Rate this book

La Mécanique Du Bonheur (2013)

by David Bergen(Favorite Author)

3.27 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

2226251952 (ISBN13: 9782226251954)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Albin Michel

review 1: This book has been nominated for the Giller Prize for 2010. David Bergen has written a dark anti-war story, recounting the accelerating collapse of a father after his son is killed by a fellow soldier in Afghanistan. Gradually stripped of his defences, Morris finds some redemption in the basics of human life -- but only after a searing disintegration that breaks his marriage, destroys relations with one of his daughters (and separates him from his grandson,) pushes him into sexual but impotent connections with call-girls who dated his son, and ultimately sees him wandering the streets of a bleak Winnipeg with visions of suicide. There is in all this a relentless compulsiveness to his trajectory of despair, to which references from Greek and Roman classics provide a tho... moreught-provoking chorus (from Plato and Aristotle to Cicero.) This is a superb and disturbing book, with grim political undertones that give it special force in 2010. It is, in my view, the best of Bergen's recent excellent novels ("The Time in Between" and "The Retreat") and will be very hard to ignore in awarding this year's prize.
review 2: Morris is facing the greatest crisis of his life with the death of this son in Afganistan. His guilt is overwhelming and he is lashing out at everyone around him. He is trying to find solace in the correspondence with an American woman who has also lost a son to war. He is looking for salvation not only with her but also in the books written by the great thinkers of time and his letters to those he thinks are responsible for his son's death. You can feel his pain and bewilderment in the simple straight-forward words of David Bergen. less

Download links for: La Mécanique du bonheur

Advertising