Prix Goncourt

Stewart

Stewart

Administrator
Staff member
The longlist for the Prix Goncourt 2008:

  • Une ?ducation libertine, Jean-Baptiste Del Amo
  • Le silence de Mahomet, Salim Bachi
  • Le r?ve de Machiavel, Christophe Bataille
  • C'?tait notre terre, Mathieu Belezi
  • L? ou les tigres sont chez eux, Jean-Marie Blas de Robl?s
  • Un brillant avenir, Catherine Cusset
  • O? on va papa?, Jean-Louis Fournier
  • Qui touche ? mon corps je le tue, Valentine Goby
  • Une Nuit a Pompei, Jaubert Alain
  • La beaut? du monde, Michel Le Bris
  • Jour de souffrance, Catherine Millet
  • La travers?e du Mozambique par temps calme, Patrice Pluyette
  • Syngu? Sabour: La pierre de patience, Atiq Rahimi
  • Un chasseur de lions, Olivier Rolin
  • La domination, Karine Tuil
 
Stewart

Stewart

Administrator
Staff member
Re: Prix Goncourt 2008

If we were to take bets on which ones we would be likely to see in translation, I would have to go with the two Rs, Rolin and Rahimi. Dalkey Archive have recently put out Rolin's Hotel Crystal and Rahimi, making the leap to writing in French, has two previous books, Earth And Ashes and A Thousand Rooms Of Dream And Fear, translated from Dari. Millet, too, I suppose. Have never heard of the rest.
 
F

fausto

Reader
Re: Prix Goncourt 2008

Catherine Millet's first book was translated in 2003 ("The sexual life of Catherine M.").Title says it all. Everything you don't want to know about orgies, gang-bangs, casual encounters with unkown men that Millet had over 30 years. She is the editor of hig-brow contemporary art publication Art Press. Her book was a huge bestseller. Her new one is a sort of follow-up called "Days of suffering". She talks about jealousy and perhaps surprisingly not about her hsuband's jealousy but about the jealousy she herself feels in regards to her husband.
I've heard very good things about Blas de Robl?s' book. He worked for ten years on it and it's meant to be a very entertaining book of adventure, very erudite and well written. Friends recently described it as great fun, but a mixture of superbly written passages and sloppy dialogues.
The Goncourt is a rather bad award though. Very famous, but most of the time it's awarded to poor books.
 
Mirabell

Mirabell

Former Member
Re: Prix Goncourt 2008

fausto said:
I've heard very good things about Blas de Robl?s' book. He worked for ten years on it and it's meant to be a very entertaining book of adventure, very erudite and well written. Friends recently described it as great fun, but a mixture of superbly written passages and sloppy dialogues.
Click to expand...

These days I'm very happy not to own a credit card and thus having no access at all to these books.
 
Stewart

Stewart

Administrator
Staff member
Re: Prix Goncourt 2008

Stewart said:
The longlist for the Prix Goncourt 2008:

  • Une ?ducation libertine, Jean-Baptiste Del Amo
  • Le silence de Mahomet, Salim Bachi
  • Le r?ve de Machiavel, Christophe Bataille
  • C'?tait notre terre, Mathieu Belezi
  • L? ou les tigres sont chez eux, Jean-Marie Blas de Robl?s
  • Un brillant avenir, Catherine Cusset
  • O? on va papa?, Jean-Louis Fournier
  • Qui touche ? mon corps je le tue, Valentine Goby
  • Une Nuit a Pompei, Jaubert Alain
  • La beaut? du monde, Michel Le Bris
  • Jour de souffrance, Catherine Millet
  • La travers?e du Mozambique par temps calme, Patrice Pluyette
  • Syngu? Sabour: La pierre de patience, Atiq Rahimi
  • Un chasseur de lions, Olivier Rolin
  • La domination, Karine Tuil
Click to expand...

The list has been whittled down to the following:

  • Une ?ducation libertine, Jean-Baptiste Del Amo
  • Le r?ve de Machiavel, Christophe Bataille
  • L? ou les tigres sont chez eux, Jean-Marie Blas de Robl?s
  • Un brillant avenir, Catherine Cusset
  • O? on va papa?, Jean-Louis Fournier
  • Une Nuit a Pompei, Alain Jaubert
  • La beaut? du monde, Michel Le Bris
  • Syngu? Sabour: La pierre de patience, Atiq Rahimi
  • Un chasseur de lions, Olivier Rolin
 
Stewart

Stewart

Administrator
Staff member
Re: Prix Goncourt 2008

I was just thinking that the Prix Goncourt was due any time soon and was going to add it to the forum's calendar. So, as I went to look for the date, it turns it it was awarded today.

The winner is Syngu? Sabour: La pierre de patience, Atiq Rahimi

Le Monde
Bloomberg
International Herald Tribune
 
saliotthomas

saliotthomas

Reader
Re: Prix Goncourt 2008

And is shall read it for instead of the consensus in snobing the goncourt as a convencional price,it has rewarded some of my favorite writers in last 20 years.Notably,Andrei Makine,Amin Maalouf,patrick Rambaud,....and not ones like Houlbec,nothomb,Millet.
 
saliotthomas

saliotthomas

Reader
Re: Prix Goncourt 2008

lionel said:
Thomas, what exactly do you have against these writers? Is it their writing itself, or something to do with their popularity, or their beliefs?
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I don't mind popular writers,i love when a good authors reach a big audience.But those have a popularity based on there sufurus natures and the taste the journaliste have for self proclaims uncomformist.Less Nothomb whom i find more of a writer with a trade and a trick,more of quality that the two others.
I could add Henry Levy to those two pseudo.
The are popular unpopular writers.Fred Vargas is a popular writer for poeple read her books.The other ones generate more talk about themselves than a real interest for their writing.
 
saliotthomas

saliotthomas

Reader
It was a while ago but i think nobody mention it ??!!

Three Powerful Women, by French-Senegalese author Marie NDiaye

After Obama, the French go further and choose a black woman for the price.

I never heard of her but i shall try to get it, not belonging to the forked tongues who love bitching about the Goncourt.
I actually quite like their choices in general.

And there is an article
Black woman wins Prix Goncourt for the first time | Books | guardian.co.uk

and another
Marie Ndiaye wins the Prix Goncourt for Trois femmes puissantes | People in the News | People | The First Post

She seem very happy which is a blessing among the pintched assed intellectual.
 
lionel

lionel

Reader
Re: Prix Goncourt 2009

Good of you to post this, Thomas. Why, indeed, did no one mention the lovely Marie DNiaye, political exile (sort of)? For those who read French, there's some fascinating stuff here about the stink she - or rather the stink the total asshole Eric Raoult - tried to create around the Goncourt and Marie NDiaye's political frankness:

Marie NDiaye en appelle ? Mitterrand... et ?maintient ses propos apr?s le texte grotesque d'Eric Raoult? - Entretien exclusif avec le prix Goncourt 2009
 
Corswandt

Corswandt

FAFO
Here's the premi?re s?lection:

Olivier Adam - Le coeur r?gulier
Vassilis Alexakis - Le premier mot
T. Beinstingel - Retour aux mots sauvages
Vincent Borel - Antoine et Isabelle S.
Virginie Despentes - Apocalypse b?b?
Marc Dugain - L'insomnie des ?toiles
Mathias Enard - Parle-leur de batailles, de rois et d'?l?phants
Michel Houellebecq - La carte et le territoire
Maylis de Kerangal - Naissance d’un pont
Patrick Lapeyre - La vie est br?ve et le d?sir sans fin
Fouad Laroui - Une ann?e chez les Fran?ais
Am?lie Nothomb - Une forme de vie
Chantal Thomas - Le testament d'Olympe
Karine Tuil - Six mois , six jours

Houellebecq and Nothomb - France's two biggest literary celebrities battling it out for The Big One!1!1!!1!

At least until next Tuesday, when the deuxi?me s?lection is due to take place. We'll see who gets the axe then.

I can't help but being a Houellebecq apologist, even though I feel like I shouldn't, as you will soon see in other threads.

As for Nothomb, she may be the ugliest woman in Christendom, and her books twee trifles, but I wouldn't mind her winning. I actually like her books, and as the most recent ones weren't translated to Portuguese, winning this prize might make the local publishers consider giving her a second chance.

Virginie Despentes directed a pr0n film a few years back. I had never heard of any of the others before. Which for myself is a qualified improvement re: last year's list, in which I had never heard of anyone.
 
lionel

lionel

Reader
Re: Goncourt 2010

Corswandt said:
Here's the premi?re s?lection:

Olivier Adam - Le coeur r?gulier
Vassilis Alexakis - Le premier mot
T. Beinstingel - Retour aux mots sauvages
Vincent Borel - Antoine et Isabelle S.
Virginie Despentes - Apocalypse b?b?
Marc Dugain - L'insomnie des ?toiles
Mathias Enard - Parle-leur de batailles, de rois et d'?l?phants
Michel Houellebecq - La carte et le territoire
Maylis de Kerangal - Naissance d’un pont
Patrick Lapeyre - La vie est br?ve et le d?sir sans fin
Fouad Laroui - Une ann?e chez les Fran?ais
Am?lie Nothomb - Une forme de vie
Chantal Thomas - Le testament d'Olympe
Karine Tuil - Six mois , six jours
Click to expand...

Actually, I posted this longlist twice here before, but it's still good to see it in a thread of its own.

Corswandt said:
Houellebecq and Nothomb - France's two biggest literary celebrities battling it out for The Big One!1!1!!1!
Click to expand...

Er, well not quite: Nothomb is Belgian.

Corswandt said:
I can't help but being a Houellebecq apologist, even though I feel like I shouldn't, as you will soon see in other threads.
Click to expand...

Houellebecq's fine for me, although my heart's with Maylis de Kerangal.

Corswandt said:
As for Nothomb, she may be the ugliest woman in Christendom,
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That's a horrible thing to say, and very, er, politically incorrect. Also very incorrect in itself: she just has a penchant for stupid hats!

Corswandt said:
and her books twee trifles,
Click to expand...

Not at all: far more people are writing far worse.

Corswandt said:
but I wouldn't mind her winning. I actually like her books, and as the most recent ones weren't translated to Portuguese, winning this prize might make the local publishers consider giving her a second chance.
Click to expand...

I don't like translation in general anyway. I'm reading Darrieussecq in the originals at the moment, but I've read some reviews of her English translations, and oh dear! Translation is a major problem that is hardly ever addressed.

Corswandt said:
Virginie Despentes directed a pr0n film a few years back.
Click to expand...

Virginie Despentes is an important French writer, and shouldn't be inferiorized for her past (not that I'm sugggesting you are doing so).

Enard is so interesting, though, in spite of this comparatively short publication.

BLOG
 
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E

Eric

Former Member
Re: Goncourt 2010

I agree more with Liam than with other comments regarding the appearance of Am?lie Nothomb. For me she has a slightly spinsterish, slightly virginal Ausstrahlung, and a hat fetish, rather similar to that of the English actress Helena Bonham-Carter. But Nothomb is not ugly. Nor do I think her novels twee trifles. So, rather like Corswandt, I very much liked one of her novels, which I read in Dutch translation. I liked the succinct wackiness of what I read. Nothomb has a good sense of humour. And humour is one of the most difficult things to transport internationally. I shall certainly be reading more Nothomb, and Toussaint, and other Belgian novelists that conveniently become "French" when they're successful, and "bloody Belgians" when they're not.
 
Corswandt

Corswandt

FAFO
Re: Goncourt 2010

Eric said:
Nor do I think her [Nothomb's] novels twee trifles. So, rather like Corswandt, I very much liked one of her novels, which I read in Dutch translation. I liked the succinct wackiness of what I read. Nothomb has a good sense of humour.
Click to expand...

I was being defensive as I didn't feel entirely comfortable as to owning up to liking her stuff (and in the end got pwned just the same).

Her novel(las) are very well written, and that breezy elegance of style she does so well and makes her books so pleasant to read is no mean achievement.
 
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