Last year I went through a phase I'll go ahead and attribute to my dear friend dovegreyreader. It was her enthusiastic ravings about Amelie Nothomb that led me to interlibrary loan every title I could get my hands on by this uniquely wonderful French author. I had so much fun with her delightfully skewed, dare I say quirky and bizarre, characters. Reading her books was like sitting down with a box of Belgian chocolates, only less fattening. I love these sorts of surreal books that make you feel slightly uncomfortable, slightly on edge. Getting out of my comfort zone can be a good thing, just as long as I'm not catapulted TOO far outside it.
I stumbled across another "new to me" French author while perusing the wilds of Borders a couple of weeks ago. Her name is Anna Gavalda, and apparently in her native Franch she's quite the literary star, winning the 2000 Grand Prix RTL-Lire for her book I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere, which translates to something really good, I'm sure.
Gavalda was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine in 1970. In addition to writing novels and short stories she's also a French journalist.
According to Wikipedia she's described as "a distant descendant of Dorothy Parker," which is very high praise, indeed.
Her first novel, Someone I Loved, was published in France in 2002.Her most recent novel, Hunting and Gathering, was published in 2006:
From Publishers Weekly
Love cures all that ails the troubled trio of "no-hopers" in this sentimental second novel by French literary sensation Gavalda (Someone I Loved; I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere). Camille, a talented artist exhausted by ennui and anorexia, cleans offices at night and cowers in a shabby garret by day. Philibert, the fastidious scion of a titled family, peddles museum postcards while squatting in his dead grandmother's Parisian manse, waiting for her estate to be settled. Philibert's roommate, Franck, a talented (and womanizing) chef with ambition to burn, motorcycles once a week to look in on his stubborn, ailing grandmother Paulette, an "inmate" at a retirement home. When Philibert finds Camille deathly ill one day, he rescues her from her icy garret and deposits her in his shabby but spacious home. Franck and Camille take an immediate dislike to each other, a sure sign that they're bound to fall in love—which happens, cutely, after they liberate Paulette. That's when, "for the first time, each and every one of them felt like they belonged to a real family." Gavalda's comically implausible and comfortably predictable novel of misfits is a Gallic charmer anchored by breezy and poignant storytelling. (Apr.)
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Gavalda's style sounds very different from Amelie Nothomb's, but I think I'll give this French writer a go, too.
I love this woman. Anna's short stories are touching, intuitive, edgy yet compassionate; they are about innocence lost & found, betrayal, human frailty, obsession, life, the cognitive/ psychological component of sex-dancing on the edge, the absurdity of the normal, and composure in the face of panic. She's the real deal.
Posted by: Steve | July 19, 2008 at 12:01 PM
Dove, I'll await your thoughts on this one. I haven't yet succumbed but it's only a matter of time.
Posted by: Bluestalking Reader | June 13, 2007 at 10:02 AM
Hmm, well I succumbed and bought Hunting and Gathering whilst in London on Monday, looks good so I'll report back.
Posted by: dovegreyreader | June 13, 2007 at 01:58 AM
Dovegrey, I can report her short stories are fantastic so far. That's as far as I've gotten. Will keep you posted!
Posted by: Bluestalking Reader | June 12, 2007 at 05:52 PM
Sounds like a good find Lisa, can't wait to hear your verdict and might not even wait that long if the books are available here, the name is noted!
Posted by: dovegreyreader | June 08, 2007 at 02:51 PM