Pascal Garnier

[Antonomasia, Admin only]

Author of modern French noir novellas featuring "characters drawn from ordinary provincial life" (and of other types of books as yet untranslated to English). d. 2010

-----
I think a few people on the old forum read him (Trevor? lascosas?) Having previously assumed for some reason that I'd find him boring, I ended up reading one the last few days and loved it.

That might have been the subliminal influence of Orthofer's book. I was reading a Manchette, and suddenly found myself wanting to read Garnier as, although the Manchette had various faults, the idea of these novella length French noirs was appealing. Orthofer had compared Garnier to Manchette & Simenon, I found on checking. I found the Garnier much better written (and translated?) and constructed than The [Prone] Gunman.

That was Moon in a Dead Eye I just read. Immediately wanted to read more of his. Wondered what others' opinions were re. Garnier's best & worst.

[Trevor]

I have read a couple of his books: The Panda Theory (which I quite liked) and The A26 (which I didn't -- it was a bit much for me).

I do have the rest of his books that Gallic has put out so far, and I liked his work enough to keep going. Having read only a couple, I don't know if my opinion on what to read next counts for, but I can definitely say The Panda Theory!

For the purposes of this thread, it looks like Pascal Garnier wrote 17 books for adults, published from 1996 to 2012. He died in 2010 at the age of 60.

Here is his bibliography, links to the nine Garnier books available (or almost available) in English:

- The Eskimo Solution (La Solution esquimau, 1996)
- The Front Seat Passenger (La Place du mort, 1997)
- The Islanders (Les Insulaires, 1998)
- Too Close to the Edge (Trop pres du bord, 1999)
- The A26 (L'A26, 1999)
-Chambre 12 (2000)
- C'est la vie (Nul n'est à l'abri du success, 2001)
-Les Nuisibles (2002)
- Low Heights (Les Hauts du Bas, 2003)
-Parenthèse (2004)
-Flux (2005)
- How's the Pain? (Comment va la douler?, 2006)
- The Panda Theory (La Theorie du panda, 2008)
- Moon in a Dead Eye (Lune captive dans un oiel mort, 2009)
-Le Grand Loin (2009)
- Boxes (Cartons, 2012)

[Deborah]

In addition to Moon in a Dead Eye, I gave four stars to The A26 and The Panda Theory. I didn't think The Islanders lived up to either of these.

I have three more (Boxes, How's the Pain?, and Too Close to the Edge) waiting to be reviewed, so let me know if you want to do a buddy read of any of them.

I'm particularly interested in how I'm going to react to Boxes; like The A26, Boxes was translated by Melanie Florence, whose idiosyncrasies bothered me. I thought Emily Boyce's translation of Moon in a Dead Eye was far superior; since she translated the other two on my TBR list, I expect that I will be better able to compare Garnier's writing among those three.

[Antonomasia, Admin only]

Thanks for pointing out the different translators, Deborah. I hadn't noticed that. Moon in a Dead Eye had a slight sarcasm to it that I found very English, and it struck me as a really excellent translation all round. So will be looking out for the others translated by Boyce.

Just looked at the author page and there are other translators for The Panda Theory (Svein Clouston) and The Front Seat Passenger (Jane Aitken).


Thinking aloud...

I've not done a lot of organised group reads myself. Too many times when I couldn't guarantee to be able to read a book at a certain time a month or more in advance. Though this looser prize longlist stuff is okay, with a selection of several books and not having to read them in a set order or time.

But if a few of us have access to several Garniers, we could maybe post if starting another one, and others could see if they were in a position to join in, or read it within the next week or so? With such short books that might work.

Garnier's are the sort of books I'm likely to read on the spur of the moment as relaxation, more so now I've found all of them except the latest, Too Close to the Edge on Scribd.
But, still leaving several for that kind of situation, at the centre of the Venn diagram there are two books that none of the three of us in this thread so far have read, and all have access to: Boxes and How's The Pain?
How might one of those fit around long/shortlist reads and other responsibilities?

[Deborah]

Antonomasia wrote: "Thanks for pointing out the different translators, Deborah. I hadn't noticed that. Moon in a Dead Eye had a slight sarcasm to it that I found very English, and it struck me as a really excellent tr..."

I like your idea of our just posting a thread for the book when we start reading it, and the others can join in if and when they want to. Since you pointed out the two books all three of us have, I'll be sure to go to one of those first.

[Trevor]

Because I knew I needed to give Garnier another shot after the comments above, I just read The Front Seat Passenger. I loved it! It was dark, but I didn't find it needlessly dark, as was the case with The A26.

So, I'm back on track to keep going with more of his books, and I'm looking forward to Moon in a Dead Eye.

[Paul]

Just read The Panda Theory, inspired by this thread.

I can see why people are fans - Garnier has a wonderful way with words in terms of creating atmosphere, and it's a darkly enjoyable tale.

But I also found it a little unsubtle - some of the very narrative touches that provided the atmosphere seemed the literary equivalent of the spooky music that plays in horror movies to signal to the viewer to be wary of the otherwise benign events and characters on screen. Hence when the story took its darker turn it was rather an anti-climax.

[Antonomasia, Admin only]

How's The Pain?, The Panda Theory and The A26 are currently £1 each on UK Kindle.

[Jonathan]

Antonomasia wrote: "How's The Pain?, The Panda Theory and The A26 are currently £1 each on UK Kindle."

Thanks for the info.

[Trevor]

I just got a copy of Low Heights . The total Garnier we have in English is now 10 (of his 16).

[Trevor]

I haven't updated this thread in a while, but I just got a copy of C'est la vie , which comes out in September. Interesting that this is not the title of the book in French. It's his 2001 novel Nul n'est à l'abri du succès.

[Trevor]

Looking at Gallic Press's website, they are publishing his 2009 novel Le Grand Loin as A Long Way Off next year. That will bring his total translated works up to 12/16.