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Jump to navigationJump to searchThree Days and a Life by Pierre Lemaitre and Frank Wynne (translator) (view source)
Revision as of 12:54, 25 August 2020
, 12:54, 25 August 2020no edit summary
You could also say the whole milieu of the village is here – the crabby mayor, who's also the town's biggest employer but is most keen on wielding the P45 and sacking all his staff in quiet moments at the factory, and on down. There are phrases such as ''A rumor (sic) is a delicate sauce, either it takes or it doesn't'' – there is the feel of a real village community at play here, complete with housewives' sayings, even if a heck of a lot is played out in the mindset of Antoine. Further to that, there are at least half a dozen instances of the narrator mentioning something, and someone Antoine's conversing with responding to that, in a stylish stylistic quirk that economises as well as gives us further closeness to the character, as he seems to be thinking things but is really saying them out loud.
I might be defining that in a very poor way, and in some sense that's relevant to the whole book – I did, to repeat, find a niggle here and there that was a little elusive in pinning down. But dammit, by the end I've only spent four hours in the company of Antoine but I'm really invested in his lot, and the end – without giving anything away, trust me – was touch and go like so much that came before. I could raise an eyebrow at it, but at the same time , it's going to stick in my mind. Actually, I can feel the after-effects of this quick read lasting longer than many a comparable novel, so while it's not perfect it really has to be recommended.
[[Friends and Liars by Kaela Coble]] also has teenaged goings-on impacting on adult lives, and likewise is a book demanding to be read in one sitting. Frank Wynne also translated [[Vernon Subutex 1 by Virginie Despentes and Frank Wynne (translator)|Vernon Subutex 1 by Virginie Despentes]].
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