Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
Insecte
Ma fille est ma meilleure amie ; mon père n'est pas méchant maman ; arrange-toi, tu es déguisée ; ma mère est bête ; ma fille est idiote ; j'aime encore mieux que mon mari me trompe avec notre fille ; ma fille est née dans une rose mais périra dans le chou ; ma mère a un cancer, elle m'énerve ; ma mère se laissait tellement aller qu'elle est morte.
Quand les tête-à-tête ent...more
Quand les tête-à-tête ent...more
Paperback, 198 pages
Published
January 11th 2006
by Fayard
(first published 2006)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
381)
An unsettling and creepy read, My Mother Never Dies suffers mostly from its writing style. All the stories are narrated in the often-problematic present-tense, thus giving the whole book an urgent, driving feel. The styles don't really range from story to story and ultimately blend into one another.
The stories themselves are disturbing and often unexpected, something that is as much an asset as it is a detriment. I can't pretend, however, that I wasn't a bit underwhelmed by the end. By sticking...more
The stories themselves are disturbing and often unexpected, something that is as much an asset as it is a detriment. I can't pretend, however, that I wasn't a bit underwhelmed by the end. By sticking...more
A collection of peculiar stories about mothers and daughters. I say "peculiar" in a good way, of course. I could tell from the first story, "I Said One," that I was going to love this collection, originally published in French. The mother-daughter bond is decidely unhealthy in almost every story, from the mother who agrees to have a baby only to appease her husband and decides the child will have to make do with "distant affection" if not love, to the story of a daughter whose increasingly errat...more
It seems many people prefer Äidin pikku pyöveli over Castillon's other short story -collections, yet I felt this was a bit weaker than the others. Sure, Castillon did it again, surprised me from page to page by imagining all the possible ways a daughter's and mother's relationship could maybe get fucked up and wrote them on paper.
What I find surprising is how hard it is to write a review after some time has passed - I can recollect only a couple of stories clearly enough, which might indicate t...more
What I find surprising is how hard it is to write a review after some time has passed - I can recollect only a couple of stories clearly enough, which might indicate t...more
Pas deux histoires identiques et pourtant, une vraie sensation d'unité entre les nouvelles. J'ai dévoré ces pages, j'ai eu peur, j'ai eu mal, j'ai frissonné, j'ai été secouée... et j'ai pensé à mamaman. Très fort. Me disant qu'au fond, il est peut-être pas si pire, le lien qui nous unit. Probablement qu'elle aurait pu faire mieux et en même temps, ça va, non ? Les mots de Claire Castillon sonnent très juste. J'ai eu du plaisir à les lire et ça fait du bien d'être transportée, happée au coeur d'u...more
Perhaps a dozen and half short stories depicting periods within various mother-daughter relationships. Only a few captured me. Perhaps because my own mother-daughter experience is quite...uneventful. And loving. I always appreciate more what I have experienced myself on some level, which thankfully was not the case in this collection. The extreme is always at least moderately entertaining and more often memorialized than the mundane. Stories need conflict to last, but Castillon did not seem to f...more
When I read Claire Castillon’s short stories for the first time I was amazed and a bit in love. I thought “she’s so damn courageous, she dares to open such a door, she must be either crazy or smart”. Now I think that door is only a bit cracked.
Yes, she dares to speak about mothers and daughters and about women and the relations between them in a unique way, but she doesn’t seem to want to explore her characters more. To keep it short, the story I liked best it the second one, Insecte, she there...more
Yes, she dares to speak about mothers and daughters and about women and the relations between them in a unique way, but she doesn’t seem to want to explore her characters more. To keep it short, the story I liked best it the second one, Insecte, she there...more
Just plain creepy.
I don't know if I liked this or not. The writing style that stayed the same throughout the whole book was Castillon's biggest weakness with this one. All the short stories felt somehow the same. Only a couple of them I actually enjoyed. I could not relate to anything in this book since my relationship with my mother has always been very warm and loving.
Don't get me wrong; I like weird. But this just felt a bit too much.
I don't know if I liked this or not. The writing style that stayed the same throughout the whole book was Castillon's biggest weakness with this one. All the short stories felt somehow the same. Only a couple of them I actually enjoyed. I could not relate to anything in this book since my relationship with my mother has always been very warm and loving.
Don't get me wrong; I like weird. But this just felt a bit too much.
Mar 15, 2009
Catherine
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
No one
Recommended to Catherine by:
LA Times Book Review
This book was recommended in the very meager LA Times book section. What were they thinking?
If you're heavily into French cinema, then you might find these short stories appealing. I do appreciate French cinema but in small doses. Some tactful adjectives I would use for this book: quirky, weird, off-beat.
Perhaps something was lost in the translation…but I really don't think so. I have to say don't waste your time on this one.
If you're heavily into French cinema, then you might find these short stories appealing. I do appreciate French cinema but in small doses. Some tactful adjectives I would use for this book: quirky, weird, off-beat.
Perhaps something was lost in the translation…but I really don't think so. I have to say don't waste your time on this one.
Megabad. the author, Claire Castillon, almost convinced me with her studied smile, but no, the text is poorly written, the metaphors were forced on me slash didn't exist, the characters were too "special" (as in too "complicated") to relate to, the ending was a blowout, and i'm gonna stop now because I think you get the picture.
Eh... I was charmed by the first short story or two about relations between mothers and daughters, but repetitive plot structures and excessive nihilism got old pretty quick. Got 93% of the way through, and didn't bother to finish the last story before returning to the library. Some interesting ideas, but mostly darkness without depth.
I read this book in honor of my mom, as I approach the 16th anniversary of her death. Well, it didn't turn out to be quite the homage I expected. This book is just weird. There are 19 short stories - there were two that made me snicker. The rest were FREAKY. And I'm not opposed to freaky in priniciple, but this was just too much.
I just happened upon this book of short stories at the library. They are mother-daughter stories, but certainly not sentimental. It's a great read as the stories are quite shocking. In the first one, the lady tosses one of her children out of the car. Truly crazy stories. Highly recommended.
This book was pretty gimmicky, but I love French short stories. The writing is always so crisp and good. I finished the whole book in about two hours, and if it had taken me any longer, the whole dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship theme probably would have gotten old.
19 short stories all featuring mothers and daughters, all of them absurd, some violent, some plain sad. I enjoyed Castillon's writing style although in a collection this fierce, it started to get old. Somehow very french and interesting anyhow.
I didn't realize when I had started this book that it was a series of short stories. So, as I read my first "chapter" I was shocked at it. haha It was crazy and I was just sitting there wondering what I had just read. These were great short stories.
Horrible, dirty snapshots into twisted relationships. No tenderness at all is portrayed in any of these short stories. Too 'advant-garde' for me.
Found from secondhand for train amusment but read straight away :D
Love this kind of brilliant novels
Love this kind of brilliant novels
I did not like the style of her writing and felt like I was reading the same story over and over again.
A few short stories with shocking endings. A nice, quick read.
Sep 11, 2011
Yong
added it
It was very dark at times but he writing was fantastic.
Twisted.
No small bites, no chew. Just swallow.
No small bites, no chew. Just swallow.
This was a rather odd book. The stories remind me a lot of Roald Dahl stories, even though the theme of motherhood/daughterhood is so remote and different from Dahl's stories. Both authors are very unsettling and unexpected, though...with the unexpected becoming expected after just a couple stories. This was hard to read at times but I can appreciate that. Definitely made me think.
ugh. so French. painful.
This was a weird little book of short stories about disfunctioal mother-daughter relationships. I would not recommend it.
Castillonin novellikokoelma osoittautui pieneksi pettymykseksi. Synkeät novellit äideistä ja tyttäristä olivat ensi alkuun mukavan ranskalaisia ja sopivan vinksahtaneita, mutta loppua kohtaan väsähdin. Tuntui, että samaa pohjatonta onnettomuutta toistettiin liikaa vaikka luin tätä pienissä osissa.
Kertomuksia äidin ja tyttären suhteesta, joko äidin tai tyttären kertomana. Eri elämän vaiheista. Näissä tarinoissa tiivistyy varmasti kaikki mahdolliset ongelmat, joita voidaan tyypittää, kuten äidit jotka ylihuolehtivat, tyttäret jotka laittavat äitinsä vanhainkotiin, äiti kokee tyttärensä kilpailijana yms. Antoisaa luettavaa ja pohdittavaa kaikille, joilla on "issues" omassa äiti-tytär-suhteessaan.
Aug 15, 2009
Sharma
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
short-story-collections
The writing in this was suprisingly poor, although perhaps I should accuse the translator. It definitely proved an eyebrow-raising read, given the infanticide and the mothers sleeping with their son-in-laws and so forth, but ultimately I wasn't very concerned with the narrators, and especially not with the method in which their stories were narrated. Again, perhaps an issue of translation.
I enjoyed this collection of short novels about relations between mother and daughter, and I learned a lot about women's world. I must confess that I did not understand very well women's behaviour befere reading this book, and this lecture helped me to gain some knowledge in a field I usualy was totally lost.
My copy of this book is in romanian.
My copy of this book is in romanian.
A collection of unconventional short stories about mother-daughter relationships. Twisted and fierce but also very real and moving. Full of emotions, good and bad. I liked it a lot.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Claire Castillon fait son entrée sur la scène littéraire française en septembre 2000, elle n'a alors que 25 ans. Le grenier, un premier roman (éditions Anne Carrière), surprenant et dérangeant, retient l'attention des critiques et séduit un large public. Claire Castillon récidive avec Je prends racine (éditions Anne Carrière), un second roman qui assoit son statut de romancière tout en l'affranch...more
More about Claire Castillon...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Parfois on dit ça va comme on dit ça suffit.”
—
1 person liked it
More quotes…
Mar 02, 2013 08:52am