French Literature

[Stewart]

French literature has a fine heritage and continues, from my observations, to be one of those languages from which a larger part of translations to English come from. Possibly because of how close France is to the United Kingdom (and French speaking Canada to the US); but more so likely because French is one of those languages we, at least in the UK, learn in school and therefore there's more French speakers, meaning more potential translators (or is that too simplisitic a notion?).

And, of course, French isn't just limited to France as there's the Francophone literature coming from surrounding nations of Belgium and Switzerland, as well as some African nations and the aforementioned Canada. But I want to keep this thread specifically to literature from France. Other countries can have their own threads.

Personally I've not read any of the French classics - Flaubert, for example - but find I have read more contemporary French literature; names like Florian Zeller, Albert Camus, Michel Houellebecq. And I have Jean Echenoz's Piano climbing its way to the top of my reading pile.

So, recommendations, loves and hates of French literature: what are yours?

 

[saliotthomas]

First of all i hate the guts of Michel Houellebecq.He actully live in Irland for a taxe related raison.The guy is an ponpous jerk,and so are is books.An attitude.
The list of french modern writer would start with Louis Ferdinand Celine,who unfortunatly is compared sometime to "the jerk" but who got far more depth,and who's misantropie is only apparent(the man was a doctor in poor district) Andr? Gide is another interesting one.Romain gary aka Emile Ajar.The reporters Joseph Kessel,blaise Cendras.I never liked Saint Exupery but it is a matter of personne.
I would also recommend Le Cleziot for is wonderfull prose.(pure pearl)
Michel Tournier is though a great writer but also admiting his talent,i never got into it.Francoise Sagan did interesting things.
Fred Vargas is a very good crime writer as well as a woman of caracter(try it is you can Pontalba)
For the amateur of Historical fiction Maurice Druon as serie call the Dommed Kings very good indeed.

 

[Stewart]

First of all i hate the guts of Michel Houellebecq.He actully live in Irland for a taxe related raison.The guy is an ponpous jerk,and so are is books.An attitude.

That may be so - and let's face it, is - but I don't think the author's personality should matter so much when dealing with his work. That said, the only of his I read was Atomised (The Elementary Particles in the US) and it did little for me. The endless sex obviously had some meaning, but it was dull. But I'm never one to give up on an author based on a single book.

As an aside, there's a character in Florian Zeller's The Fascination Of Evil that is obviously based on Houellebecq, particuarly for his Islamic ignorance, echoing the furure surrounding Platform.

Francoise Sagan did interesting things.

I've read Bonjour Tristesse but I don't think much else by her is available. I know Bonjour Tristesse is being relaunched at some point this year as a Penguin Modern Classic, bundled with another novella. But most of her other works that I've seen (usually on eBay) are dogeared old copies from the seventies and eighties.

 

[Bjorn]

IIRC, Houllebecq had a pretty public brawl with the Cameroonian/French writer Calixthe Beyala a while back regarding his, ahem, less critical portrayal of sex tourism. Having read one book by each of them (Atomized and The Trees Talk Of It Still), I'm inclined to want to award Beyala the win based on her literary qualities alone. Looks like she hasn't been translated much into English, unfortunately.

It's funny; while there are French writers whom I really admire - Perec, for instance, or lately Flaubert - I keep thinking I have a problem with French literature. Maybe it's just that I've read some authors - Delerm, Houllebecq, Darrieussecq - that left me pretty cold. I've got both Zola, Camus and another Celine waiting for me, but it would be nice to get some tips of contemporary French writers too.

 

[saliotthomas]

You might want to try The immoraliste by And? Gide,from what little i know of your taste,you might like it.
Also in the French side track J M Le Clezio "The round and other cold hard fact" is interesting.
Romain Gary "the roots of haven" should defenetly be on your list.

Those are not on my more cheap list,they are real writers,no entertainer.

 

[saliotthomas]

Now Beer Good,I got a good one for you(maybe you know him already)it's Boris Vian.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Vian

and here http://www.tamtambooks.com/vian.html

here what Tosh says on Goodread

"It's kind of creepy to push one's book to the general public, but then again I just paid for it, I didn't write it! Somehow in English Vian slipped into the spaces of time. Whenever the names Camus or Sartre is mentioned, so should Vian's. He's not only a major writer, but also the key as well as the lock with respect to cool culture of Paris circ. 1947 to his death in 1959. A friend to the greats, who often said he was a great as well - plus a fantastic personality to hang out with"

The hearsnatcher is a great one
I pasted that from Amazon

The last novel Vian completed before his death in 1959, this whimsical, absurdist sendup of human foible takes place in a village where old people are auctioned off like slaves, villagers stone the vicar to produce rain and stallions are crucified for "falling into sin." The novel opens with willful Clementine deep in the throes of labor and furious about it. With her husband, Angel, locked in his room (from the outside), Clementine is rescued by Timortis, a traveling psychoanalyst, who helps her deliver triplets. Timortis befriends the browbeaten Angel (Clementine vows never to have sex with him again) and decides to stay on at the house. As a stranger to the country, he provides a window onto its bizarre customs-it is possible to pay someone to take on another person's shame, for example-even as he trolls the village looking for people to psychoanalyze. As the "heartsnatcher" of the title, Timortis has no feelings or desires of his own and embarks on a futile, hysterical quest for patients so he can "steal their feelings." His sole subject is a maid who thinks psychoanalysis is a euphemism for sex; she's happy to take off her clothes, but she refuses to talk about her feelings. The episodic, meandering narrative wanders from incident to incident, until Angel leaves Clementine, and she takes up child-rearing with unbridled abandon. Vian's sharp, playful humor makes for an entertaining read, although there are extended flat stretches. While the allegorical conceits may be something of an acquired taste, Vian's prose is surprisingly accessible, and his fascinating take on the strange logic of human cruelty and inconsistency makes this a worthwhile read.

Also I spit on your grave

pasted too
The story follows an African American man -who can pass as white- as he infiltrates the racist high society of a small town to gain revenge over the lynching of his youngest brother. It's a pretty ugly story and even now lives up to its controversy. Reminded me of Jim Thompon's THE KILLER INSIDE...but much darker

and a beautifull title Foam of the Daze
even more in French" l'ecume des jours"

I read it a long time ago but it's really worth a try.

 

[pontalba]

Fred Vargas is a very good crime writer as well as a woman of caracter(try it is you can Pontalba)

Thanks Thomas, I've seen his books before, especially Have Mercy On Us All, and passed it up because I was unsure of him, I'm ordering that one now.

 

[Stewart]

Thanks Thomas, I've seen his books before, especially Have Mercy On Us All, and passed it up because I was unsure of him, I'm ordering that one now.

pontalba, just for your information. He is a she. Fred is short for Fr?d?rique.

 

[pontalba]

pontalba, just for your information. He is a she.

Ahhh, thanks. Even better.

 

[saliotthomas]

You are welcome Pontalba,i love your new avatar.It look like a drawing of Boucher.

 

[pontalba]

You are welcome Pontalba,i love your new avatar.It look like a drawing of Boucher.

Thanks, I don't know the artist, but it drew me.

 

[nnyhav]

There are three strands in literature I've been following / filling in which are predominantly but not exclusively French: surrealism, the nouveau roman, and Oulipo, all of which seem to emanate from Raymond Roussel.

pontalba, re the Nabokov quote in your sig: I try to reread the first time through

 

[ions]

I haven't read many French authors. A handful of French Canadians for school I guess. Camus I found horrible, just a poor understanding of the psyche. I've only read one Houellebecq, The Elementary Particles, and I enjoyed it. If I'm craving misanthropy he'd be my author of choice. And occasionally that is something I crave. Of course there are a pile of French books on the list of to read but what I would really like to do is learn French and read them untranslated. I have a bit of French but not enough to get by yet. One day.

 

[Stewart]

Camus I found horrible, just a poor understanding of the psyche.

I read The Outsider (or The Stranger, as it's sometimes called) a few year back and I think I was more so what? than the main character. I wonder if it's one of those books, like The Catcher In The Rye is supposed to be, where it's impact has got to get you at a certain impressionable age. (And for the record, I've not read The Catcher In The Rye either, so my time has gone.)

I've only read one Houellebecq, The Elementary Particles, and I enjoyed it.

Ah, tha's the one I hated (Atomised in the UK) although I would still like to see the film adaptation.

There are three strands in literature I've been following / filling in which are predominantly but not exclusively French: surrealism, the nouveau roman, and Oulipo, all of which seem to emanate from Raymond Roussel.

I don't know much (read: anything) about Roussel but I have a passing knowledge of the movements. By name, at least. Oulipo is the one that interests me most, and I'm looking forward, when the mood finally takes me, to sit down and enjoy Perec's A Void, especially being a fan of the translator's novels.

One novel I did read recently, published a few years back, was Lobster by Guillaume Lecasble. I'm going to give it it's own thread once I've gathered my thoughts fully on it, but it was one of the strangest little things I've read, being halfway a love story between a women and a lobster who come together, only to be cruelly parted, on the Titanic. Madness!

 

[saliotthomas]

Camus is certainly not an "early age" book,as for the bad psyche understanding,well....If you like Houellebecq it sort of make sense.

Roussel is mostly novels in verses,i always wonder at the translation of poetry and I would love to hear a transator view on this.
It is a bit the same with Marcel Proust whom i would find very hard to read in English,as i would Jane Austen in French.

None of you ever heard of Andr? Gide the Immoralist?

 

[ions]

I agree with Stewart, I think Camus is an early age book. When you're at the age where you can relate to the angst and nihilism more closely. Like Catcher. The Camus I read was also The Outside and can relate to the so what? criticism. I found nothing especially redeeming in the writing either but that could be a translation issue. Dunno. John Barth's The End of the Road is a far better telling of nihilism and misanthropy. And very well written.

Why would liking Houllebecq be related to me not liking Camus? I'm not positive but I think Houellebecq lists Camus as an influence.

 

[saliotthomas]

.Why would liking Houllebecq be related to me not liking Camus? I'm not positive but I think Houellebecq lists Camus as an influence.

For a simple raison of taste,i hate the guts of Houllebecq,whom as a fellow Frenchman i find a man of attitude,in the personne as well as in the work.On the contrary i love and respect Camus as a great author and man.I not suprise by Houllebecq claming a relation,is very good at that.

I do not consider the Outsider a work of nihilisme or misanthropy,the man does not hate or deny human race,he just does not belong.It is more science fiction or possession.If you like Mysanthropy and real writing Celine is the man and the trip at the end of the night the book.
Houllebecq is an artifice to be forggoten in the nest 20 years.

 

[nnyhav]

[...]
Roussel is mostly novels in verses,i always wonder at the translation of poetry and I would love to hear a transator view on this.
[...]

Not really mostly:
"Roussel's work can be divided with almost ludicrous facility into four periods, each quite different from the others. The first two books consist entirely of rhymed photographic descriptions of people and objects; the next two are novels [Impressions of Africa, Locus Solus] in which description again dominates, but here the things described are fantastic scenes or inventions; the two plays which follow are merely collections of anecdotes which the characters recount to each other. The last work published in his lifetime is the intricate poem Nouvelles Impressions d'Afrique, whose complex arrangements of parenthetical thoughts prefigure the stories-within-stories of the last, incomplete novel, entitled Documents pour servir de Canevas."
-- Joh Ashbery, introduction to How I Wrote Certain of my Books (which excerpts much of the above-mentioned as well)

 

[saliotthomas]

Thank you Nnyhav,I Shall be very interested on the book about Africa.

 

[nnyhav]

saliotthomas -- Be aware that the Africa of both Roussel's Impressions and New Impressions reside more in his imagination than in any basis in fact.