Seeing that his works aroused so much interest, Philippe Besson then decided to dedicate himself exclusively to his writing. Because after reading it, it felt like a whirlwind piece of fiction, and it left me dazed and wondering what just happened. Un Marie à bord duquel nous naviguons, sur des mers calmes ou déchainées, à la recherche de rivages paisibles ou accidentés.

From here, just when you think the book has finished with you, it delivers a truly shocking twist regarding the second character. The second part of the novel is a series of letters between Vincent and Arthur and Vincent and the unnamed author. Dur de lire ce livre sans être bouleversé, touché, remué, dur de ne pas laisser couler des larmes devant une telle intensité, une si magnifique pureté. As I'm doing some reading summaries of 2018, I have decided that In the Absence of Men is the greatest disappointment of the year for me. Troublé par les dernières pages ondulées et à l'encre déteinte du livre d'occasion que je tiens entre les mains, sans savoir si elles le sont par la pluie ou par les larmes de celui ou celle qui les a lu avant moi.

Because you know we have to advance at all costs, win back inches of ground from the enemy, reach the barbed wire hundred meters ahead.

To escape, the slaughter, we drag ourselves into the holes and try to huddle into the dirt waiting for the moment when the firing stops. That appears to be very true for a lot of modern fiction: advertising produces covers that are more persuasive than the writing inside. Overall, very good book and I hope more of this author’s work is translated into English in the future. Maybe due to a rather lackluster translation, or the longueurs of the war-related sections, but it didn't seem to have the propulsive quality of his other two books -albeit at 166 pages it only took me a day and a half to read it. Let’s start with the fact that the narrator of the novel, Vincent, is one of the most unpleasant characters I can think of – and in a very dull sense.

His perception of human communication, with all its flaws, awkwardness and often inadequacies, is perfect.

The first novel by Besson, he had to send the manuscript to seven or eight publishers eventually settling on the publisher Julliard. One of the most interesting literary devices I saw in this novel was the fact that parts of it were written in the second-person narrative.

The novel is a Platonic discourse on love, which never really reaches any great depths because Vincent is such a superficial young lover. The object is not the end, it is the means through which one connects to the intrinsic beauty of life, where all dimensions and boundaries disappear.

Quem gosta de Proust vai se deliciar com essa homenagem ao autor (e alguns temas de sua obra), que se passa na época da I Guerra Mundial e que vai desde os horrores da guerra até as sensações delicadas e evocativas de encontrar um primeiro amor, para apenas perdê-lo para a brevidade do tempo em que ele pôde realizar-se. To find out what personal information we collect and how we use it, please visit our privacy policy.At the outset, Vincent meets both Marcel and Arthur for the first time, and their relationships develop in 7 days.