Culture Français
New (to Roberto) music and writers!
Carolyn and I went to see Oppenheimer last weekend, which led me to look into the history of Nobel Prizes (Oppenheimer was nominated several times, but was never awarded a Nobel Prize). In the course of my reading I learned of a French author who was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize for literature, Annie Erneaux and have subsequently ordered two of her books.
If you follow the link to the Nobel site, you’ll see a section called “what to read”, which I found very useful. I ordered A Man’s Place (La Place) and A Woman’s Story (Une Femme). My wife and her book club/writer friends have been discussing Annie Erneaux for a year now, but it was an exciting find for me and I can’t wait to start reading.
From The Guardian:
“Ernaux is the first French woman to win the Nobel prize in literature. Her work exposes, without sentimentality or sensationalism, acute social inequality in France, especially as it affects women and working-class people. Her books, written mainly in the first person in a deceptively straightforward style, have, since the early 1970s, created a deep intimacy with her readers, piercing the inflated egos of literary publishing and dissecting experiences as mundane and exceptional as unhappy marriages; passionate affairs; caring for aging parents; being diagnosed with cancer and going through an illegal abortion.”
I’m happy to say I’ve had good luck with French authors. A few years ago on a trip to South Africa I read "The Kites” (Les Cerfs-volants) and A Promise at Dawn (La promesse de l'aube), both by Romain Gary, a French author who has the unique distinction of having won the prix Gancourt twice. The French literary prize is only supposed to be awarded to an author once in their lives; Gary won it twice, under two different names!(He was also married to Jean Seberg of Godard/Breathless fame) He is considered a major writer of French literature of the second half of the 20th century.
I loved both of the books I read and highly recommend them. It was a pleasant surprise given that (despite being completely unfamiliar with the author) I had decided to read them based on a captivating profile of Gary in the New York Times.
Finally, I’ll leave you with this fun Tiny Desk Concert by Phoenix, a French band from Versailles-they’ve been around since the 90’s-but like previously mentioned artists, I’ve only learned of them recently.
I hope that you’ll find something here to tuck into. Absorbing a new culture keeps me invested in learning a new language, and it’s one of my favorite parts of this move we’re making - maybe my favorite part (besides the bread).
Carolyn and I have our interview for our long stay visa at the French consulate in Houston next week, so we’ll have details about that in our next post.
Meanwhile, here is real-life footage of us interacting with French bureaucracy.
Jusqu’à la prochaine fois (until next time),
Carolyn & Roberto
Did you read the books in French or English?