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Ci Rivediamo Lassù (2013)

by Pierre Lemaitre(Favorite Author)

4.04 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

8804636009 (ISBN13: 9788804636007)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Mondadori

review 1: I just finished reading this novel in its Spanish translation, entitled [i]Nos vemos allá arriba[/i] and very much enjoyed it. It's a novel about WWI, but by contrast with much WWI literature, it begins with the end of the war, rather than its outset. So, instead of following young men as they experience disillusionment, we follow them as they try to leave the war behind them. In fact, it's all of France that is trying to leave the war behind, by building cemeteries and monuments to the honored dead. The three principal characters, Henri, Albert, and Edouard, get involved with such projects, but in seamy and fraudulent ways, in the hope of scoring a big profit. While Henri, the smug aristocratic former officer, is utterly contemptible in his efforts to turn the build... moreing of cemeteries into his own personal fortune, Albert and Edouard, the enlisted men who nearly lose their lives during the last week of the war, are sympathetic despite their efforts to defraud millions of their monument money. Edouard, who has lost half his face by saving Albert from being buried alive in no-man's land, is particularly sympathetic. I'm still not sure I understand what the novel is saying, if anything, about its themes of trauma, memory and commemoration, forgetting and even forgiveness, but two days after finishing it I am still dwelling on its haunting ending, and wondering about Edouard. A superb read, and a thought-provokign one as well.
review 2: Ce livre a fait beaucoup parler de lui, gagnant le prix Goncourt cette année. La lecture est fluide, plaisante, l'histoire axée sur le commerce et les magouilles d'après guerre est très intéressante. Ce pendant j'ai été déçue par la fin du roman, trop attendue.. étant donné que les romans précédents de Pierre Lemaitre étaient des policiers, j'aurai aimé qu'il y ait une chute plus spectaculaire, ou du moins qu'un revirement de dernière minute me surprenne un peu! less

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