Of Illustrious Men

Le cycle romanesque familial et autobiographique #2

by Jean Rouaud

A grieving son explores his father's identity as a quiet family man, traveling salesman, and World War II hero, and forms an understanding about human greatness in both war and peace times. By the Goncourt prize-winning author of Fields of Glory.

Genres: Fiction, France, Historical, Literature

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Jean Rouaud (born December 13, 1952) is a French author, who was born in Campbon, Loire-Atlantique. In 1990 his novel Fields of Glory (French: Les Champs d'honneur) won the Prix Goncourt. First believed to be the first book in a trilogy, Fields of Glory turned out to be the first book in a series of five books on the family history of the author. In 2009 he published the novel La femme promise.

Source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Brulois Brigitte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Livre passionnant, autobiographique à travers la figure d'un père mort trop jeune. On revit grâce au regard d'un enfant les années 1940 à 1960. Bombardement de Nantes, remembrement dramatique de la Bretagne. Style alerte, disnarratif avec de l'humour. Je continue la série

[Ritesh · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is a corn maze. You stand in line with your free entry ticket, get in, get lost, never want to admit you are lost and somehow manage to find your exit and sigh "phew, we are saved!". That phrase, incidentally, is the most apt ending for the book.

The effort of a son to commemorate his father is touching, but by the end of the book you really begin to wonder who is who. None of the characters make any impact, even the story seems so haphazard that you cannot relate to it.

I would recommend this when you have nothing better to do and are prepared to leave a book unfinished.

[Calzean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some lovely words which convey the life and times of Joseph, a travelling salesman, who dies at 41 after WWII. But it was a wandering, rambling tale that really did not go anywhere or offer a plot, a message or a reason to recommend this book.

[Mazen Alloujami · Rating 5 out of 5]

Avec une simplicité éblouissante, l'auteur nous décrit son père et nous raconte sa vie. Le vie d'un grand homme dans un tout petit village breton.
C'est un roman beau et touchant.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps a little less impressive (if only because the feeling of greeting a new author is gone?) than Fields of Glory, but rather more linear and easier to "get into" as well. Joseph, the father who died at age 41 in Fields of Glory, is the central subject of this second novel by Rouaud, and we see both his life as a father and provider, as well as insight into him as a son and as a member of the French Resistance during World War II. Neither as funny nor quite as "serious" as Fields, but still a fine piece of fiction.

[Marie-pierre Stien · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterpiece of French literature, the first of Rouaud memoir trilogy. The language is delightful. Rouaud is a master at circular story-telling, taking the reader further and further into expanding circles of narrative only to magically tie back to the beginning. Rouaud is slightly self-deprecative but also very kind and sensitive, describing the kind of middle class French live that is not the usual literary setting. A classic.