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Wer einmal die Augen öffnet, kann nicht mehr ruhig schlafen
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October 28, 2024
The title is amazing, the book description is amazing -- but the book itself did not, sadly, convince me. This is due to the fact that a big part of the book consists of anecdotes about French history, literature, movie and art that I have no knowledge about or connection to. Something I struggled with even more is the name-dropping of street names, square names, shop names that are irrelevant to the plot. Here's an example:
"(...) und wir überquerten die Seine gemeinsam auf dem Pont-Neuf. Von dort lief ich schnell zum Châtelet, um die letzte Metro zu erwischen, die ich manchmal verpasste. Dann ging ich zu Fuß durch die Rue de Rivoli, die Rue Vieille-du-Temple und die Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire nach Hause zurück. Oder die Rue des Archives, die Rue des Francs-Bourgeois und über die stille Place des Vosges, um mal eine andere Strecke zu gehen."
This book is, in my opionion, a book for people who like and know Paris very well, who can (and want to) follow each street, shop and café the protagonist sees or visits, and who are patient to read quite random accounts of movies or songs that were popular back then. It's a great book for someone interested in French history and art.
I really enjoyed the protagonist's encounters with other people (e.g. with Robert, Laura, Ruth), the very interesting story of his family, and I started to really love his kind mother and his lovely brother Alex. I would have loved to read more about his aunt, too.
If the book had focused more on the protagonist's search for identity and his family's past and less on street names and popular movies, then I am sure I would've enjoyed it a lot more.
"(...) und wir überquerten die Seine gemeinsam auf dem Pont-Neuf. Von dort lief ich schnell zum Châtelet, um die letzte Metro zu erwischen, die ich manchmal verpasste. Dann ging ich zu Fuß durch die Rue de Rivoli, die Rue Vieille-du-Temple und die Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire nach Hause zurück. Oder die Rue des Archives, die Rue des Francs-Bourgeois und über die stille Place des Vosges, um mal eine andere Strecke zu gehen."
This book is, in my opionion, a book for people who like and know Paris very well, who can (and want to) follow each street, shop and café the protagonist sees or visits, and who are patient to read quite random accounts of movies or songs that were popular back then. It's a great book for someone interested in French history and art.
I really enjoyed the protagonist's encounters with other people (e.g. with Robert, Laura, Ruth), the very interesting story of his family, and I started to really love his kind mother and his lovely brother Alex. I would have loved to read more about his aunt, too.
If the book had focused more on the protagonist's search for identity and his family's past and less on street names and popular movies, then I am sure I would've enjoyed it a lot more.
Displaying 1 of 1 review