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101st out of 233 books
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Desert
The Swedish academy, in awarding J.M.G. Le Cezio the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature, praised Desert as Le Cleio's "definitive breakthrough as a novelist." Published in France in 1980, Desert received the Grand Prix Paul Morand from the Academie Francaise, was translated into twenty-three languages, and quickly proved to be a best-selling novel in many countries a...more
Hardcover, 352 pages
Published
June 1st 2009
by David R. Godine Publisher
(first published 1966)
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This book is beautifully written. The language and descriptions of the desert and its people are stunning. But I felt at a remove from the characters, separated from them as by a wall of clouds. Could this have something to do with the translation? Or was it because there was almost no dialogue, just a monologue by an omniscient narrator who tells us what the characters are doing and what they feel?
I don't know. But it isn't often that I throw in the towel on a book only 10 page...more
I don't know. But it isn't often that I throw in the towel on a book only 10 page...more
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This French author won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2008. I had never heard of him before his award, as is embarrassingly true of many of the Nobel Prize winners when they are not American or English. Recently I resolved to read at least one book of each of these writers as long as they write novels. Having read Desert, I understand why he was awarded. The book was originally published in French by Editions Gallimard in 1980 and translated into English for release in 2009.
E...more
Desert by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio is a perfect example of why Le Clézio won the Nobel in 2008, even though he was little known in the United States –sprawling, place specific narratives that bring to life the histories of cultures we do not know and that the world is quickly forgetting. One thing not to expect when you read Desert is a fast-paced narrative that immediately transplants you into another place and time. It does take to another place, but in as low, slightly repetitive ...more
First the confession: I had never heard of Le Clezio until he won the Nobel in 2008, then when I bought the book a few months later, it was not the Noble prize that compelled me, but the picture on the cover of the verbamundi hardcover edition– an enigmatic woman with a blue veil. (the picture, by the way, is by photographer Dan Heller).
To be lead to this book by a picture is ironic, as the reading of Desert is so much akin of watching a painter drawing and coloring on...more
To be lead to this book by a picture is ironic, as the reading of Desert is so much akin of watching a painter drawing and coloring on...more
Desert was an amazing book. It was published 7 years after the Giants, but it seems like it was written 40 years later by an entirely different man. Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration. Le Clezio still employs alot of the same tricks like long descriptions of people walking and minute objects. While his other books made me go "holy f$%!", the Desert actually managed to effect me emotionally by placing those tricks around a more, well-in comparison more, plot driven narrative. The fir...more
I was curious about Le Clezio because he won the Nobel Prize. The prose was lovely and lyrical, but I do love a good plot. Two stories intertwine - a young man is part of an ill-fated army headed across the desert to fight the Christians in the early part of the 20th century. In the later part of the century, a young woman lives in squalor on the coast of North Africa. She seems to be a conduit for a lot of marvelous description of nature and then later of city life - but to not have much of...more
Was reading this book in French and not a translation, got to page 70 and couldn't take it anymore. It is too effing repetitive, the author just labors on and on and on and on, on unnecessary and redundant details; so much so that you feel as if he got his money per the number of pages he wrote. Trust me, the feeling that you get that the author is just wasting words is not because of the translation {if you are reading a translated version}, but is the essence of the work {in its original lang...more
I was curious about De Clezio, a writer I had never heard of until recently, but when I learned that he had received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2008, I thought I'd take a look.
This relatively early (1980) work of his alternates two stories of North Africans. The first is told from the point of view of a young man who witnesses the methodical destruction, from l900 to 1910, under the command of General Charles Mangin who later went on to WW I fame as the "butcher"...more
This relatively early (1980) work of his alternates two stories of North Africans. The first is told from the point of view of a young man who witnesses the methodical destruction, from l900 to 1910, under the command of General Charles Mangin who later went on to WW I fame as the "butcher"...more
"Desert is a rich, sprawling, searching, poetic, provocative, broadly historic and demanding novel, which in all those ways displays the essence of Le Clézio. As a reflection on colonization and its legacy, it is painfully relevant after 30 years. There is an element of the missionary in Le Clézio, just as there is still something of the rebel in him, in search of the new novel, trying to break loose from the traditional bonds of fiction and language to mirror a wider world — as the Nobel c...more
I am perplexed by Le Clezio's "Desert"; it is so beautifully written that it actually becomes mesmerizing. Such mastery of language in the most classical sense... I could not help sensing some strong Proustian affinities!
Yet, I also felt the book was so strangely empty; the thought dawned on me that maybe, just maybe, Le Clezio engineered that emptiness to reflect the vast empty horizon of the desert itself.
Yet, I also felt the book was so strangely empty; the thought dawned on me that maybe, just maybe, Le Clezio engineered that emptiness to reflect the vast empty horizon of the desert itself.
I was curious about Le Clezio because he won the Nobel Prize. The prose was lovely and lyrical, but I do love a good plot. Two stories intertwine - a young man is part of an ill-fated army headed across the desert to fight the Christians in the early part of the 20th century. In the later part of the century, a young woman lives in squalor on the coast of North Africa. She seems to be a conduit for a lot of marvelous description of nature and then later of city life - but to not have much of...more
Three and a half, actually.Sometimes lyrically written; haunting at times; boring at others. Although it took me a little while to catch on to the threads of the story the author told, skipping over generations, I did find it ultimately very moving. It was a really interesting way of conveying the devastating and lasting effects of colonial conquest on the desert people of North Africa without any polemics or lectures out of the mouth of a character. I was fascinated by the descriptions of th...more
I'll admit to only reading the first four pages. It was all I could take. After reading the first couple paragraphs, all I could think, as I continued reading, was, "We get it already!!!"
I then proceeded to simply sit for the next 8 hours on the airplane because this was the only book I brought with me to read. That's how much I did not want to read this book.
I then proceeded to simply sit for the next 8 hours on the airplane because this was the only book I brought with me to read. That's how much I did not want to read this book.
This book is beautifully BEAUTIFULLY written. I enjoyed reading every line. I found the two stories distracting and was less interested in the the migration north through the desert. The author allows you to see, smell and feel the desert as it is travelled through and lived in. What a hard life. A book to get lost in.
"Desert" is beautifully written but I had a hard time engaging with the book--perhaps it was just the wrong choice for summer reading. If you like poetic prose, you'll love this book; but it's the wrong choice for someone looking for fast-paced plot.
LeClezio writes a stream of consciousness from the point of view of his young narrators. Both are members of the Tuaregs--a nomadic people from the Sahara. The first is a young boy from circa 1900 who sets the tone of the n...more
LeClezio writes a stream of consciousness from the point of view of his young narrators. Both are members of the Tuaregs--a nomadic people from the Sahara. The first is a young boy from circa 1900 who sets the tone of the n...more
The first half and last chapter are magical magic realism. The middle of the book does not measure up to Nobel Prize standards, but I give it 5 stars for the parts that do. Of those parts, I'll say it is among the best writing I've ever read.
Nobel Prize-winning author's tale of two Algerian desert people, a boy many years ago, and a contemporary girl of his tribe, and their struggles to exist against the forces first of colonialism and then globalization. Lovely.
This book has no plot. It is all ambiance, feel, and sensation. It took me awhile to slow down for it. Then I didn't want to finish it so I only read a few pages a day
Very beautiful writing, plot is a little slow. The gaps in the narrative are a little strange and I had a little trouble understanding the parallelism of the two stories. But I was glad that I read it, it was worth slogging through.
Didn't finish it - hated this book - endless repeating drove me insane - handed it back to the library gratefully - somebody else had requested it!
Lengthy wanderings through N African desert and the desert of the exiles of modern society. Beautifully written but a bit tedious.
It is as if this novel maintains its own atmosphere; at once with air stifling but when breathed in, another world awakens: an alterity of sand, surf and rock. Lovely, just lovely.
Hardly a page turner, but once you let go and go with the slowness and the beautiful flow of the language, it's a joy.
I learned about the desert and North African culture. Then Le Clézio go deeply in the poverty, in the every day life of poor people living without happiness.
Lalla, the main character, discover the fear.
Lalla, the main character, discover the fear.
Enjoyed this, but found that the lyricism, while beautiful, distanced me from the whole story. Not in a good way. It was gorgeously written but so drawn out that I found myself skimming through pages at times.
Peggy
marked it as to-read
per audi, interrogation was recommended but this looked better
Just delicious. Highly recommend it. Have a box of kleenex nearby for the ending.
Very impersonal narration. "They came from the hills..." Couldn't get into it...
I am reading this book and have fallen in love with Le Clezio's style of writing. I have been fortunate to have been able to read it in the original French version. What a tale! I have no words to express what this book invokes in me. Such fantastic language and images! So moving and such universal themes. Highly recommended.
Stupid Pitt doesn't have this in the university's library holdings...
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“Out there, in the open desert, men can walk for days without passing a single house, seeing a well, for the desert is so vast that no one can know it all. Men go out into the desert, and they are like ships at sea; no one knows when they will return. Sometimes there are storms, but nothing like here, terrible storms, and the wind tears up the sand and throws it high into the sky, and the men are lost. They die, drowned in the sand, they die lost like ships in a storm, and the sand retains their bodies. Everything is so different in that land; the sun isn't the same as it is here, it burns hotter, and there are men that come back blinded, their faces burned. Nights, the cold makes men who are lost scream out in pain, the cold breaks their bones. Even the men aren't the same as they are here...they are cruel, they stalk their pray like foxes, drawing silently near. They are black, like the Hartani, dressed in blue, faces veiled. They aren't men, but djinns, children of the devil, and they deal with the devil; they are like sorcerers... ”
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“Lalla attend quelque chose. Elle ne sait pas très bien quoi, mais elle attend. Les jours sont longs, à la Cité, les jours de pluie, les jours de vents, les jours de l'été. Quelquefois Lalla croit qu'elle attend seulement que les jours arrivent mais quand ils sont là, elle s'aperçoit que ce n'étaient pas eux. Elle attend, c'est tout. Les gens ont beaucoup de patience, peut-être qu'ils attendent toute leur vie quelque chose, et que jamais rien n'arrive.”
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