Rating: 
Summary: War and true love
Review: Five desperate men shoot themselves in order to be relieved from the horrifying frontline at the Somme, in WWI. A court-martial decides to punish them by leaving them alone in no-man's land, to be killed in the crossfire. Then all hell breaks loose and they all die. Or not?
One of these men's fiancée, a young girl who can't walk since age 3, receives information that makes her suspect his boyfriend might have gotten away alive. So she embarks in a painful, long and often frustrating ordeal to find out the truth.
Along the way, I got to really love Matti. She's kinda spoiled and obstinate, but she is a wonderful person, full of true love. Other characters are equally appealing, and the story of Manech and his infortunate companions at war is revealed bit by it, through confusing memories and even contradictory pieces of information.
We discover a terrible but beautiful story through what Clausewitz called "the fog of war". And this story is about courage, nobility, cruelty, loyalty, friendship and, above all, true love.
Absolutely recommended, it is a novel that will easily remain in your memory.
Rating:
Summary: Before Amalie, there was Mathilde...
Review: It is a shame that I saw "Amalie" before reading this book. Though I loved the movie, I kept seeing that actress as the main character of this book. And though there are some similarities in personality, Mathilde exposes herself to our examination far more deeply than Amalie did.Many books have been written about missing fiances, missing lovers, war widows. This book takes those stories and binds them into a gripping mystery. This novel is NOT a tear-jerker and for that alone, it is wonderful. It is a novel about strength and love and a wish for what could have been. It is about who you would want to be if your lover was lost in the war. I will be buying this book for my mother and my best friends. It is something different. I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: In the trenches, taste the dirt
Review: This book was chosen by my twelve-year-long book group. I would not have found Sebastian Japrisot otherwise. This isn't the kind of novel I normally search for, and although the translation made some sentences seem choppy, the story line is so vivid. I could feel the fright of crawling through the trenches with bullets buzzing over my head, of the agony of the smell of death, of the soldier's despair of seeing loved ones ever again. This was beautifully written, but I found I had to write down the character's names while reading, in order to remember who each one was. This was compelling to one who has never been in a war.
Rating:
Summary: One of rhe best books of the last decade.
Review: Sebastien Japrisot is a world class author and this is his best work to date. Part mystery, part historical fiction, part war novel, part romance, A Very Long Engagement follows the exploits of one Mathilde Donnay as she tries to establish just what really happened to her fiancé on the front lines during a battle at Picardy in WW1. Mathilde is one of the truly unique protagonists to appear in many a year. Her determination and unyielding spirit are quite inspiring. This is a book that speaks to many things-honor, devotion, love, the chaos and cruelties of war, friendship, the triumph of the individual. It's the sort of novel that warms your soul while concomitantly breaking your heart. In the end, it stands as a remarkable spiritual work that will stay with you forever. Everyone should read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A terrible translation - read it in French I guess
Review: The translation was very choppy. Sentence structure was of an odd cadence that was hard to follow. I had a really hard time with the translation in general -it was too vague. I am still not sure how the book ended! How sad!
The heroine is SPOILED rotten, and I felt NO sympathy for her. Poor little rich girl. She had too much time on her hands and used her wealthy Daddy's money to pursue her curiosity.... hurting others while she was at it! How selfish!
The other characters were very real, but nonetheless boring. Eskimo could have been interesting, but the plot was so confusing who knows?!
Rating: 
Summary: A Big Waste of Time
Review: There are many things I hate about this book: the neurotic and spoiled main character, the various extraneous sub-plots, the multitude of unneccesary characters to track, etc. First of all, Mathilde is not a heroine. She is a spoiled girl who happens to be handicapped but who also has more advantages than the countless others in the book who also lost loved ones. Her ability to "overcome the odds and search for her lover" are only made possible by the wealth of her father, as is her ability to "overcome the odds and become an artist". Her character is trite and predictable. Secondly, the many characters in this story only detract from the main plot line and only force the reader to endure more of this book. I carefully considered attributing some of the arduousness of reading this book to its translation (or poor translation). However, when considering the magnitude of the translated works of Hugo, Dostoyevsky, Chekov, Kafka, and others, I do not think that there is any excuse for the poor quality of this read. In short, this is the worst book I have read in a LONG TIME!
Rating:
Summary: War and Peace it's NOT
Review: This book is better suited for a short-story, as it's pace and meandering detours added nothing to the development of the characters or a plot. I never cared about anyone in the book, not even sympathy for the main character with her "disability." The only reason I forced my way through the book was that it was my reading group's monthly selection. Try War and Peace instead: it might have more pages, but you will get through it faster.
Rating:
Summary: Ils ne passeront pas, and neither should you
Review: A quick, engrossing, thought-provoking read. A first-glance, the story sounds like a repackaging of Kubrick's 1957 film, Paths of Glory: the insanity of WWI military (in)justice, etc. We already know that bad things happen to soldiers who are branded as cowards by the French army. You wonder where Japriscot will take the story that could possibly be fresh. He succeeds by casting it as a mystery rather than a courtroom drama, and by forcing the reader to peel back memories of seemingly inconsequential details with each new piece of evidence. The writing is elegant and restrained, the pacing brisk and mesmerizing. Japriscot pulls off an intricate plot with ingenious narrative devices, without pounding us on the head with post-modernism for its own sake. It's part war novel, part romance, part mystery--sort of a French Snow Falling on Cedars. Very unlikely to disappoint.
Rating:
Summary: A completely delightful book
Review: A little lady in a wheelchair has been told by everyone that her fiancee has been killed in World War 1, like so many of his fellow soldiers, but somehow, she wants absolute proof, and doubts that it exists. It is a delight to follow her as she unravells the mystery of what happened to him.
Rating:
Summary: An Absolute Must Read!
Review: Sebastien Japrisot -- what a discovery! "A Very Long Engagement" is everything you could possibly want in a novel. It is divine and picturesque. It is unbelievably sad and beautiful, competantly evoking anger and pain in even the most jaded of readers. I found myself in tears and rapture countless times over. For the first time, I am hoping desperately for a second novel as I was completely tormented at having to come to the end of this one. An absolute must read for anyone looking for real literature in the existing sea of legal deception, post-mortum examination, and intellectual cannabalism.
|
