When Did Philippe Labro Write His First Book
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This book includes an outrageous omission: the narrator spends a whole year in an American college, yet you will never see him in a classroom (apart from a scene, midway through the narrative, when a professor starts class announcing that "Spring is here", and leaves).
I first read this book when I was 16, and it left a strong mark in my memory, as any story of a young man discovering America probably would have. I was not sure how it would read 16 years later, but was very positively impressed.This book includes an outrageous omission: the narrator spends a whole year in an American college, yet you will never see him in a classroom (apart from a scene, midway through the narrative, when a professor starts class announcing that "Spring is here", and leaves). Clearly, the "education" that this novel deals with is not formal education, which is as well (more on this later).
The writing is made of the (impressive) memories of the boy told in the impeccable writing of the man (trained as a journalist). It is precise and rich but never excessive. The style may strike some as slightly cold but, on the plus side, this is no maudlin nostalgia: rather, an empathy that connects us with the facts and situations and feelings of a young man who is discovering the world and himself. As the narrator notes in the last pages: "The words: duty, friendship, effort and tolerance, were no longer abstract words to him" -- and the reader has been made to feel these things with him, while being sometimes elegantly made aware of the gap between what the young man felt and what the mature man realized later.
However, just as the book avoids emotional nostalgia and pathos, it also stays clear of intellectual analysis. Avoiding both is not trivial. In fact, in a country (France) where writing is so much the monopoly of the intellectual establishment that in order to assert yourself as a writer, your writing must reek of intellectualism, Labro's style is refreshing and vigorous, with an apparent simplicity that many would take for granted but which can only be the result of years of very hard writing work.
The greatest compliment we could pay this book is that it does not feel like it was written by "a writer". (In other words, I admire Labro because he is more interested in writing well than in being seen as writing well.)
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''Le succès n'existait pas. Il n'y avait que des moments et certains étaient simplement plus heureux de d'autres. Et il fallait les saisir, comme on saisit la chance, cet oiseau rare qui passe au-dessus de l'homme et qu'on ne peut attraper qu'en se jetant en l'air, la paume et les doigts grands ouverts. Il fallait vivr ''Le printemps voulait dire que les cerisiers noirs produisaient des fleurs blanches, moins blanches que celle du Dogwood (cornouiller), la fleur officielle de l'état de Virginie''
''Le succès n'existait pas. Il n'y avait que des moments et certains étaient simplement plus heureux de d'autres. Et il fallait les saisir, comme on saisit la chance, cet oiseau rare qui passe au-dessus de l'homme et qu'on ne peut attraper qu'en se jetant en l'air, la paume et les doigts grands ouverts. Il fallait vivre la vie en sautant vers le ciel, la main toujours ouverte.'' ...more
À la relecture, je n'ai plus aimé du tout. J'ai du embellir le souvenir.
Mon préféré de Labro (qui ne fait que retranscrire sa vie dans tous ses livres: il n'a aucun don en fait -oui je l'aime pas^^)À la relecture, je n'ai plus aimé du tout. J'ai du embellir le souvenir.
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There was something slightly disorienting and also deeply fascinating about being party to the thoughts of someone who is a foreign exchange student in a situation that is both foreign and familiar to me. He's a student at a respected private univ
When we travel, and particularly when we study abroad, we often outwardly assimilate into our adopted culture but always remain a little on the outside. Such is the experience of the protagonist in this novel, which seems to be largely autobiographical.There was something slightly disorienting and also deeply fascinating about being party to the thoughts of someone who is a foreign exchange student in a situation that is both foreign and familiar to me. He's a student at a respected private university in the South (familiar), but in the 1950s with all its quaint traditions alongside rampant racism and sexism (unfamiliar, at least in degree).
Because of the latter, I took a long break in the middle of reading this book. Not coincidentally, Brett Kavanaugh had just been appointed to the Supreme Court when I put it down. I needed a break from the "old boys club" represented by the fictional university at the heart of the novel.
Aside from his astute observations of American culture, most of which are still relevant, I enjoyed the hero's growth arc as the story progressed. I love a good coming-of-age story, and this was an excellent one.
I read this book in the original French, though I'm sure you can find an English translation. To read it in French was particularly charming, however, as I delighted in the author's decision to leave some words in English (often then explained in French), much as Peter Mayle chose to leave some words and phrases in French when writing A Year in Provence.
Perhaps most importantly, reading this book gave me insight into what must have been the college experience of my grandparents, and the ways in which the world in which they grew up was so different from mine. I feel better equipped to understand the point of view of an older generation of Americans. I am also left with a more optimistic view of the long arc of history and how far we have come as a culture in the last 70 years.
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When Did Philippe Labro Write His First Book
Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220049.L_tudiant_tranger
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