This 2001 French novel (Tin House Books published the English translation in 2012) captures the internal and external experiences of an emotionally troubled mother who has taken her two young sons for a "vacation" by the sea. Like everything else she tries to do, the excursion goes all wrong--it's cold and rainy and muddy, and she has barely any money. The narrative, essentially a monologue, is unhistrionic, unsentimental, utterly persuasive and precise. Most affecting is how much this mother cares for, concerns herself with, and imagines herself into these two sons whom she is so ill-equipped to raise. The ending, which I won't reveal, is a double blow. Very powerful. I went on holiday during winter break between teaching English Composition and during this holiday that was supposed to last five days, two things happened to me. I was kidnapped and I read this book every single day (while lugging around a large hard-cover Nobel Prize winning novel about the island I was visiting). I cannot say which experience made my holiday more memorable. Probably reading this book. I read it on the plane, on the beach, in the lobby of a resort drinking brandy after brandy to calm my weeping, in a hotel room too dimly lit to read located in a city in the middle of the island; I reread it wherever I could, copied quotes from it, and started a hand-written note to the translator, Ms. Hunter, which I finished, printed and sent off when I returned. Never once did I feel that I was reading a story told by a mentally ill narrator; rather, I read the whole thing with that 'shock of recognition' authors strive for. I also had the idea to assign my 'logs,' as I call them, a choice of reading 4 novels, and encouraged them to read this one by saying, "Look! It's short!" I believe it is one of the greatest tragedies ever written, and tragedy is a genre I know something about. I wish I could read the original but my French is not that good; I only know that between Mlle. Olmi and Ms. Hunter, there is magic. I ask myself: "How can something be so great?" I love asking that question, don't you?
What do You think about Tengerpart (2000)?
3.5 je l'ai lu en Anglais, mais je ne le trouve pas en Anglais sur Goodreads
—jocie
