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Gary was superfluous and needlessly impressive, he owned it, confessed it, and wrote its marvelous onthogenesis (la promesse de l'aube), it seems strange to bla

Gary was superfluous and needlessly impressive, he owned it, confessed it, and wrote its marvelous onthogenesis (la promesse de l'aube), it seems strange to blame him for the lack of depth - it's his point. Also, could you please advise me some deep french novels, written after WWII? I've read and loved plenty of Camus and l'ecume des jours, but can't stand stalinists, so wouldn't touch Gide, Sartre etc.

idoubtit 8y ago
Gide was communist for about 5 years, and when he discovered what life in the USSR really was, he wrote a pamphlet that caused him many troubles with his former friends. Anyway, I recommend "Les faux-monnayeurs" if you can forget Gide's personal flaws. One last word on Gary: he did try to add depth to some of its novels. In "Clair de femmes", he portrays people living after the death of their loved ones. A few times, I felt empathy for the characters, but more than often the writer added some kind of witty "special effects" that completely broke the mood. Now for the advice for deep French novels: - Marguerite Yourcenar, "Les mémoires d'Hadrien", "L'œuvre au noir" - Vercors, "Les animaux dénaturés" - Julien Gracq, "Le rivage des Syrtes" (only if you enjoy reading sophisticated French) - Drieu La rochelle, "Gilles" (if you can disregard the author's political views) - Robe-Grillet, "La jalousie" - Joseph Kessel, "Les cavaliers" - Tournier, "Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique" - Roger Martin du Gard, "Jean Barois" (a little known novel showing the intellectual life in France at the beginning of the 20th century), "Les Thibault" (if you like long saga and can stand a character that became engrossed with the ideal of socialism) (I know I'm cheating with the request, this was written before WWII). This is of course a very personal choice, and I did not list famous authors I haven't enjoyed, like M. Duras or G. Perec.
- nbabitskiy 8y ago
  Thank you very much, that's way more than I hoped for! To clarify, I don't necceserily hate communists, I can't stand apology of cannibalism even allegedly repented.

idoubtit 8y ago

Gide was communist for about 5 years, and when he discovered what life in the USSR really was, he wrote a pamphlet that caused him many troubles with his former friends. Anyway, I recommend "Les faux-monnayeurs" if you can forget Gide's personal flaws. One last word on Gary: he did try to add depth to some of its novels. In "Clair de femmes", he portrays people living after the death of their loved ones. A few times, I felt empathy for the characters, but more than often the writer added some kind of witty "special effects" that completely broke the mood. Now for the advice for deep French novels: - Marguerite Yourcenar, "Les mémoires d'Hadrien", "L'œuvre au noir" - Vercors, "Les animaux dénaturés" - Julien Gracq, "Le rivage des Syrtes" (only if you enjoy reading sophisticated French) - Drieu La rochelle, "Gilles" (if you can disregard the author's political views) - Robe-Grillet, "La jalousie" - Joseph Kessel, "Les cavaliers" - Tournier, "Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique" - Roger Martin du Gard, "Jean Barois" (a little known novel showing the intellectual life in France at the beginning of the 20th century), "Les Thibault" (if you like long saga and can stand a character that became engrossed with the ideal of socialism) (I know I'm cheating with the request, this was written before WWII). This is of course a very personal choice, and I did not list famous authors I haven't enjoyed, like M. Duras or G. Perec.

nbabitskiy 8y ago
Thank you very much, that's way more than I hoped for! To clarify, I don't necceserily hate communists, I can't stand apology of cannibalism even allegedly repented.