Books by Philippe Claudel
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English
review 1: This is a fascinating and mysterious book that will be most appreciated by fans of Kafka, Ishiguro (think "The Unconsoled") and the like. It takes place in an unnamed village, presumably in the Alsatian region of France, near the German border not long after WWII. The subject, ...
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English
review 1: The story is somewhat delightful. I felt with the main character at times too. The way the plot twists and turns is exciting. I am not exactly a big fan of the author's plentiful metaphors and similies and comparisons, the are too obvious, they limit the reader's own imagination,...
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English
review 1: An unsettling fable set in a nameless place and time (that feels very much like Lorraine shortly after the end of the Second World War), Brodeck's Report is a study of the nature of crowds, the fear of the other and the ease with which evil can both triumph and be accepted as a n...
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English
review 1: How to review this intensely emotional book? To call it a masterpiece might be a cliche, neverthless this book is one of the most profound and yet empathetic books I have read for years. No other book so completely captures the feelings of the 'other', the 'outsider', the sense...
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English
review 1: The book is very well written. The story unfolds and grabs you unprepared for the atrocities performed by men for no reason at all - the madness described is at times incomprehensible but leaves you turning the pages , never wanting to shift your eyes from what is so hard to see ...
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English
review 1: I work at an institution that collects books and archival material related to the Holocaust and genocide, so I often find myself avoiding anything to do with those topics in my personal, non-work hours. It is enough to be surrounded by them during the day. However, this book came...
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English
review 1: In the final passage of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, a man narrowly escapes starvation by feeding at the breast of a woman whose infant child has died. It is a punishingly beautiful combination of despair and hope with few peers in contemporary fiction. Brodeck, the prescient...
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English
review 1: Frankly I expected more of this book, but that's just because Claudel is known to have received several prizes.I absolutely loved how he seems to describe ordinary things and events and phenomena in a way so detailed it's almost like he's trying to dive into a new dimension of th...
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English
review 1: The society described is not real nor realistic as to the concept of a city, the concept of a company. On the level of situations and on that of the people’s behavior it’s the same: not as we know it. Or: not as we like to know it, acknowledge it. There’s a whole other set of rul...
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English
review 1: A dark, surreal, whimsical nightmare. A little bit on the preachy side when it comes to the "message" of the story, but other than that it is entertaining, at times darkly funny, and thought provoking. Didn't give it five stars because I found the parts where the author was writi...
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English
review 1: If you decide to read this book, think of it as a quick read of a Kafkaesque novella so you are not disappointed. This work is not of the intense and mesmerizing caliber of Grey Souls with its beautiful descriptions and deep character development. There are, however, some am...