"La Vraie vie"

ADELINE DIEUDONNÉ "LA VRAIE VIE"

Honestly, the term of the genre that characterizes this novel is not easy for me. On the one hand, the book is embedded in the realities of reality and seems to be moral, but at the same time you can not ignore the whole of its climate, which surrounds magic and some extraordinary character, which gives it the characteristics of a fantastic novel. Nevertheless, I would not call it a fantastic novel, because the "magic" that I am talking about is not intrusive and dominant - we do not have dragons, flying fairies, elves and a completely different reality. What's more, because we are dealing with a first-person narrative, and our narrator is a little girl endowed with unusual imagination, it is difficult to estimate how presented the world corresponds to real events around her, and how much is the product of her lush fantasy. When I was wondering how to call such a kind of novel, I remembered that I had read about magical reality once. Refreshing myself what magical realism stands out, I am willing to risk and say that perhaps this word reflects the genre with which we are dealing. It also speaks for the fact that Dieudonné is a Belgian, and Belgian literature is a large fantasy heritage, dividing into various interesting subgenres.

I am certainly inclined to call La vraie vie an initiation novel. The heroine undergoes a huge change. The reader begins the novel from the relationship of a small, carefree girl, and ends up reading with a picture of a young, but still much more mature girl. It is worth noting that our narrator is mature from the first pages, but it gets stronger with each side.

"Quand Dieu boxait en amateur" GUY BOLEY

"Quand Dieu boxait en amateur" GUY BOLEY

The book at the very beginning made me quite negative about it: I personally do not like the first-person narrative, which we find from the first sentences. To my surprise, we quickly forget about it, because the work focuses on the narrator's memories. He tells the story of his father, his way through life. We start from the end of my father's life: from his death, illness. Later, however, the story goes on chronologically: from the youngest years, through interest in the title box, to the end of the main character's days.

An interesting theme are reflections on the role of the Church: the best friend René (the father of the narrator) becomes a priest and as a theater enthusiast tries to enrich the parish with a noteworthy theater art. However, there is a clash with the conservative pastor, who for years has been presenting the same during the parish festival and considers it the only thing clean and worthy of a beautiful church.

Anyway, the father becomes a boxer, which causes his closest fears: despite his achievements in amateur battles, i.e. the French championship, he feels that he is becoming too old for an amateur play, and he is not fit for work in this profession. The chance to dispel doubts and find a good way is given to him by his friend, who offers him the role of Jesus in the Passion, which he intends to exhibit in the parish. There are new ambitions of the main character.

The song is written in an interesting language, exceptionally rich (especially thanks to René's love of writing unknown words from Larousse), containing a dose of quite specific sense of humor, but he has, however, amused the "L'église Saint-Martin des Chaprais est assez laide" several times: il est préférable d'avoir la foi avant d'y entrer. " I am not sure if this is a book worth distinction, but everything will turn out to be read in comparison with other works. Regarding the reasons for doubts, I think that an important aspect when choosing a book worth winning in our competition is always the value for the Polish reader (as the books are translated into Polish) and the subject matter. This novel may actually be a tribute to the father of the narrator (and perhaps even the author, since it is probably autobiographical), but I do not see any exceptional values ​​that she could convey to the Polish audience.

« HÔTEL WALDHEIM » FRANÇOIS VALLEJO

«Hôtel Waldheim» is a moral novel with political elements, written in the first-person narrative and embedded in the realities of today, as well as in the 70's of the twentieth century. The action is mainly in France and Switzerland.
One day, Jeff Valdera receives an anonymous postcard about enigmatic content, from Switzerland, where the hotel is located, in which he once stayed as a teenager with his aunt during the holiday season. He soon receives new postcards that allow him to locate and contact their sender. Intrigued by a person who seems to know a lot about him, he decides to make an appointment with her. It turns out that she is a woman, Frieda Steigl, daughter of Friedrich Steigl, a professor of German-speaking history who stayed at the Waldheim Hotel during the same period as Jeff. Frieda wants him to tell her about his father, but the man does not suspect that his memories are really an excuse to solve the mystery of disappearance, in which the unconscious 16-year-old was entangled. "Une ouverture d'esprit", to which Frieda urges him, reveals a bit of the political scene of the game, led by the hotel guests and the truth about the past. «S'il n'y a pas encore pire que l'ignorance. La connaissance peut-être? »

The main motive of this novel is memory. Memory in the context of memories of the past, memory of people, still alive and provocative search, inquiring truths; historical memory, which is an important background, refers to the period of the Cold War, the division of Germany into West Germany and the GDR; about the fugitives from this period who found help and shelter at the Waldheim Hotel and about Stasi agents whose task was to uncover them.
The inconspicuous Hotel Waldheim became the center of political games in which the owner was entangled, Johann Meili, his brother Dr. Christian Meili, Frau Finkel, a regular and passionate literature lover, Friedrich Steigl, father Frieda, Linka's marriage, and our main character.

Jeff is oblivious to the role he plays in the hotel. He becomes an intermediary, informer and even suspected of cooperation in hiding fugitives. He is a witness to conversations and events that in retrospect (and under the influence of Friedy) take on a whole new dimension. Suddenly, the innocent and seemingly insignificant memories of a teenager become a source of valuable information for Friedy, for whom the real world is history and events from the past.
Frieda is a very interesting figure indeed. Extremely intelligent and well-read, penetrating and uncompromising in her search, even obsessively seeking the truth about her father's fate - based on archives and documents, convinced of her reason and her imagination of what happened. Jeff's memoirs are juxtaposed with the confessed statements of the Stasi agents, the memory is reconstructed anew. «Memoire parallele, comme si une moitié de mon cerveau était remplacée par cette machine à souvenir totalitaire». We get to know the story through the eyes of Jeff, but already aware of those nuances that have escaped him before. This may cause some scoff when reading, how likely is it to remember with such precision the details from several decades ago? Is it possible to talk about the preparation of memories, about imagining something that could have been because someone told us that? Falsification of memories and facts is a topic that keeps coming back and is being analyzed on various occasions.

You can not fail to mention the theme of the game: about the political game, the game of appearances, metaphorical and literal game (in chess and it, practiced by hotel guests). The heroes analyze the movements of their opponents, adjust the strategy; Jeff becomes a pawn, whose double game is a mystery to everyone.

The Vallejo workshop is solid, both in terms of language and creation of the characters. Although the reading was quite pleasant, I do not consider it a worthy favorite. I did not find anything revealing in it, nothing that would be innovative and what would make me more emotional.

"LE MALHEUR DU BAS" Inès Bayard

Useful informations:
- a novel (in my opinion) of morality, set in contemporary times
- Narrative 3-seater, strongly focused on the main character and rarely going out, her world '
- The action of the novel is happening mainly in Paris

Outline of content:
The novel begins, from the end: on the first three pages, we learn that the mother poisoned her husband and son at dinner.

Time goes back and we meet a young woman- Marie, who seemingly has everything: a great job in a bank, a lawyer's husband, beautiful apartment, friends, etc. The idyll ends when one day after work, the boss proposes to drive her home. The man descends from the route, parks in the garage and violently violates the subordinate (I recommend reading the most sensitive readers on an empty stomach). Marie, shocked, does not tell anyone about the whole incident, the closest ones do not see any changes in her behavior, and if they see, they put it to work fatigue. Marie tries to recover and forget about the tragedy, but she does not know for long that she is pregnant. Intuitively, she feels that this is the child of the boss, and here begins the broadly understood "hatred": to herself, to her husband, to the child, to the world and everything that surrounds her. Without psychological help after the trauma that touched her, Marie falls into deeper and deeper depression: she neglects her duties, does not look after her son properly, does not go to work and is most likely not getting out of bed. To all this, my husband begins to cheat on her, and she feels more and more chaos in her life. In the end, an idea appears in her head, which the reader already knows from the first pages of the novel. The ending brings with it a certain spike twist (SPOILER ALERT): Marie's husband has asked a friend to test the child's DNA. When he falls dead, poisoned by his wife, he gets an SMS saying that this is his child.

My opinion:
The novel touches on an extremely important and painful problem that many women have already touched. The reader is a witness of what the lack of help and support for those closest to in such traumatic events leads to. The author shows very well the progressive depression and what the main character feels. Nevertheless, at certain moments the book is long and it is not that interesting. However, due to the fact that it raises an important topic and ends up in me really remarkable, I can say that I even liked it

La vérité sort de la bouche du cheval

'La vérité sort de la bouche du cheval' is our next novel. Meryem Alaoui who's the autor of this book was born i Maroc, so it is important that she is not from France. Thanks to her, the culture of the French-speaking countries can also be known. 

But we can not forget about the book. 

The work of Meryem Alaoui is a moral novel that tells the story of a single mother, Moroccan, who, to survive and be able to support her daughter, practices prostitution. "Il faut en voir, les hommes, pour vivre. Au moins six par jour" - I need to see them, men, to survive. At least six times a day. Jmiaa is a resourceful woman with a strong character who after many difficult experiences must function further. Despite everything, she does not lose her sense of humor, and her retorts and way of observing the world are a source of humor, which gives the book a lightness and builds a very credible figure.

The first-person narrative is conducted from the perspective of the main heroine, which means that we are very close to all situations in her life, even those intimate and violent. One gets the impression that the heroine confides to the reader. Jmiaa sees the world very simply, there are many details and profanity in descriptions. The solutions used by the author allow for creating a specific, dark and lively atmosphere at the same time. The narrator speaks directly to the reader several times, which creates a specific bond between her and the reader. 

„Maîtres et esclaves”

Today we will be talking about another book from our list:  „Maîtres et esclaves” written by Paul Greveillac. 

Paul Greveillac's novel is a historical novel taking place in China in the years 1950-1989 (+ an epilogue in 2000). He tells about the life of a fictional character, which is a painter from the Sichuan village, Tian Kewei. His life and life of people close to him is inseparable from the communist revolution in China, with its most crucial moments. The author very cleverly linked historical events with the fictional characters, and also avoided the temptation of unnecessary translation of the historical background to the reader.

The third-level narrator presents the reader with a medium-wealthy Chinese (proletarian) agricultural family living far away from large cities, among fields, forests and mountains. It is at the foot of the nearby Himalayas that Yongmin, the father of the main character, gives him the secrets of developing the inherited talent of painting. And as Yongmin teaches Kewei, then Kevei will train his own son. Greveillac's aggrandizement of this vision breaks with the events that affect the family. In the country, communism is becoming more and more intense. Peasants with horror and hunger in their eyes work in the field to get the number of points to get a meal. The communist system deprives Kewei of his father and at the same time offers development opportunities. He is chosen as a candidate for the Beijing art school in order to spread propaganda painting, which to some extent improves his situation - he can even provide room and food to his wife and little son.

I think it's really interesting to know history of other countries so this is a good beginig to do that. 

Hello!

The best novel has already been chosen and according to Polish students and according to the original French jury. Opinions are divided, but we are very happy with the choice. In Krakow, at the end of October, we chose "ça ranconte Sarah" as our laureate. But the French jury had a different opinion, even if we were partially in agreement.

Prix Goncourt was awarded to the book by Nicolas Mathieu "Leurs enfants après aux", which was also in our best four along with "Maîtres et esclaves", "La vraie vie" et "ça raconte Sarah".


PS. If you are interested, you can read more about it here:
http://lucyk.blog.tygodnikpowszechny.pl/2018/10/29/wielki-drapacz-glow-czyli-pivot-w-krakowie/?fbclid=IwAR3fZ-P9pUQU0VIODTPs6eYcAxJOphseYouYFOH6c4aadKek5Fme-tfkDho