Fournier’s dreamworld left me cold. Where was everything? Who was everybody? Did it really matter? Did I care? Julian Barnes still thinks it’s great, even in his sixties. But I think the book is all surface. Better to read it in French, perhaps, than in translation, to try and recapture the alleged magic of the original. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/13/grand-meaulnes-wanderer-julian-barnes?newsfeed=true
Forget the story, this stylish novella is all atmosphere and unlike pretty much anything written before. Le Grand Meaulnes influenced writers from F. Scott Fitzgerald to John Fowles and remains an odd, yet interesting, curio. Sadly, Fournier was killed in WWI.
Hallucinatory and rather confusing; I thought the huge reputation this novel has is mostly undeserved. The characters never come to life, but remain trapped in their dreamworld.
Fournier’s dreamworld left me cold. Where was everything? Who was everybody? Did it really matter? Did I care? Julian Barnes still thinks it’s great, even in his sixties. But I think the book is all surface. Better to read it in French, perhaps, than in translation, to try and recapture the alleged magic of the original. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/13/grand-meaulnes-wanderer-julian-barnes?newsfeed=true
Forget the story, this stylish novella is all atmosphere and unlike pretty much anything written before. Le Grand Meaulnes influenced writers from F. Scott Fitzgerald to John Fowles and remains an odd, yet interesting, curio. Sadly, Fournier was killed in WWI.
Enjoyable read with wonderful descriptions of what it must have been like to live in rural France during that era.
Hallucinatory and rather confusing; I thought the huge reputation this novel has is mostly undeserved. The characters never come to life, but remain trapped in their dreamworld.