a big girl job..)

Title: Molière
Author: Christophe Mory
Date of Publication: 2007
Number of Pages: 374
Genre: Nonfiction, Biography
Source: Personal Copy

Review: Les Combustibles by Amelie Nothomb

Les Combustibles by Belgian author Amelie Nothomb asked readers an interesting question.  What would you do if you had to burn all the book in your library to stay warm?  This short book (just 89 pages) follows a professor, his assistant Daniel, and a student Marina as they struggle to survive in a war-torn and poverty stricken country.  It is winter, and the only thing left for them to burn are the books in the university's library.  The professor doesn't want to burn the books, at least not the ones he likes.  Marina on the other hand could care less and wants them all burned as quickly as possible to keep her warm.  Daniel cautions against burning them all at once, since each book will burn within minutes and they'd be without any source of heat for the rest of the winter.  Eventually, they decide to burn one book each evening.  As the days go by, the three characters argue over books and about life. 

I am having the hardest time writing a review of this book, and I think you should all just go out and read it because it's really good and there's no way I can hit everything I would like to discuss in this review.  I wasn't sure at first if I'd like the format of the book.  It's written like a play, just dialog with only some brief "stage directions" sometimes telling you what the character's actions are.  It ended up working out really well for this story.  The whole book is really a long argument amongst the three characters.  And it's all centered around the books and the war.

The professor, as I mentioned above, doesn't want to burn the books.  He says that reading is what gives him warmth, and without books, they won't have anything to occupy their time.  He states, "if we burn the books, then we've truly lost the war."  He struggles with his decision of what to burn and what to keep.  He asks an intriguing question to his fellow housemates in the library- "instead of 'what book would you want on a desert island', you should ask, 'what books do I have no problem burning?'" 

The characters try desperately to keep some sense of their former lives before the war, and part of this involves reading books and discussing them.  The professor constantly stresses how much they need to stick to their usual pre-war routine as much as possible, but Marina is ready to give up and wants to run out and get herself shot dead.  The professor tries reasoning with her, saying, "the war will end someday, and you'll still be living and have to go on with life."  Marina says that's impossible.  How can life just go back to normal after such a horrific war?  I thought about this scene a lot because the professor is so right.  Marina no longer dreams about her future or having children or finishing school.  She can't get passed the war.  But sometimes you need to hold on to your hopes and dreams in order to stay sane and keep going day after day.  As the professor puts it, "C'est la vie, mon enfant."  ("That's life, my child.")

One thing I noted as I read was how as the books dwindled away, the lives of the three characters seemed to get less and less "normal".  By the time they have just a few left, they are all close to giving up.  I couldn't help thinking that it was because the books were almost gone.  Yes, that meant that they would have no source of heat.  But it also meant that they would have no more semblance of the lives they lived before the war.  No more "normal" while stuck in the war.  The books fueled the fire, and their minds. 

I won't give away the ending, but I will say that this was a remarkable book and one that left me thinking for days after reading it.  I'm the kind of person who believes that some form of normalty when faced with a bad situation is a way to keep on coping.  When a loved one passes away, you keep at your normal every-day routine as much as possible, and it keeps you a little bit more sane.  The books to me were a way to keep the characters sane during the harsh realities of war.  I'm once again blown away by Amelie Nothomb, and I can't wait to order another box of French novels later this year, because a few more of hers will definitely be coming home to me!

Title: Les Combustibles
Author: Amelie Nothomb
Date of Publication: 2002
Number of Pages: 89
Genre: Fiction
Source: Personal Copy

In which I begin reading Zola's Aux Bonheurs des dames (Or The Ladies' Delight)

That's right.  I picked up this little treasure (en francais, bien sur) at a book store in NYC when I went with French Club a few months back.  I was super excited to find a Zola book in French.  And it only cost me $2.  Aux Bonheurs des dames is translated in English most often as either The Ladies' Delight or The Ladies' Paradise, which makes sense if you know what the book is about.

I can't wait to dig in.  The premise of the story is basically that there is this huge department store built in a busy location, and the proprietor has everything set out just so so that all the ladies want to come to his shop instead of all the other little boutiques.  I'll be looking at the conflict between the little stores and the big stores, but it looks like there's gonna be a lot more to this book :)  I might keep you updated as I go along.  It depends on either 1) How lazy I am or 2) How engrossed I am in the story.

Wish me luck!  If you want more info on the book and it's plot and the Rougon-Macquarts, you can easily find heeps of info on wikipedia simply by typing in the book's title (and searching with the French title still takes you to the English page).

Review: Les Femmes Savantes by Molière

Les Femmes savantes is a hilarious play that Molière wrote in the last years of his life.  I really want to review it, but I am all Molièred out, so this will probably be a really short review.  I loved this play, possibly even more than I loved Le Tartuffe.  Henriette, the youngest of two girls, wants to marry Clitandre.  Her older sister Armande, who claims to care only for learning and philosophy, basically shoots her down and says it's not going to happen because Clitandre still loves her.  Clitandre does, in fact, want to marry Henriette, and he goes to her father to ask for permission.  Chrysale immediately says yes, but everyone is concerned.  They want him to speak to his wife, Philaminte.  She wears the pants in the family and Chrysale is afraid to go against her.  She wants Henriette to marry her friend Trissotin, who loves bragging about how smart he is.  Throughout the play, the 2 sides are trying to marry off Henriette to the man of their choice before she can marry the other.

The title indicates that there are some smart ladies in the house.  That is true, but it's more making fun of them than praising them.  Philaminte, Armande, and Bélise (Armande's aunt and Chrysale's sister) are the "smart women".  They are very intelligent, but they don't learn because they enjoy learning.  They learn so that they can brag about how smart they are to everyone.  There is a hilarious scene where the cook runs to Chrysale saying that Philaminte wants to fire her.  When Chysale confronts his wife, her reason for wanting the cook gone is that she doesn't speak with proper grammar (and at that time, the French language was just beginning to be codified and grammar/pronunciation rules put into place, so to say that someone isn't using proper grammar is just funny since the "proper" French wasn't wide spread yet).

One of the morals of the story is that learning for the sake of learning is great, but learning just so you can flaunt your intelligence in front of everyone is stupid.  And believe me, it is.  When "les femmes savantes" think they are talking very intelligently, they sound hilarious.

I'm sure this play has taken a lot of flak over the years from people claiming it's anti-women because of it's subject matter and title, but I honestly don't think that Molière was "trying to put women back in their places".  Just because the people in the wrong in this play are women doesn't mean that Molière doesn't want women learning and wants them to only stick to household chores and having babies.  He was very close to the women in his life, and the co-founder of his theatre troupe was a woman.  If you look at the bigger picture, you'll see that the underlying moral of the story can relate to both women and men.

Have you read or seen this play?  If so, what are your opinions of it?

Title: Les Femmes savantes
Author: Molière
Date of Publication: original in 1672, my copy is from the 1990s
Number of Pages: 185 (5 acts)
Genre: play, comedy
Source: Personal Copy

Graduation!!!! Yayyyy!!!!

So I graduated from college on Saturday!!  Yay!  It was kind of embarrassing walking across the stage because there was this huge screen that showed each student as they walked.  But I did fine.  My friend from French was worried the whole time that her cap was going to fall off as she walked across the stage, and then, it did.  And I had to try really hard not to die of laughter as I  walked across the stage.  I would LOVE to know why they even bother to have us put the phonetical spelling of our names for pronunciation purposes if the guy announcing our names doesn't even bother to read them anyway and mispronounces both mine and Twin's last name.  Seriously??  And he was Twin's minor advisor, so he totally knows how to pronounce it.  Oh well.....

It was a rainy day, but it stopped raining just long enough for my mom to take some photos on Buff State's campus.  The first one is of me and Boyfriend (but shhhhhhh!  He might not like that I'm posting a photo of him.  What he doesn't know can't hurt him.  Isn't he adorable?!)

The second one is of me and Twin :)  We don't look very much alike in it because I'm wearing glasses and her heels were way higher than mine.  We were kinda making funny faces because we wanted to hurry up and take the photos because people were trying to walk past us but had to wait until my mom took the photos.

So now I'm a graduate with way too much time on my hands.  I desperately need a big girl job with more than 4 hours a week.  Because that's all I'm working this week and it sucks.

More reviews coming this week!

Review: Le Tartuffe by Molière

Over the next week or so, I'll be posting short reviews of some of what I've been reading for school.  They are mainly novellas, and plus I'm sick of discussing them in class (though I loved them all), so that's why they are "quick" reviews.  Today's review isn't really all that short, but it's much shorter than it could be.

The first play I got to read in my Molière class is Le Tartuffe, sometimes called L'Imposteur (or The Imposter in English).  I have a whole long post planned just on Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, aka Molière, so I'm not going to get in depth into his life right now.  I will say that after Le Tartuffe was first played in 1664 at Louis XIV's "fête des plaisirs de l'île enchantée", it was banned from being played publicly.  This first version contained just 3 acts.  Molière later revised it to the 5 acts we know today.  Why was it banned?  Because of it's subject matter.  Le Tartuffe is about a "faux dévot", or someone who pretends to be very religious and charitable when really she is just greedy and only cares about herself.  The faux dévot in this play is named Tartuffe, and I could do a whole blog post just on the different reasons why Molière may have chosen that as his name, but I won't, because it's really not important.  Tartuffe uses his disguise as a pious man of the Church to get ahead in life.  Molière basically based Tartuffe's character off of many prestigious men who were members of a secret religious society.  Long story short, the vast majority of these people acted charitably and religiously, but only so that they could benefit and get ahead.  Le Tartuffe was finally unbanned in 1669 after Louis XIV finally was able to dismantle the society, and the play became an instand and huge success.

So that was a lot of background dumbed down.  It's hard to talk about the play without the background info, and I hope you thought it to be as interesting as I did :)

I think I mentioned at the start of this semester how I much I HATE reading plays.  I take that back.  I LOVED Le Tartuffe!  It was hilarious.  It is about a man, Orgon, who is blind to the lies that Tartuffe tells him.  He thinks the world of Tartuffe, and Tartuffe knows it.  In fact, Orgon even takes Tartuffe's word over those of his own family members.  Most of Orgon's family and servants can't stand Tartuffe and know he's a fake, but Orgon doesn't listen to them.  He decides to marry off his daughter to Tartuffe and after banishing his son Damis (because Damis tried telling him the truth about Tartuffe), Orgon decides that Tartuffe will become his inheriter.  Orgon's daughter Mariane is devestated because she loves a man named Valère.  However, Mariane refuses to speak up against her father.  So her servant Dorine (my favorite character-she is SO funny) hatches up a plan to make Orgon rethink the marriage.  Tartuffe hits on Elmire, Orgon's wife, and basically says he wants to sleep with her.  Orgon of course doesn't believe what he hears.  His family and servants keep speaking up about the problem.  Will Orgon listen?  What will happyen to Tartuffe?  And will Mariane get to be with Valère, her lover?  All these questions and more are answered with the surprise ending!  But you'll have to read it or see it yourself because I'm not giving anymore away.

So if you can't tell, I definitely recommend Le Tartuffe.  I read it in French, but it's easy to find in English.  I laughed so much my stomach hurt when I read it.  Molière definitely has a way with words, and I can't wait to read the next play for my class, Le Misanthrope.

Molière definitely gets you thinking both during and after reading this play.  One questino in particular that I'm pondering is this: does Molière say anything about speaking up vs. being quiet in Le Tartuffe?  Do those who speak up and tell the truth get out ahead of those who keep their mouths shut?  Or is it the other way around?  It's something to think about, especially because I have a paper due on the topic in a week. 

If you don't love Le Tartuffe for its humor, you'll probably love it for the way Molière creates strong female characters who aren't afraid to speak their minds (and yes, I'm talking to you Dorine!), something that wasn't super common in plays back in the 17th Century.

A fave passage, though it's in French (sorry in advance!):
Page 54: Dorine: "Le soir, elle eut un grand dégout, et ne peut au souper toucher a rien du tout, tant sa douleur de tête était encore cruelle!"
Orgon: "Et Tartuffe?"
Dorine: "It soupa, lui tout seul, devant elle, et fort dévotement il mangea deux perdrix, avec une moitié de gigot en hachis."
Orgon: "Le pauvre homme!"

The scene goes on like that for a while, with Dorine explaining how Orgon's wife was sick while he was away.  Everytime she says something about Elmire, Orgon asks how Tartuffe was.  Dorine responds with something about how he is doing well and eating and drinking a lot and is happy, and Orgon will just be like, "Oh, the poor man!"  Hilarious.  I need to see this play on the stage!

Title: Le Tartuffe
Author: Molière
Date of Publication: Originally 1669 with 5 acts, but my copy was published in 2008 by Flammarion
Number of Pages: 147
Genre: comedy (a play)
Source: Personal Copy

Weekend Reads

The first week of school is finally over.  I both love and hate the first week of a new semester.  You are excited for your new classes, but not very happy to have homework.  This is also my very last semester EVER at Buffalo State College and as an undergrad.  It's exciting!  But also scary..  I do plan I doing grad school, but not until 2012 (if the world still exists, hahaha.  Aren't you sick of people freaking out over the 2012 crap??!).

I'm only taking one French class this semester.  It's the only one being offered that I haven't taken!  And it's on Moliere *gulp*.  Yes people that's right.  I'm spending a whole semester reading PLAYS!  And I hate readidng plays!  But I'm determined to enjoy myself.  In fact, I think me and Monsieur Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (that's his real name) are going to be bestest best friends by the time May rolls around.  The only problem??  So far the "mythological biography" of Moliere written by Christophe Mory is really, really boring.  But so far I'm just on his childhood, and I think once I get to the part where he's, ya know, working as the Roi-Soleil's tapissier, it'll get much more interesting.  I really can't wait for him to go to jail for a month because he can't pay he debts.  It's gonna be good.

So we're reading this 300+ biography of Moliere (which is kinda not all true because the author makes a lot of assumptions of his life..), plus 3 plays.  I can't remember their names right now though.

I'm also taking a German literature in translation course.  I like it a lot so far.  I wish I could read in German, but I'm not at that level yet.  I definitely feel like I'm missing something by reading the translations though.  My teacher gives us a few pages each class of the German version and I always feel like the English is leaving something out..  It switches paragraphs around and whatnot.  Someday I'll be reading in Deutsch though, so it's all good.  We're reading Death in Venice by Thomas Mann right now, and then one or two of his other short stories.  Then we're reading some Hesse, Brecht, and I can't remember the last person.

Oh and I'm also taking a fun Criminal Law course which I love.  It's like right out of Law and Order.  So I'm totally in my element ;)

Hope you all had a great weekend!  I'm off to finish up my homework!

Review: Biographie de la faim by Amelie Nothomb

Can I just say, isn't that a beautiful cover?!  It's partly what drew me to this book.  Well, actually, it is what drew me to it!  I bought it and had it shipped from France without even knowing what the book was about.  I'm SO glad I took the chance!

Biographie de la faim (literally meaning Biographie of Hunger, but translated as The Life of Hunger) was my first experience with Amelie Nothomb.  A Belgian author who spent her childhood abroad in places like Japan, China, New York City, and Bangladesh, Nothomb is a "cult favorite" and has fans pretty much world wide.  Her parents were Belgian diplomats, which explains her childhood spent living in different cities.  Biographie de la faim is an autobiographical novel detailing her childhood living in hunger.  This isn't necessarily a hunger for food, but a hunger for more.  Nothomb was born in Japan, and after leaving it, has a hunger for the place she thinks of as her home.  The book chronicals her childhood and the things she longed for and had a hunger for.

I cannot really explain just how much I love this book.  It is filled with dark humor.  I really loved Nothomb's sections about her early childhood.  The portrait she paints of herself as a little girl is both priceless and hilarious.  There are also parts that are a bit more intense and serious, like the eating disorder she had as a teenager. 

I was sucked in right from the beginning of this book.  Nothomb begins this novel talking about hunger.  She talks about two different groups of people: those who never have to worry about food and hunger, and those who do.  She uses a tropical island plentiful with food and plants as an example of a group of people who never have to worry or even work for their food.  It was very interesting to read, and a great introduction to the rest of the novel about her own hunger. 

Nothomb talks about her own hunger throughout the book.  She says on page 19, "La faim, c'est moi."  Basically "I am hunger" or "hunger is me."  She says she has more than just a hunger for food, but a hunger for more.  And I especially appreciated the parts where she mentioned Arthur Rimbaud, my favorite French poet :) 

Sorry if this review is really repetitve.  I just adored this book so much that it's hard to write a really in depth review of it.  I'm so glad I have another Nothomb novel waiting for me on my shelf.  I have high expectations for it, and if it's anything like Biographie de la faim, I know I won't be disappointed.

If you read in French, read this!  If you read in English, you can find it on Amazon by searching "Amelie Nothomb Life of Hunger".  Have you read anything by Nothomb?

For more information on the author and this book, here is a fascinating article/interview I recently found.

Title: Biographie de la faim (The Life of Hunger)
Author: Amelie Nothomb
Date of Publication: 2004 (English I think is 2007)
Number of Pages: 190
Genre: Autobiographical Novel
Source: Personal Copy ordered from Fnac.com

When Life Gets in the Way

I know, I know.  I haven't been around in ages.  I've been so busy with school stuff that I had literally NO blogging or reading time these last few weeks.  I was miserable.  And writing two very long term papers that included lots of research of things I'm really not interested in.  Unless you count the paper on ghost stories.  That would have been fun if the articles I wanted to use for it had actually existed in the library databases!!  But no..

Now that the bulk of my end of semester work is done, I will be blogging and reading like usual.  I have the rest of this week off for Thanksgiving (thank you!!) and then just two weeks of class, and then one week of exams. 

Even though I haven't gotten any reading done, quite a few new books have come into my possession:

They are all from France, and they shipped soooo much faster than I was expecting!  I'm so happy to have them all :)  I'll post what they are about as I read them!  Isn't the little "birdie" on the Alzabane cover so cute??!

I also got a book called The Anatomy of Ghosts in the mail from the publisher, and it looks amazing.  I cannot wait to start reading it!

You have no idea how happy I am to be back here.  I felt like I was being taken over by schoolwork, and blogging is what usually keeps me somewhat sane when life gets stressful!  

Happy Thanksgiving to all you Americans out there!

Oh just a P.S. to my Halloween giveaway winners-your books will be mailed out this week.  My local bookstore didn't have them in stock and had to order them for me, and I'm going to pick them up from the store today :)

Hop + Guest Post at The Book on the Hill!

It's finally Friday again!  I can't wait to get through my 2 classes today, go to work and clean as fast as possible, and come home to my cozy house and read.  I have a cold and I'm not really feeling good at all.  Hope you all feel much better than me :)

Before answering this week's Hop question, I wanted to let you all know that my very first guest post (ever!) will be up this weekend at The Book on the Hill!  I wrote about my relationship with the French language, and I think you should all check it out, and check out the rest of Charlotte's blog too, because it's awesome!  If anyone else is interested in doing a "French Friday" guest post for Charlotte, there is info on her blog.  She's also looking for more bloggers for her Book Blogging Around the World feature, so check that out as well.

This week's Hop question is:
How do you spread the word about your blog?

My answer:
I've tried a few things, but my favorite way to get new followers is just to comment on other blogs.  I love checking out new blogs, but I also love commenting on blogs I've been following for a long time.  If I had the time, I would comment a ton every single day.  Unfortunately my schedule doesn't allow me to do so, but I still try.  The Hop is a great way to find new blogs.  I don't have an account at the Book Blog Ning, but I do browse there on occasion and find some great blogs through that aswell.  I have a Twitter account, but I do not understand Twitter at all, so I'm still kind of figuring out how that whole thing works. 

I can't wait to get home this evening and read what everyone else has to say for this week's question!

French Book Wishlist Part 1

Here begins what I hope to be a weekly or biweekly feature on my blog, that is: French books that I really want to read and might even pay a lot of money to have them shipped to me in the USA!  I do plan on ordering at least a handful at the end of the year sometime.  Shipping will probably kill my wallet though..  Just a heads up, the little plot summaries I have with each book are not exact translations.  I just skimmed what they are about and put whatever caught my attention into my own words.

1. Les nuits de froides by Olivier Vigna

Okay I'm a bit brain dead this morning so pardon my uninterest in translating this book blurb right now. It's about 2 men, one in New York and one in Paris. I've read on a few French sites that the writing style of this book is really exquisite. It better be, because it's expensive but I still want this book! Basically I'm super excited and hope I can afford to have it shipped to the states. Otherwise the twin sis in France is bringing me home a copy! Do you hear me Heather?!

2. Alzabane l’oiseau de la lune by Jean-Sébastien Blanck

According to a little blurb I read on another blog, this book is about a bird and it's journey through the primitive world. The world is only a ball of gas inhabited by many beautiful birds. Alzabane, the bird, flies to the moon and becomes "the bird of the moon". He encounters other creatures and has quite an adventure. That sums it up I think. I could go to amazon.fr for a longer, more thorough synopsis, but I also don't feel like translating, LOL.

3. En attendant la montée des eaux by Maryse Condé

The first thing that drew me to this book was the cover. It looks like a beautiful watercolor painting that's kind of blurry, and there's the grass and the house. I heart covers like this. Plus, there's an Anais, and ever since reading Gouverneurs de la rosee, I've loved that name. At a quick glance, looks like the book takes place in Gaudeloupe and at least one of the characters is actually Haitian and in exile in Gaudeloupe. My kind of book.

Review: Gouverneurs de la rosée by Jacques Roumain

Gouverneurs de la rosée (or Masters of the Dew in English) is a beautiful and haunting story about life in a small village in Haiti.  It is a story about Manuel and his family.  It's a story about his love for beautiful Annaïse.  And most of all, it's a story of his small town's struggle to survive through hard and desperate times.  Written in 1944 by Haitian-French writer Jacques Roumain, this novel brings the reader straight into poverty-stricken Haiti.  Here's a photo of Roumain:

I read this book a few years ago for a class I took at Buff State on Haitian-French literature.  I plan on reading it again soon.  If anyone else wants to read it too, maybe we could do a read-a-long.  The book can be found in English too (as Masters of the Dew).  It's easiest to find (in both French and English) through Amazon Canada.

This is one of those books that changed my life and changed the way I think about foreign literature.  It also opened my eyes to Haiti.  Before reading this book in class, we spent half a semester just learning about the history of Haiti!  We learned about the natives that used to live there, about the first colonists, the Haitian revolution and Toussant L'Ouverture, and what led to the poverty of Haiti found in this novel.  At first this book can seem a little bit frustrating because Roumain uses many Haitian words in the dialogue that are not in French dictionaries.  My teacher was awesome and gave us a list of some of the most common ones used, along with a list of the native plants that are often referred to throughout the story.

Religion plays a big role in this novel too, and there are some scenes of vodou ceremonies.  Because of this, my teacher gave us a week's lesson on the basics of Haitian vodou and how it's intertwined with Christianity.  If you don't know anything about this topic, the ceremonies and prayers in this book could be confusing.

I say all of this because if anyone decides they want to read the book, I'll willing to do the read-a-long to help peeps out.  Of if you want to brave it on your own, let me know if you want some of the resources my professor gave me.

I can promise that you won't regret reading Gouverneurs de la rosée (Masters of the Dew).  It is filled with so much beautiful imagery and there's symbolism in nature, in the colors Roumain uses to describe settings, everything.  There is also the beautiful connection and love between Manuel and his family.  This novel is a tearjerker and a masterpiece, and it deserves to be more well-known in the United States.

Title: Gouverneurs de la rosée
Author: Jacques Roumain
Date of Publication: 1944
Number of Pages: 245
Genre: Fiction
Source: personal copy