Andrei Makine, LE TESTAMENT FRANCAIS / DREAMS OF MY RUSSIAN SUMMERS

Well, the fireplace wasn't lit up this time at the Auberge du Clou when the six of us (Cynthia, Marc, Robin, Michel, Caroline and Maren) gathered for Andrei Makine's LE TESTAMENT FRANCAIS / DREAMS OF MY RUSSIAN SUMMERS. On the contrary, there were even windows open to let in the tender late summer / early October breeze…

As most of us are not living in their native country a very obvious question was if we could relate to the experience of Alyosha - being stuck in between of two worlds, not belonging to one or another and being alienated to both. Well, we didn't share this exact experience. Apparently it makes a difference having well grown up in and identifying with one country and leaving it later on from feeling alienated in the very beginning. What's different now for some of us is that we are just feeling like visitors when we travel back to our home country.

Another discussion point was about the writing. There were different opinions: From enjoying it to not enjoying it to "sounds still like another Russian author" (what he is indeed, not only in style, but it seems also in soul - even if he is writing in French).  We had both, readers of the French original and the English translation, and wondered if the translation was in for this difference because readers of the English translation enjoyed it more.  While all agreed that he did sound like he was trying to imitate the historical Russian authors, the readers of the French translation felt that he was not entirely successful.  

We talked about the irritating jumps. There were several of those, which contributed for Caroline to the feeling that the characters were not very well drawn, or at least incomplete.

There might have been quite some more points to discuss, but the discussion on siege books took all over  – our December book was amongst them! And, by the way, we learned that Stalingrad is today called Volgograd. We also tried to decide if LE TESTAMENT FRANCAIS would make a good movie, but thought it would be quite huge and expensive, given the time span / number of casts, sets, etc. We did, though, imagine the Russian scenes being somewhat like Dr Zhivago, and indeed all agreed that Julie Christie was still lovely !  :o)

We talked about a lot of books which one reads but does not consider suitable for a book club. So the idea was born to display them on the blog. Have a look: There's a new page allowing you to post all the books you liked and would like to propose to other readers. Maybe with a short comment?

Maren & Cynthia