I must remember the awkwardness, took the botched gestures, the abruptness, the missed beats, because there too are signs of love. I felt there could’ve been more character building in part one or at least the author could’ve gotten us more engaged with the primary character as he came off rather unlikeable. This book was brilliant and I just couldn’t stop reading it, I ended up staying up late so I could Finnish it. Un Marie à bord duquel nous naviguons, sur des mers calmes ou déchainées, à la recherche de rivages paisibles ou accidentés. In the summer of 1916, the emotionally precocious Vincent, who is the same age as the century, awakens to the possibilities of both erotic and platonic love.

It's just that I rarely encounter books of this kind that when I actually read one, I get a little shocked. 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. In the midst of the terrifying din, in the indescribable panic, we fought side by side, advancing the front line.

The writing reminded me of the fluidity of a steady-moving stream as the water cascades over stationary stones. Part Three offers the inevitable tragic conclusion and a sting in the tail that is so contrived that it strikes the reader as ridiculous. par les récits de cette guerre que je n'ai pas connu, par l'intimité des lettres échangées, par le discours de Vincent.

The new edition of In the Absence of Men is a handsome edition, compact, seductive and elegantly type-faced. In the Absence of Men may be, at least to me, the best indictment of both war and class distinctions I have encountered.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.

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. The first part was written in the second-person narrative as I mentioned above, which chronicled events that happened in the span of one week. Diferentemente a amizade entre esse mesmo adolescente e Marcel Proust está marcada por inúmeros sinais da obra e da vida “proustiana” que me encantaram como leitor. 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.Then, when we haul ourselves out of our makeshift shelters we see the corpses everywhere, these bodies in curious poses, sometimes entwined as in some love scene which seems incongruous here, the frozen image of war.

Arthur and Marcel are also related, but I won't give that away, since that was the ultimate surprise ending. Sau khi đọc "Đừng tự dối mình", tôi bèn tìm những cuốn khác của Philippe Besson đọc và chỉ tìm thấy "In The Absence Of Men" là có bản tiếng Anh. Một cuốn sách đẹp đẽ, rung động, giàu chất thơ và trần đầy nhục cảm, hy vọng sẽ có những cuốn sách khác của Philippe Besson được dịch. Yes, I was able to predict it, but only at the last minute, when I realized that all the math added up.My lips continue their descent, stop as then reach your lower abdomen, where the flesh is the firmest, where strength can be measured, where power resides and where, even so, it seems most vulnerable, where the risk is most evident because your defenses are down. It is also the story of 16 yr old Vincent’s coming of age and loss of innocence under the most devastating of circumstances.