I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere

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I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere

by Anna Gavalda, Karen L. Marker (Translator)

3.61 of 5 stars 3.61 · rating details · 3,040 ratings · 232 reviews

Hailed by Voici as "a distant descendant of Dorothy Parker," prize-winning Anna Gavalda has caused an international sensation with this dazzling collection of short stories selling over 700,000 copies in her native France. With arresting naturalism, a lively variety of perspectives, Gavalda writes simply—and beautifully—of human beings longing to connect. Gavalda has a kna...more

Paperback, 208 pages

Published December 2nd 2003 by Riverhead Trade (first published 1999)

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Jan 27, 2010 Shabnam added it · review of another edition

کارهای هنرمندانه را تحسین می کنم. بسیار محتاط، تقریبا نامحسوس، کاملا حساب شده و اجرایی دقیق، بله همین که پالتو را روی شانه های لطیف و تسلیمم
می گذارد، در چشم به هم زدنی روی جیب داخلی کتش خم می شود تا نیم نگاهی به پیام های دریافتی تلفن همراهش بیندازد
به ناگاه، همه حواسم را باز می یابم
خیانت
قدرناشناسی
پس من بدبخت این جا چه کار می کنم؟
من که نزدیک بودم، شانه هایم گرم و آرام و دست های تو نزدیک
پس چه کردی؟
چه کار برایت مهم تر از دریافت لطف زنانه من بود آن هم زنی این طور رام؟
نمی توانستی تلفن همراه لعنتی ات...more

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Saman به من گفت از تو خواهشی دارم فقط یک خواهش. می‌خواهم بویت کنم. چون من جواب ندادم، اعتراف کرد که در همه‌ی این سال‌ها دوست داشته بوی مرا حس کند، هوای مرا...more
Jan 18, 2010 12:02am

HaMy I love your language although I can't understand it. :)
Jun 28, 2012 09:12am

Nov 10, 2011 Liams rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mes-lectures, 2011

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Feb 06, 2008 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2008

This collection of short stories by Anna Gavalda, a former high-school teacher and mother of two, won the Academie Francaise Short Story Award in 2000. The citation mentions the 'dry wit and almost involuntary elegance' apparent in the twelve stories. The translation (by Karen Marker, published in 2003) manages to preserve both the wit and elegance - these stories were fun to read.

Courting rituals of the Saint-Germain-de-Pres, a country vet's terrible revenge, or an indelible encounter between...more

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Jan 04, 2009 Pris robichaud rated it 4 of 5 stars

Is That So Much To Ask?, 5 Mar 2006

"I shifted somewhat abruptly. She stood back up behind me and put both hands flat on my shoulders. She said, "I'm going to go. I want you not to move and not to turn around. Please I am begging of you.
I didn't move I didn't want to anyway, because I didn't want her to see me with my eyes swollen and my face all contorted.
I waited a while, and then headed to my car."
Anna Gavalda has seen a lot in her life. This novel with twelve short stories of people trying...more

Is That So Much To Ask?, 5 Mar 2006

"I shifted somewhat abruptly. She stood back up behind me and put both hands flat on my shoulders. She said, "I'm going to go. I want you not to move and not to turn around. Please I am begging of you.
I didn't move I didn't want to anyway, because I didn't want her to see me with my eyes swollen and my face all contorted.
I waited a while, and then headed to my car."
Anna Gavalda has seen a lot in her life. This novel with twelve short stories of people trying to connect shows her capturing their inner dialogues with perfect pitch. Reaching out, knowing they are missing something and moving to the center to find exactly what it is. These stories, all small snippets of life. Coming-apart love, met-again love, aborted love, unknown love and of love lost all woven from separate stories into a theme.

The saddest is the "Pregnancy". The story of a new love and the nine months it takes to grow this new love, only to have an unknown enemy defeat it.

In "For Years' a man searches for his lost love. Not reality searching but in his mind. He knows where she lives but not why she left. Both of them have moved on but he knows not why. And, then one day twelve years later he hears from her.

In "Courting Rituals of the Saint-Germaine-des-Pres", an attractive woman smiles at a passing man, and he pursues her. He asks her out to dinner. They meet hours later, both with a purpose of their own. They are attracted to each other and she is thinking of what might happen after dinner, when all of a sudden his cell phone goes off. At that moment he shuts it off, but she sees him scrumptiously look a number of the caller. She knows that the evening is over, forever.

each of these satires is better then the other, each one tells a separate but seemingly similar tale. These are the stories of a friend who is telling you bits and pieces of life. These are lively stories told with flourish and style. There is variety that surprises you, Parisian chic or hilarious, sophisticated farce. Anna Gavalda sees through ordinary appearances to our hidden longings. Highly Recommended. prisrob 3-4-06

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Apr 24, 2009 Tania rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-books

quotes#527126 from my notebook

"I'm tough at work, but that's just because I'm playing a role, you see? I have to be tough, I have to make them think I'm a tyrant. Can you imagine if they discovered my secret? If they figured out that I'm shy? That I have to work three times harder than the others for the same result? That I have a bad memory? That I'm slow to understand. If they knew that, they'd eat me alive!
"Plus, I don't know how to make myself liked ... I have no charisma, as they say. If I...more

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Mar 11, 2010 Michèle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: general-literature

Anna Gavalda, c'est l'antidote à la déprime qui fait voir la vie en gris.

Tout n'est pas rose dans ces nouvelles, on suit des personnages différents qui ont tous et toutes leur "vice de construction", et qui pansent les plaies comme ils le peuvent.

Mais quel mordant! Je viens de finir La Touche Opel, avec les descriptions savoureuse de la narratrice qui doit "gérer sa gérante!" et une allusion à un ancien chum appelé "Poële Téfal (parce qu'il ne voulait surtout pas s'attacher)!"

plus loin, un mom...more

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Jul 13, 2012 Her Royal Orangeness rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: paris-in-july-12, short-stories, 2012, author-gavalda, authors-i-heart

“Life can be changed in just one fateful moment.” These are the words printed on the cover of “I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere” and they perfectly encapsulate the overarching theme that connects these stories.

The stories in this collection are, for the most part, startling in a very understated way. For example, “Lead Story,” my favorite in this collection, is about a man who makes a decision to do something that doesn’t seem particularly out-of-the-ordinary, but leads to a devastat...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Velina rated it 4 of 5 stars

It took me a long time to get to it due to the title – it all seemed too much promising cheesy romantic literature. It’s nothing of this kind. Most of the stories open spaces where I can find my emotions and what I experience in this moment somehow connected to the story.

Some of them left certain pictures from an “everyday life” that questions what “everyday” is. Some of them remain in such a manner that if something happened tomorrow or in several months or after several years, it would remind...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Chaymâa Belyamani rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

That was an entertaining read.

The book is a collection of short independent stories that reflect Anna Gavalda’s great imagination and her ability to invent as many characters as possible to every single situation.

However, my curiosity led me at some stages to a kind of disappointed mood as the stories weren’t finished. Just when you get really connected with the sequence of events and you turn the page, as fast as you can, hoping that you would find answers to your questions, wondering what wo...more

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Jul 23, 2008 Lena rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

A strange collection of short stories in that they're not quite quotable, but often incredibly lovely and poignant. Some of the stories fall a little flat but the ones that work work so well that it makes up for it ("Courting Rituals of the Saint-Germain-des-Pres," "Leave," "For Years," and "Clic-Clac").

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Jun 26, 2012 Beatrizz1983 rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

No me gustan las novelas de relatos, y sin embargo ésta me ha encantado, hasta el punto de darle las cinco estrellas y pensar que no había leído algo tan grande en mucho tiempo... y eso que no me puedo quejar de mis últimas lecturas.
Todos los relatos tienen su propio brillo, desde la historia de amor que termina antes de empezar por culpa del sonido de un móvil, hasta la madre que sueña con su bebé y lo pierde antes de su nacimiento... o el mejor relato para mí, el de Ambre, con la extraña histo...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Jenny Sparrow rated it 3 of 5 stars

Это мое первое знакомство с творчеством Гавальды, причем произошедшее не по моему явному желанию, а с помощью подруги, которая мне подсунула эту книгу :) Когда у меня наконец-то нашлось на нее настроение, я была удивлена тем, что мне понравилось. Я вообще очень люблю малую форму, да и стиль у автора приятный - простой, но в чем-то завораживающий. Не все истории пришлись мне по душе, но понравившихся было подавляющее большинство.

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Oct 24, 2009 Pejman Shojaeion rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

این کتاب جزو کتابهای محبوب من هستش، خصوصا" داستان دوست داشتم کسی جایی ... از این مجموعه را خیلی دوست دارم ، بنظرم کتابی هستش که مناسب احساسات سنین پختگی در عشق هستش ، این مجموعه داستان کوتاه را خواندنش رو بهتون توصیه می کنم اگر کمی از عشق هاي بي فرجام خسته هستید

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Jun 08, 2012 Abeer Hoque rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: i-recommend

I wish the oceans didn't separate the lit worlds so. British books sometimes make it over this way, and sometimes translations of foreign language books, but not enough. So it took a hearty recommendation from a friend who lives in Paris for me to pick up this fabulous French book by Anna Gavalda: I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere, which took the French world by storm, and then went international. I myself devoured it in two days.

IWSWWfMS is a collection of stories, some so short as...more

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Nov 28, 2010 Chanti rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

An enchanting collection of short stories. I read this year after year. The stories are different, but the elegance of Gavalda's language is uniform throughout. I realllly loved this book because I think there is something undeniably beautiful about human frailties...about getting into someone's pysche and seeing their vulnerabilities, their desires, their hopes, their sadness, their joy. Galvada does this so masterfully and with so much tenderness... but also with a lot of bite. I can't recomme...more

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Jul 24, 2007 Tartiflette rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who reads French

This is one of the unstuffiest, easiest to read, most entertaining sets of vignettes I've ever read. Great for people wanting to brush up on modern French. Anna Gavalda has a bright literary future in front of her!

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Apr 02, 2012 Carla rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, french

I read this book in French and in that case I didn't mind it was a book with stories (my French is not that good that I easily read a novel, so stories are better). Luckily this book wasn't too hard to read in French, although I haven't completed it (before having to return it to the library). I have mixed feelings about the book and the stories. Some I really liked, charming little gems, but other stories I just didn't get. In those cases, the ending came while I expected more and I had to go b...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Anh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: romantic, liked

I don't remember the first short stories book I've ever read, so assumingly this is the first one. My first thought was, "This is strange." I guess I'm finally too used to fat books, which was why I felt funny when the first short story abruptly stopped. I told myself, "Well, what did you expect?" but still, it takes a little effort to enjoy (very) short stories.

But once I was in, this book was alluring. Each story is distinguishing, its theme is completely different - and yet has something in c...more

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Feb 03, 2009 Foroogh rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

زندگی رااموختم.دسته گلهای کوچک برای همسران ودسته گلهای بزرگ برای معشوقه ها.....ازمقدمه کتاب

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Mar 15, 2013 Cherrelle Smith rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-reading-challenge, read-for-university

This was an interesting read; nothing that I would every choose for myself but I'm glad I had to read it for university.

Apparently it's an awful translation but as I know nothing of French, I couldn't possibly comment.

The book I read (ignoring the fact of it being a translation) repeatedly hooked me with every new character/story it introduced. It's just chock-full of cliffhanger-like endings which leave you wondering what happened to all the characters in its dozen short stories.

The punchy, to-...more

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May 30, 2009 Andy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I liked this a lot. It seems like recently I've been reading collections of short stories just to shit on them, but I felt like these stories really justified the format. They had a zing or an oomph to them that I enjoyed very much.

I think that, in some ways, these stories appealed to the part of me that makes me tear up during romantic comedies (which is something I promised I wasn't going to volunteer anymore; oops). That's not to imply that I think they are just junk food or anything like tha...more

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Jan 05, 2012 Donnell rated it 4 of 5 stars

So far I really like this book. I will definitely be reading more from this author.

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Dec 03, 2012 Monica rated it 3 of 5 stars

My friend and colleague lent me one of her books for the intention of helping me pick up a lesson or two about dating. It was originally in French, and I was a bit uncertain if I must read it. Some translated works turned out garbage, you know.

But this novel was different. It was actually a collection of short stories with the title as the theme. I enjoyed reading them and had a good laugh for some, but as I was drawing near the last story, I had this sudden heaviness in my chest that I couldn’t...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Stela rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Stela by: une ancienne étudiante à moi

Shelves: postmodernism, reviews

«Je voudrais que quelqu’un m’attende quelque part… C’est quand même pas compliqué», se dit un personnage, en formulant ainsi le titre parfait d’un volume où douze nouvelles parlent, d’une façon ou d’une autre, de la solitude, son supra thème. Un thème interprété habituellement en tenant compte de toutes ses connotations dramatiques, mais qui est traité ici dans des registres différents, du tragique au sarcastique, du sérieux à l’humoristique. Et par-dessus de tout, c’est l’ironie qui définit mêm...more «Je voudrais que quelqu’un m’attende quelque part… C’est quand même pas compliqué», se dit un personnage, en formulant ainsi le titre parfait d’un volume où douze nouvelles parlent, d’une façon ou d’une autre, de la solitude, son supra thème. Un thème interprété habituellement en tenant compte de toutes ses connotations dramatiques, mais qui est traité ici dans des registres différents, du tragique au sarcastique, du sérieux à l’humoristique. Et par-dessus de tout, c’est l’ironie qui définit même le tragique… même dans les seules trois nouvelles où rien ne donne envie de rire, on découvre l’ironie cachée soit dans l’ignorance des autres de nos propres souffrances (« IIG »), soit dans l’innocence avec laquelle on côtoie le malheur (« Le fait du jour »), soit dans la mort aussi dans le sens propre que figuré d’un idéal (« Pendant des années »)
Si les nouvelles susmentionnées illustrent plutôt la comédie d’intention, en renforçant l’idée que la solitude, tout en étant un élément essentiel de la condition humaine reste incompréhensible aussi par le soi que pour les proches, les autres s’exercent dans la comédie de caractère, de situation et surtout de langage, dans une variété de registres linguistiques qui passent de l’ironie tendre au sarcasme et humour noir.
Le talent de donner vie à un personnage par quelques traits de crayon est peut-être le don le plus remarquable de cette écrivain qui ne cesse jamais de m’émerveiller. Dans ce recueil, les portraits tombent souvent en caricature et la solitude est surtout un châtiment qu’une prédestination. On voit ainsi la jeune fille aux rêves cultes qui ne peut trouver l’amour précisément à cause de Baudelaire, Sagan « et tous ces charlatans », le jeune homme de bonne famille qui «s’y est repris à deux fois pour avoir le bac, mais le permis non, ça va », l’éternel Don Juan surnommé Poêle Tefal « parce qu’il ne voulait surtout pas s’attacher », tous les trois ayant plus d’une chance de devenir l’un ou l’autre du couple riche dans lequel l’homme ne trompe plus sa femme par crainte de la pension alimentaire qu’il devrait payer en divorçant, et la femme pense à sa vie ratée mais aussi au « petit tailleur vert ».
Les situations dans lesquelles ces personnages et d’autres se trouvent frisent parfois le grotesque et l’absurde. Un jeune homme vole le Jaguar neuf de son père pour une escapade inoffensive, mais sur le chemin de retour il va le transformer involontairement dans un « truc métallisé » à l’aide d’un… sanglier. Un autre, avec la femme de ses rêves finalement entre ses bras, se demande s’il sera capable d’ouvrir son nouveau canapé-lit de chez Ikea. Une femme, violée brutalement par trois ivrognes, leur greffe les testicules « au dessus de la pomme d’Adam ».
La touche finale est, évidemment, l’oralité du style, car Anna Gavalda sait comment reproduire le langage parlé, avec son argot et son humeur : le resto « Deux-Magots », c’est légèrement plouc le soir, il n’y a que des grosses Américaines qui guettent l’esprit de Simone de Beauvoir». Quelqu’un se plaint que son cœur «est comme un grand sac vide, le sac, il est costaud, y pourrait contenir un souk pas possible et pourtant y a rien dedans. Un certain Mercier a essayé « de baratiner Myriam alors qu’il a une chevalière en or avec ses initiales en surimpression. » Une femme « pète plus haut que son cul. »
Il n’est pas au hasard qu’il y ait un épilogue comme douzième nouvelle. Dans ce monde ahurissant d’aujourd’hui, où tout est pris plus ou moins à la légère, où les objets envahissent et tendent de remplacer la vie, la création devient elle-même un moyen de s’enrichir… ou c’est ce que croit, pour une brève période, l’artiste en herbe qui envoie son premier manuscrit à une maison d’édition et reçoit une invitation de s’y présenter. Mais l’éditeur était tout simplement curieux de la connaître et déçue, la jeune écrivain régale son manuscrit à une belle fille rencontrée dans la rue qui n’était même pas française.
Un geste symbolique, qui définit encore une fois l’œuvre non par rapport à la critique mais par rapport au public – le vrai bénéficiaire. Et moi, le public, j’en suis bien contente !
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May 27, 2011 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars

This collection of short stories offers a good, satisfying mix of different voices, tones, and emotions. One of the things Anna Gavalda excels at is accurately reproducing the look and feel of our inner monologues to ourselves -- the self-doubt, guilt, awkwardness, fear, and muddle, but also the hopes, crushes, day dreams, inside jokes, and imagined futures that percolate through our brains on any given day. These stories also go by in a breeze that makes her writing seem effortless, but the the...more

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Oct 19, 2010 Mohsen Sad rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

نویسنده ای که به داستان کوتاه اعتقادی ندارد و تنها به دلیل اینکه بچه دار است شب ها یک داستان کوتاه می نویسد بهتر آن است که ننویسد
چون اگر بنویسد من کتابش را نصف و نیمه رها می کنم و وقت گرانبهایم را دو دستی می چسبم
تجربه ای تلخ از یک سری داستان کوتاه که نویسنده با پارازیت گویی خود را نویسنده می داند
پایان اظهار نظر

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Aug 06, 2010 Alizée rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 10, 2012 Duy Nguyen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tôi thích những câu chuyện đơn giản, mà cụ thể là những mẫu chuyện ngắn, thê lương cũng được, hài hước càng tốt và châm biếm thì càng tuyệt. Tất cả hội tụ đủ trong “Giá đâu đó có người đợi tôi” của Anna Gavalda.

Nếu kỳ vọng quá nhiều vào cuốn sách với tựa đề rất chi là lãng mạn và hay ho này, người đọc có thể sẽ hơi thất vọng một chút. Muốn tìm kiếm những câu chuyện tình lung linh với những tình tiết có thể lấy nước mắt hoặc những khung cảnh văn học khiến bạn phải xuýt xoa mãi vì sự lãng mạn của...more Tôi thích những câu chuyện đơn giản, mà cụ thể là những mẫu chuyện ngắn, thê lương cũng được, hài hước càng tốt và châm biếm thì càng tuyệt. Tất cả hội tụ đủ trong “Giá đâu đó có người đợi tôi” của Anna Gavalda.

Nếu kỳ vọng quá nhiều vào cuốn sách với tựa đề rất chi là lãng mạn và hay ho này, người đọc có thể sẽ hơi thất vọng một chút. Muốn tìm kiếm những câu chuyện tình lung linh với những tình tiết có thể lấy nước mắt hoặc những khung cảnh văn học khiến bạn phải xuýt xoa mãi vì sự lãng mạn của nó thì tốt nhất đừng đọc “Giá đâu đó có người đợi tôi”. Không có cái gì gọi là lung linh và lãng mạn trong 12 câu chuyện này cả. 12 truyện ngắn trong cuốn sách này có thể gọi là “chuyện đời tự kể” cho dù chúng được dựng lên dưới ngòi bút của một nữ tác giả người Pháp! Có thể nói “Giá đâu đó có người đợi tôi” là một phòng triễn lãm những bức chân dung chân thật của những con người bước ra từ những câu chuyện rất đỗi đời thường.

Chúng ta có thể bắt gặp những tên tán gái điệu nghệ; những cô nàng xinh đẹp, bãn lĩnh nhưng vẫn đau đớn nhận ra tình yêu là thứ xa xỉ với họ, hay đâu đó là bà mẹ mừng rỡ trước đứa con chuẩn bị ra đời rồi lại ngậm ngùi nhìn người khác cầu chúc cho một điều không còn có thể diễn ra; hoặc ở kia là chàng binh nhì thô kệch nhưng lại mang trong mình một nỗi đơn độc và ký ức rõ ràng về một cô bé gái tuổi 12, hay một lúc nào đó là cặp tình nhân lạ lùng mang trong mình những kỷ niệm không bao giờ có thể quên ở thời quá khứ nhưng trong hiện tại, họ sinh ra không để dành cho nhau. Rồi cũng có thể bạn sẽ bắt gặp những cô gái Pháp giỏi giang, mắc kẹt trong cái nghề mà mình không muốn làm, cô đơn, mệt mỏi với cuộc đời và điều đáng sợ hơn là cô độc trong chính gia đình của mình. Và rồi cuối cùng bạn cũng sẽ bắt gặp hình ảnh của tác giả, được khắc họa một cách hài hước và đầy châm biếm trong truyện ngắn cuối cùng.

Cái làm tôi cảm thấy thú vị trong “Giá đâu đó có người đợi tôi” là ở chỗ nó mang một cách viết tưng tửng, tưởng là ngẫu hứng nhưng thật chất lại là sự lựa chọn một cách kỹ càng từng câu chữ, chỉ một người luôn nghĩ vê nhân vật của mình, suy tư cho tình cảm của con người thật nhiều mới có thể diễn tả một cách hài hước nhưng vô cùng cay đắng trong từng lời nói, từng hành động của nhân vật. Thú vị, hài hước và châm biếm nhưng cũng sẽ lấy đi nước mắt của những ai thấy được đằng sau cái vẻ bóng lộn và hào nhoáng của cuộc đời còn có những nỗi lòng khác, những khía cạnh khác. Cuộc đời là vậy, đẹp đẽ nhưng không công bằng, cái chúng ta có được chưa chắc đã là cái chúng ta mong muốn; nhưng tất cả phụ thuộc vào chúng ta, chấp nhận hay không chấp nhận mà thôi!

Tôi đã nhìn thấy chính mình trong từng câu chuyện của Anna Gavalda. Khi thì thế này, khi thì thế khác, tuy đó không phải là tôi nhưng rốt cuộc lại phản ánh chính xác những gì tôi đang suy nghĩ. Quả thật, khó thể nói được truyện ngắn nào đã lôi cuốn tôi hay toàn bộ quyển sách đã để lại trong đầu tôi những điều khó có thể phủ nhận.

Có người thích, có người không thích cuốn sách này, đó là lẽ đương nhiên, nhưng tôi mong những ai không thích nó hãy đọc nó lại một lần nữa. Hãy nằm dài thư giãn trên chiếc giường của mình, tai có thể nghe những bản nhạc nhẹ nhàng yêu thích. Hãy đừng đọc để cố lấy nội dung của quyển sách mà hãy cứ để chúng từ từ đến với bạn, hãy thưởng thức nó một cách từ từ nhưng đang xem một bộ phim ngắn. Rồi bạn sẽ thấy ở “Giá đâu đó có người đợi tôi” có những mảng sáng rực rỡ của một bầu trời xám mùa đông.

“Giá đâu đó có người đợi tôi… Kể ra ước mong này cũng đâu có gì là phức tạp”*

*: một câu trích từ truyện ngắn Về Phép
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Apr 07, 2012 annik rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, french-lit, read-in-russian

Первые три-четыре рассказа я слушала в аудиоверсии, читала их прекрасная экспрессивная мадам, которая к моему дикому возмущению назвала ГавАльду ГавальдОй. Полезла в гугл, удостоверилась, что она все же ГавальдА — жутко расстроилась xD

А позже мне дали книжечку, так что я в очередной раз предпочла прочесть, а не прослушать. По прочтении точно поняла, что мне бы хотелось, чтобы ГавальдА не писала больше ничего столь же эпично фэйличного.

Я — ладно, включилась в последние несколько рассказов, один д...more

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May 02, 2011 Lisa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: francais

The last book we read in French class as an example of contemporary, modern and popular literature. It is a collection of short stories, where the common themes usually are such as love and every day situations. Sometimes humour, sometimes tragedy. The titles is chosen, I believe, because "waiting" really is what the lives of all these people is marked by. Waiting for a lover, for a child to be born, to find a sense of belonging in life, to a letter from an editor to arrive...

I prefer the story...more The last book we read in French class as an example of contemporary, modern and popular literature. It is a collection of short stories, where the common themes usually are such as love and every day situations. Sometimes humour, sometimes tragedy. The titles is chosen, I believe, because "waiting" really is what the lives of all these people is marked by. Waiting for a lover, for a child to be born, to find a sense of belonging in life, to a letter from an editor to arrive...

I prefer the story the title is taken from ("Permission") because it's kind of sweet and I can sort of relate to the main character in a way, even if it's really not that surprising. And I like the one called "Ambre", because it has a hopeful tone to it, despite the fact that the main character is a famous pop star who has lost big parts of his live to drugs. A bit chliché as it may be, I kind of like the idea of redemption through love and a second chance.

The problem I see with it is that it's a bit banal. The writer wants to amuse and surprise but there are no real surprises and it's like everything is "ready-made", already served for the reader, too transparent. And most of the stories just don't interests me. The way the first one starts kind of proves my point, in a way:

Saint-Germain-des-Prés!?... Je sais ce que vous allez me dire: "Mon Dieu, mais c'est d'un commun, ma chérie, Sagan l'a fait bien avant toi et tellllement mieux!" Je sais.

Here, Gavalda tries to disarm the reader with what can look like self-irony... I doesn't really work for me. I really think that there are more interesting stories to be found out there.

The language was a bit hard for me to follow at times because it's very modern, colloquial even, but I think that's one reason why Gavalda is popular. Many people probably find it refreshing. Myself, I don't really like the style and the tone of voice of the writer... (I can say this because I read the book translated to Swedish a couple of years ago!) The reason I liked Ensemble, c'est tout a lot was probably mostly because I found the plot and the characters much more interesting.

Still, I gave the book two stars because it wasn't crap... it's nice enough for a moment's diversion for example on an airplane, which was where I first read it. It's hard, if not impossible, to tell which of the authors of today that will be in tomorrow's books of the history of literature... Still, I think there must be more interesting collections of short stories to use as example of something "contemporary" in a French literature class.
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About Anna Gavalda

Anna Gavalda is a French teacher and award-winning novelist.

Referred to by Voici magazine as "a distant descendant of Dorothy Parker", Anna Gavalda was born in an upper-class suburb of Paris. While working as French teacher in high school, a collection of her short stories was first published in 1999 under the title "Je voudrais que quelqu'un m'attende quelque part" that met with both critical acc...more Anna Gavalda is a French teacher and award-winning novelist.

Referred to by Voici magazine as "a distant descendant of Dorothy Parker", Anna Gavalda was born in an upper-class suburb of Paris. While working as French teacher in high school, a collection of her short stories was first published in 1999 under the title "Je voudrais que quelqu'un m'attende quelque part" that met with both critical acclaim and commercial success, selling more than three-quarters of a million copies in her native France and winning the 2000 "Grand Prix RTL-Lire." The book was translated into numerous languages including in English and sold in twenty-seven countries. It was published to acclaim in North America in 2003 as "I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere." The book received much praise and is a library and school selection worldwide in several languages.

Gavalda's first novel, Je l'aimais (Someone I Loved) was published in France in February 2002 and later that year in English. Inspired by the failure of her own marriage, it too was a major literary success and a bestseller and was followed by the short (96 pages) juvenile novel 35 kilos d'espoir (95 Pounds of Hope) that she said she wrote "to pay tribute to those of my students who were dunces in school but otherwise fantastic people".

In 2004, her third novel, "Ensemble c'est tout," focused on the lives of four people living in an apartment house: a struggling young artist who works as an office cleaner at night, a young aristocrat misfit, a cook, and an elderly grandmother. The 600-page book is a bestseller in France and has been translated into English as Hunting and Gathering.

As of 2007, her three books have sold more than 3 million copies in France. Ensemble c'est tout was made into a successful movie in 2007 by Claude Berri, with Audrey Tautou and Guillaume Canet. The adaptation of her first novel, Je l'aimais, with Daniel Auteuil and Marie-Josée Croze, was filmed in 2009 by Zabou Breitman.

Divorced, and the mother of two, Gavalda lives in the city of Melun, Seine-et-Marne, about 50 km southeast of Paris. In addition to writing novels, she also contributes to Elle magazine.(less)

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Quotes from I Wish Someone Were Wa...

“How could you let yourself be sidetracked while I was waiting for your breath on my back?” — 18 people liked it

“Quand j'arrive à la gare de l'Est, j'espère toujours secrètement qu'il y aura quelqu'un pour m'attendre. C'est con. J'ai beau savoir que ma mère est encore au boulot à cette heure-là et que Marc est pas du genre à traverser la banlieue pour porter mon sac, j'ai toujours cet espoir débile. [...] Je voudrais que quelqu'un m'attende quelque part... C'est quand même pas compliqué.” — 14 people liked it

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