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English Latest
January 2007 |
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Dear all,
Let's celebrate the New Year with some of the best French translations and books about France! We have tried to highlight various subjects focused on several aspects of French culture that we hope you’ll find interesting and refreshing.
This New Year, we are celebrating the publication of several major translations from French, from both fiction and non-fiction. Here are our top five choices.
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) is widely recognized as the most popular Yiddish writer of the twentieth century and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978. But although Singer was a very public and outgoing figure, much about his personal life remains unknown. In Isaac B. Singer: a Life, Florence Noiville offers a glimpse into the world of this much-beloved but persistently elusive figure.
While humanists have pondered the subject of love to the point of obsessiveness, philosophers have steadfastly ignored it. The absence of love from philosophical discourse is curiously glaring. So where did the love go? In The Erotic Phenomenon, Jean-Luc Marion asks this fundamental question of philosophy, while reviving inquiry into the concept of love itself.
Turning now to fiction, we chose three different titles that will transport you to very different places.
The quiet life of sacrifice and service of the protagonist of Everyday Life, by Lydie Salvayre, has been rudely disrupted by the new hire of a secretary, but she is not—despite the advice of her doctor, her neighbors and her daughter—going to leave it at that. Instead, sabotage, alcohol, and kindness become the arsenal in a conflict fought across copy rooms and office parties.
African Psycho, by Alain Mabanckou, concerns a would-be serial killer, Gregoire Nakobomayo, and the spiritual relationship he has developed with his phantom mentor, a far more accomplished serial killer, Angoualima.
In France, the now legendary Marseilles Trilogy, by Jean-Claude Izzo, achieved astounding success. Fabio Montale is the perfect hero of the first volume, Total Chaos, in this city of melancholy beauty. It is the story of a disenchanted cop, with an inimitable talent for living, who turns his back on a police force marred by corruption and racism and, in the name of friendship, takes the fight against the mafia into his owns hands.
We continue with seven important books about France that were written in English. Four of them deal with the attraction that French history, language and culture exercise over foreigners.
To gain a fresh perspective on the passionate French-American relationship, Laura Lee Downs and Stéphane Gerson commissioned a diverse array of historians to write autobiographical essays in which they explore their intellectual, political and personal engagements with France and its past. Why France? American Historians Reflect on an Enduring Fascination provides a rich and thought-provoking portrait of France and a half-century of American intellectual life, viewed through the lens of the finest scholarship on France.
In The Story of French, bilingual Canadian authors Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow unravel the mysteries of a language that has maintained its global influence in spite of the ascendancy of English. Mixing historical analysis with journalistic observation, and drawing on their experiences living in and travelling to French-speaking countries, they explore how the French language developed over the centuries and how it has maintained its global appeal.
How does Paris, with all its faults, remain not only the world’s most visited tourist destination, but also the locus of endless sexual fantasy and the very image of the good life for Americans, and for writer and art historian Eunice Lipton? French Seduction: An American’s Encounter with France, Her Father, and the Holocaust is a passionate blend of autobiography and cultural history, where love, sex and art collide with hatred, withering French xenophobia and death.
For the legions of fans who asked for seconds after devouring French Women Don’t Get Fat, French Women for All Seasons is a charming and practical guide to adding “some joie to your vie and to your table, every day of the year.”
Continuing with the French power of attraction, we selected two books about fashion.
With a fascinating collection of photographs, sketches, illustrations and press comments, assembled by Pamela Golbin, curator at the Musée de la Mode et du Textile, Balenciaga Paris presents a precise chronology and a detailed account of the two-part journey of this unique fashion enterprise.
Queen of Fashion: What Marie-Antoinette Wore to the Revolution is a dazzling new vision of the ever-fascinating queen. Caroline Weber, a dynamic young historian, reveals how Marie Antoinette’s bold attempts to reshape royal fashion changed the future of France.
To end on a more serious note, we recommend The Chomsky-Foucault Debate: On Human Nature. Through the contributions of two of the greatest thinkers of our age, this book offers an admirable re-evaluation of an age-old question: is there such a thing as “innate” human nature, independent of our experiences and external influences?
We really hope you enjoy this selection. Don't forget to visit our website, www.frenchbooknews.com, to find out about other interesting titles.
Best wishes,
Fabrice Rozié
Anne-Sophie Hermil
Anne-Sophie Simenel
Maud Lourau