In the Absence of Men

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Sem saber do que se tratava, fiquei positivamente surpreso quando percebi que o Marcel que aparecia como personagem era ninguém menos que Proust - e quando a ficha caiu, o livro ganhou mais e mais camadas de significado.

Overall, very good book and I hope more of this author’s work is translated into English in the future.The writing reminded me of the fluidity of a steady-moving stream as the water cascades over stationary stones. A profound, yet simplistic, analysis of love, seen through the eyes of sixteen-year-old Vincent d'Etoile. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. My only regret is that my current language ability does not allow me to read the book in its original French text. O diário é de uma sensibilidade incrível, e traduz bem o que será um espírito de 16 anos, vivendo as circunstâncias que a personagem vive.

In the Absence of Men is a stunning first novel to discover this pride season: in its daring in representation and celebration of gay sexuality, in the beauty of its prose and in its delicacy of feeling. They enjoy their first-time clumsy exploration but quickly take maximum advantage of Arthur's limited time home. Because until now, that's the vibe I have been getting whenever I pick up a piece of LGBT literature. Arthur and Marcel are also related, but I won't give that away, since that was the ultimate surprise ending.He is a two-time winner of the Premio Valle Inclán, for Kamchatka by Marcelo Figueras (2012) and for The Blue Hour by Alonso Cueto (2014). Sadly, the last of Besson's books translated into English for me to read - and probably my least favorite - although they are all good and worth reading; since it was his debut novel, we'll let him slide a bit! Replace one of the names with a female name and you'll get your run-of-the-mill heterosexual romantic drama. This is because the chapters that were about Vincent and Marcel were alternating with the chapters about Vincent and Arthur.

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.He has spent time as translator in residence at the Villa Gillet in Lyons and at the Santa Maddalena Foundation. Because after reading it, it felt like a whirlwind piece of fiction, and it left me dazed and wondering what just happened.

In part one, during the summer of 1916, a French teenager named Vincent de l'Etoile experiences an intense love with a soldier named Arthur Vales who is on leave from the French front of World War I. But it didn’t feel like it while reading and Vincent’s extraordinariness is enhanced by another man who fell for him – a young soldier, Arthur, obsessed with death and traumatized by war from which he escaped only for a few days or hours, into Vincent’s arms. The second part is written in the epistolary format, since both Arthur and Marcel leave Vincent in Paris.

Qu'il est beau ce livre, quelle magnifique histoire d'amour, que de crampes au ventre en lisant ces moments partagés unique, cette poésie unique évoquée par Philippe Besson. In the Absence of Men may be, at least to me, the best indictment of both war and class distinctions I have encountered. I do not want to reveal what the climax was about, but once everything fits into place, one would just be swept away. Then there are books I love because they completely absorb me into their world, with characters I feel drawn to, and almost feel like I care about their stories in real terms.