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After this article, my wife visited Paris and went to the FNAC (department store) to pick up one of these books for me. She asked the clerk and he said "Oh, we
by officemonkey 11y ago
After this article, my wife visited Paris and went to the FNAC (department store) to pick up one of these books for me. She asked the clerk and he said "Oh, we don't have those books here, you should go to the "Tabac" (a hole in the wall store where you buy newspapers, cigarettes, bus tickets, and junk food.)
It's funny that the French public puts this guy about two steps below Jack Reacher and Dirk Pitt. The covers always feature a overly made-up, blonde, Eastern European in some sort of fancy underwear/fetishwear holding some kind of fancy gun.
Anyhow, I got my SAS novel and enjoyed it.
- mercurial 11y agoWell, it's pretty trashy. The fact that the books are well-documented doesn't make up for the lack of writing ability (also, I think every book has the same sex scenes, more or less). They're part of a genre called "roman de gare" ("train station books"): pulp books only fit for reading in the train (and presumably discarding once read).
- reacweb 11y agoThere is no lack of writing ability. The writing ability has almost no correlation with the genre. SAS is not badly written. Even in the worst collections (like http://www.harlequin.fr/collections http://www.harlequin.fr/collections), you can find books that have been written by students who became famous authors.
- andreasvc 11y agoThen what does set them apart from novels with better reputations, if not style? I don't think it can be just the topic, and I don't believe it's just some arbitrary value that society assigns to what is high vs. low brow.
- lmm 11y agoIt is arbitrary. Compare e.g. treatment of Jane Austen (or heck, Shakespeare) at the time and today. Academic literature forms a clique (I mean this descriptively rather than pejoratively). The critics and the writers all know each other, are largely the same people.
- mercurial 11y agoWell, compare Le Carré's writing and De Villiers. Or if you want to compare two right-wing French writers, take Vladimir Volkoff and De Villiers. Volkoff forgot more about writing than De Villiers ever knew.
- andreasvc 11y agoBut the general public is not looking to academic scholars to figure out what they should approve of. Critics generally don't care to review Harlequin or SAS novels and the people that read them definitely don't need their opinions. I don't follow what argument you're making nor why it makes the matter arbitrary.
- mercurial 11y agoWe'll have to agree to disagree, I find De Villiers' writing bland at best, and very repetitive. That said, yes, you probably find some decent writers within the genre.
- meatysnapper 11y agoRe sex scenes, have you ever seen a French movie. If not, I have news for you. Other countries find coitus for non-procreational purposes to not be a bad thing!
- mercurial 11y agoI've seen a number of French movies (being French myself), but what does have to do with anything? There is a difference between complaining about the presence of a sex scene and deploring the repetitiveness and bad writing.
- acqq 11y ago"The covers always feature a overly made-up, blonde, Eastern European" No, not only blondes, not only Eastern European: http://dangerousminds.net/tag/G%C3%A9rard-de-Villiers http://dangerousminds.net/tag/G%C3%A9rard-de-Villiers http://dangerousminds.net/content/uploads/images/001995716--aaaa1.jpg http://dangerousminds.net/content/uploads/images/001995716--... http://www.carti-online.com/sas-mafia-drogurilor-p-1025.html http://www.carti-online.com/sas-mafia-drogurilor-p-1025.html
- bazzargh 11y agoSide question. Was recently in the tabac in Valence TGV looking for a book by Fred Vargas to read, I find detective novels are a good way to practice my French when over on cycling trips (easier reading level than, say, Zazie dans le Metro). Anyway - this place had novels by authors from A-M...then two books by an author beginning X. Half the alphabet dropped due to lack of shelf space! The missing V section makes me curious - would de Villiers have been missing? Would it be under D or V in a french bookstore?