The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel : The Alchemyst

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The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel written by Irish author Michael  Scott. It is a specialist Mythology and folklore, he wrote a lot of science fiction, fantasy and horror books and in Ireland, he was called the « king of fantasy ». I am going to talk about the first book in this series:  The Alchemyst .

The story begins with two siblings, they are twins, the first; her name is Sophie Newman , who she works in a tearoom  and the second  his name is Josh Newman, who works in the book store, where the owner is  Nick Fleming and his wife Perry Fleming. One day while Sophie is on the phone with her friend, she sees a black limousine which stops in front of the book store where his brother works. And several men in black come out of the car to attack the owner of the bookstore.The two twins witness a supernatural power fighting between Nick Fleming and the men in black who are golems controlled by John Dee. After the fighting, Josh and Sophie discover that Nick Fleming is Nicholas Flamel the famous and historical French alchemist:

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Nicolas Flamel has a reputation of an alchemist who search the philosopher’s stone and the immortality. And John went in the book store to steal  Codex, where there is Final Evocation but Josh ripped off the two pages that explains the final Evocation, so the two twins are in danger, because John Dee would like to recover them.

Along their journey the twins will discover the existence of some sort of gods call “The Elders”. Some are nice but other who are called “Dark Elder” are cruel and John Dee wants to wake up them for they control the world. Nicholas Flamel will find help with an Elder who she is the Celtic goddess of the war; Scathach and Hecate the goddess with three faces and together they will help the twins to wake up their power, because Josh and Sophie are the twins of an old legend.

I love this book because it mixes a lot of heroes or gods in different legends in the world, like Celtic or some Gods of Egypt or Prometheus and Shakespeare appears like an immortal human and he helps twins in their quest.

The Old Man and the Sea

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The Old Man and the Sea is written by Ernest Hemingway, a famous American writer. He was born in 1899 and he died in 1961. At the beginning of his career he was a journalist, it is in Paris that he learns the profession of writer and after that he wrote novels. It is his second novel: The Sun also Rises that gives him success and fame. Thanks to success, he can travel and he travels a lot : in the United States, Africa, Spain, Italy and also in Cuba where is the action of his novel. The Old Man and the Sea was published in 1953 and also in 1953, The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

The Old Man and the Sea is about an old man, his name is Santiago, he is a fisherman and a poor Cuban and with him, there is a young boy who accompagnies him to fishing. And this boy calls Manolin. But fishing has long been bad, and they have taken nothing for 84 days. The parents of Manolin decide that their son will embark on another boat, because they think that Santiago is too old for fishing. But Manolin will join nevertheless the old man in his shack at night to help him repair his fillets and bring him sardines for fishing. One night, the old man tells to young boy that he wants to go fishing alone and he wants to leave far in Gulf Stream, to find fish and end his bad fishing. On the 85th day, he goes fishing and he meets a giant marlin. The old man fought against the marlin for 3 days and he won. https://beamingnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Old_man_and_the_sea_Jan_Hrebicek_2013-11-1200x900.jpg

But the marlin is too big to embark in his boat and he lets it tied beside his boat in the water. Attracted by the smell of fish, sharks begins to arrive and they devour the marlin. Santiago attends the scene without being able to do anything, because he is exhausted of his fight with marlin. Finally, he returns to the port, but only with the head and the bone of the fish.

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This book shows us a fighting of human against Nature, because the marlin refers to Nature. But I think that Hemingway wanted to show us that human never truly triumphs against nature, but, here, we have a entire failure but also a personal triumph, because the old man knows what it is worth. I find that story realist but at the same time it is like an epic story.

Your name – Makoto Shinkai

Storyline :

Mitsuha, teenager stuck in a traditional family, a dream to leave her native mountains to discover the hectic life of Tokyo. She is far from imagining to be able to live the urban adventure in the skin of … Taki, a young high school student living in Tokyo, occupied enter his casual job an Italian restaurant and his numerous friends. Through its dreams, Mitsuha sees herself literally propelled in the life of the young boy to the point that she believes to live the reality … Everything falls over when she realizes that Taki also dreams about a life in mountains, surrounded with a traditional family … in the skin of a girl ! A strange relation settles down between their two bodies which they monopolize mutually. What mystery hides behind these strange dreams which unite two fates which everything brings into conflict and which never met ?

 

A movie to be absolutely seen. Please, go to see it in the cinema once, five times, ten times…

This movie plays enormously with our feelings; we laugh (much more than we could expect it), we also cry, and we navigate constantly between these feelings and a lot of others.
The graphics are naturally magnificent, in particular the landscapes, whether it is city or countryside.The music is really very important, the pieces are played at the good moments to increase our feelings. (And fortunately the words are translated, because they play an important role in the understanding of the story. They correspond perfectly to the movie, and at the end we just want to get itself the album to be able to listen to them at will by remembering ourself the movie.
The scenario is very good, he can seem complex at times but made think and obliges us to remain hung on well on the movie to understand all the ins and outs, without preventing us from taking advantage of the atmosphere.

At the end of the movie I just wanted to go to see it again because I have the feeling that there will be always something else to notice, other elements to be understood, while laughing and by crying so much every time. This film is definitely one of my favorite now, and i think we should have more Japanese movies like this, in France.

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La petite fille qui avait avalé un nuage grand comme la Tour Eiffel, Romain Puértolas

Hi! Today I will talk about the new novel of Romain Puértolas, La petite fille qui avait avalé un nuage grand comme la Tour Eiffel  (sorry I didn’t find the English title). So I know, it’s a french author but this book overwhelmed me (in the good way)and I had to share it with you!

This is the story of Providence, a young and impulsive french woman, and Zahera a little Moroccan girl of 7 years old who has cystic fibrosis. The story of a postwoman stuck because of an ash cloud and a futur backer-astronaut who has a cloud in her lung. A meeting in a hospital because of an appendicitis and a lot of returns Paris-Marrakech. This is a story of an unbounded love which make everything possible, even fly..

Providence is about to take her plane to Marrakech and bring back Zahera, his adoptive daughter, to Paris to try to save her from her disease. But the eruption of an icelandic volcano paralyzes all the air traffic and prevents Providence from fetching his daughter.

She has to find another way but all the rented cars are already rented, trains are overcrowded and she hasn’t her own car. It’ll be impossible to her to keep her promise to fetch Zahera before the sunset but it’s inthinkable to her to dissapoint her daughter.

She can’t resign herself, she will be with Zahera today because later it may be too late and the little girl coul’d die. So she realizes the impossible: she learns to fly.

I thought this book really wonderful: a subtle mix of humor, non-sense, love, sensibility, tenderness and hope. The fact that Providence flies is maybe less grandiose than the reasons that pushed her to accomplish this feat. Zahera is a little girl with a lot of dreams and who wants to learn everything she can about the world, the life. She fights agains the disease with a lot of strengh for a 7 years old. She is very touching and loveable. Providence and her determination gives us a real lesson: if we love, if we really want something, everything becomes possible, nothing can stop you. With her love for her daughter she locks the world, for a few minutes, in a bubble of peace and happiness.

We are getting absorbed in a beautiful adventure with many events to discover.

And who knows, maybe love really gives wings after all?

Ten Little Niggers, Agatha Christie

Today I want to talk about an Agatha Christie’s book entitled Ten Little Niggers (or And then there were none for the American version) and published in 1939.

Ten people who don’t know each other are invited to come to an island by Mr and Mrs Owen because of different excuses ( to meet old friends, job…). But when all the guests arrive no signs of their hosts, there are only two servants to receive them. The first night, all the guests (who are not related) confide one common point: they all have murdered (directly or indirectly) someone and escaped to justice and they are all here to « pay for their crimes ».

One by one, all the guests begin to die and their murders follow a famous nursery rhyme entitled « ten little niggers » whose lyrics are hanging on the wall of all the bedrooms. After each murder one of the ten figurines presents on the table is broken. After the second murder panic and distrust settle down in the house. They are alone on the island and they can’t escape because of the bad weither. They are traped, scared and they suspect each other of being the murderer. All along the plot we can see character’s personnality evolve and until the end we can’t really know who is the murderer.

I love police novels and those of Agatha Christie are so interesting, with a lot of suspense and it’s always a pleasure to read one of her books.

And you, did you read it? What do you think of it?

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story


Hey everyone, I’m gonna talk about the new star wars movies or I should say a spin-off of one of the most famous saga in the world. This episode sets between the episode three and four of the franchise. Starring Felicity Jones, the story deals about the little crew of the rebellion against the sith darth Vader. The order Jedi is now vanished and the Empire controls the galaxy. The fate of the galaxy is between the hands of a young woman, Jyn Erso, Jyn is the only hope of the galaxy thanks to his father. I stop here for the story.

Indeed, I’m surprised, the film is perfectly staged by the young English director Gareth Edwards. The images of some scenes are very stunning as well as the landscapes in many planets. Rogue one is inspired by several conflicts historic like the world war two or also the Vietnam war for the battle of the end. The battle is set on the tropical planet Scarif.

Even if we have no light saber during the film, we have the great comes back of the great vilain Darth Vader. Vader is just incredible in every scenes where he appears. In brief Rogue One is one of the best film of this year. Consequently, this movie was amazing, I kind of wish that some of these scenes were not cut out, hopefully they can make them deleted scenes or an alternate cut. I recommend it for the fans and no fans.

The Revenant

The Revenant

The Revenant is an American drama film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy. The film is directed by the mexican director Alejandro G. Inarritu famous for his movie Birdman (2014). The film is based on the novel of Michael Punke with the same name, describing frontiersman Hugh Glass’s experiences in 1823. The film deals with the subject of the redemption.

The story sets in a deeply savage America. Hugh Glass, a trapper, goes in expedition with his group and his son. During his journey, he’s attacked by a bear and seriously injured. His group decides to abandon him to his fate. Moreover, a man kills his son in front of him. Glass refuses to die, alone, he decides to undertake a journey more than 300 km in a hostile environment to find man who killed his son.

The film allows us to discover the social frontier between the people of America. Trappers, natives American and more. The character of DiCaprio is very interesting, in search of redemption, he is very fascinating by his construction. He is solitary, he’s tired of life, his only motivation is embodied by his wife and her son. All the film is built on his personal vengeance.

To speak about the director, we can study the light or also the movement of camera in the film. The natural light uses fort the film is just perfect in any shots, the reflect of the sun in the snow, everything is filmed with an unerring rightness.

In clear, The Revenant is not a film like an another film, The long tracking, the angle of shot is very subversive and impressive. Thanks to this film, DiCaprio won for the first time of his life an oscar by the same way, Innaritu won the oscar of the best director movie for The revenant. It’s all for me, see you for the next article.     

SNOW ANGELS – STEWART O’NAN

Snow Angels occurred in a little town of Pennsylvania, in 1974’s winter. It deals with 2 different characters and 2 different stories. On the one hand, there is Arthur Parkinson devastated by his parents’ divorce. On the other hand there is Annie Marchand, Arthur’s babysitter. She is now facing a series of tragic events, especially with her husband Glenn.
There is a beautiful symmetry of the death of these two marriages. ?The story begins with Arthur telling the day when Annie Marchand was assassinated by his husband, 15 years after the drama. Since then, there is a flash back in Arthur’s and Annie’s life. When Arthur heard the gun shot, he knew what had happened. Shortly after his dad divorcing his mum and leaving home, it was now the turn of Annie. Annie, whom Arthur was secretly infatuated with, had left as well, for ever.?Throughout their life, Arthur wonders about his destiny. Why was everything he loved most destroyed? How can he fight his way in this world?
What I particularly love about this book is the fact that O’Nan depicts Middle America, far from the American Dream. What’s more, O’Nan captures the reader even while depicting the tragic daily life of Arthur and Annie.

FACTOTUM – BUKOWSKI

Hello, I’m going to talk about Factotum, a book written by Charles Bukowski in 1975.
As the title suggests, it is a story about a man who does everything, or almost everything. We follow the wandering of Henry Chinaski, a fallen writer during WW2 in America.
Chinaski is like Bukowski’s alter ego, written in the first person narrative, we discover a wandering life from New Orleans to New York, by way of Los Angeles or Philadelphia. So Chinaski jumps from one job to another without being concerned about it, spending his time drinking and writing about his disappointments, his frustrations, women… For him, what matters the most is to have a place where you can live your life : it doesn’t matter whether it is on the street or in a slum. This wise guy doesn’t care about money, social conventions and so on, thinking that it is reserved for special people.

What I love about this book and this author, it is the way of wrinting of Bukowski : combining obscenity and provocation, in brief, what he is famous for. He writes without any judgments, with honest and straight-forward manner. Moreover, he depicts America of the 40’s and its lost and marginal generation.

Black Mirror by Charlie Brooker

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“Over the last ten years, technology has transformed almost every aspect of our lives before we’ve had time to stop and question it. In every home; on every desk; in every palm – a plasma screen; a monitor; a Smartphone – a black mirror of our 21st Century existence. Our grip on reality is shifting. We worship at the altars of Google and Apple. Facebook algorithms know us more intimately than our own parents. We have access to all the information in the world, but no brain space left to absorb anything longer than a 140-character tweet.”                                                                                                                                    — Charlie Brooker, the creator of the series

Black Mirror is a British drama series that deals with the consequences of our behavior with new technologies. This is an anthology series since it presents a different story and a different set of characters in each episode. Consequently, each episode features a different dystopia, still linked to technological advances, which sets in a near or more distant future : an episode may unfold in 2017 while another may take place in 2117. Indeed the series intends to give a general reflection to today’s world and all possible futures as well.

Black Mirror was airing on Channel 4 from 2011 for its two seasons and then, the giant Netflix bought the series to make a third season. Actually I don’t know if more episodes are going to be released but the remaining 13 episodes already are a good subject to discuss about. The series was nominated twice for the BAFTA (British Academy of Film http://papystreaming.com/fr/files/2012/07/383612blackmirror.jpgand Television Arts) and it won an Emmy Award and a Golden Rose Award.

Nowadays – that’s not a revelation – Internet dramatically impacted the world and our lives. The least scoop, the least intel, joke, personality is facebooked, retweeted, tumbled, googled and even mocked sometimes. We are all connected to the big World Wide Web. We consider the Internet as a fantastic creation and yet, we notice abuses : from impersonation, banking data theft, cybercrime to misinformation and bad jokes. Black Mirror uses all of that and emphasizes it in a satirical way to denounce our use of the web and all the technologies that possess a black screen.

http://www.slate.fr/sites/default/files/photos/black%20mirror%20460.jpgThe series’ pilot, untitled The National Anthem, unfolds in a future within reach, so close to our reality that it becomes almost present. The Princess of the Royal Family is kidnapped and her kidnapper threats the Prime Minister to kill her unless if he has live sexual intercourse with a pig on national television – I wished this episode’s plot would be a joke but it’s not – and the kidnapper gives a list of technical specifications designed to make it impossible to fake. The kidnapper’s threat has been also released online on Youtube and despite having only been up for nine minutes, the video has already been viewed and downloaded a lot of times and posted multiple times on the Internet. The Prime Minister has some hours to act before the Princess was killed… Here we have a thought on the over media coverage of political life where the Prime Minister has, in a critical situation, to deal with his convictions but also with the public opinion which is so loud, powerful, quick to change and sometimes violent thanks to social media where everybody can express its mind and its point of view.

Then the third episode, untitled The Entire History Of You, unfolds in a more distant future where rich people have the possibility to implant a “grain” behind their hear that will record everything they do, see or hear. People can play their memories ad infinitum in front of their eyes or on a screen. At first sight, that’s well convenient to rememberhttps://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/47/25/dc/4725dcdcb0b28bfdefe2d1f2670af2f0.jpg this old mate’s name with whom you were sitting next to in some classes some years ago. However for Liam Foxwell, a young lawyer, that’s convenient to review and examine his wife’s tender gazes when she glances suspiciously a friend of him… That’s impossible here to not make a parallel with the smart and connected Google Glass which will allow soon the user to record some contents with just a wink.

Finally, the second episode of season two, untitled White Bear, is, for my liking, one of the most shocking and heartbreaking episode. We follow a woman, named Victoria Skillane, who’s waking up in a small town typical of United Kingdom and she is amnesiac. She’s soon followed by a plenty of people who are filming her with their smartphones and some people who are hunting her and who obviously want to kill her, http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KgZ6c7-2IXM/VgfvioK9MoI/AAAAAAAAMSM/uaN64GV03jM/s1600/blackmirrorVictoria.jpgwith their nightmarish masks and suits. Why the hell are these people following her ? Why does an amount of people film her with joy and fun while these crazy guys are shooting at her with their guns ? I won’t answer these questions in order to not spoil you but the twist is huge, believe it my dear readers 😉

Black Mirror is a pessimistic series, indeed. But it doesn’t denounce that technology is the cause of people’s issues. Nevertheless it enhances the idea that technology is a filter https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/M2hsLZo0Ph0FxUg80I2GhDpt3-Q=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2891106/Screen_Shot_2014-12-30_at_9.20.04_PM.0.pngto reveal how we behave, how we react, how we use computers and smartphones to do good and bad things. This is a kind of a “black mirror” that returns our reflection. Some episodes won’t be suited for sensitive souls and weak hearts, others will certainly make you moved but no one won’t let you indifferent !

The series manages in not giving a judgment but in making a criticism of occidental Mankind, with wealth people and their comfortable life, which we do have to interpret ourselves. The series illustrates one of a few characteristics of the Progress and its dangers https://d.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/imagecache/inline-large/inline/2014/12/3039940-inline-i-1-giles-keyte-black-mirror-recap.jpgso I assume it could be a wise choice to talk about it in the notion “Idea Of Progress”. As a conclusion, Black Mirror alarms on the possible abuses of technologies with our attitudes towards them in general as in some dystopian masterpieces as Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm, Huxley’s Brave New World and Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

To Build A Fire by Jack London

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“I would rather be ashes than dust ! […] I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”                                                                                                                                       — Jack London

To Build A Fire (1908) is a short story written by Jack London, a famous American author well known for some literature masterpieces as The Call Of The Wild (1903), and White Fang (1906). As you probably guess, London dealt particularly with adventure and wildness in his books’ story since he was himself an adventurer and a sailor. He wrote two different versions of this short story that he published in 1902 and in 1908 respectively : here I am going to focus on the second one which is far more interesting for us to discuss about.

First and foremost, it is worth noting that To Build A Fire is part of the naturalist movement (naturalistic writers used literature as an experiment to discover and analyze the forces or the scientific laws, that influenced the character’s behavior, its emotions in https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/74/d3/de/74d3def1ac093675c951543ab5a86b55.jpgits environment) and because of that, the short story illustrates a major topic : the conflict of Man vs. Nature (the hero struggles against an animal or a force of nature and this struggle has a prominent place inside the story).

The story takes place in the Yukon Territory, near the Klondike River (Canada). An unnamed man is walking on the snow and on the frozen river as well, despite the extreme polar temperatures of the winter (?75 °F or ?59 °C). During this not so long journey of nine hours of hiking, he is accompanied by a husky dog. The man is supposed to catch up on the evening in Henderson Creek his associates (named “the boys”) who have taken another way to go there. Unfortunately, the cold weather and the environment will become an invisible enemy and the man won’t have so many choice to survive : he will have to build a fire.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/63/fd/30/63fd305d196ed890e1412de6bb305e82.jpgWhat it seems to be an easy thing at first is revealed after as being an impossible task to accomplish. As his life is suspended to a thread, he tries in three occasions to build this damn fire but failed miserably under the eyes of the dog, peacefully wrapped up in his fur. At the end of the story, the man understands that his death is unavoidable. He ceases struggling and accepts his fate. The man dies, becoming the victim of this overwhelming, freezing and hostile nature. The dog finally leaves his master to find another who maybe will be able to build a fire.

I think it’s an amazing story of survival. At first, the plot seemed rather boring : I mean, a man walking through the wilderness, from a point A to a point B, that’s not really a plot that knocks your socks off ! Nevertheless, as the man finally gets into a battle with nature for survival, it gets much more interesting. The fact that the man is never actually named is significant. I would personally think that the author did this to keep the reader somewhat detached from him, in an effort to not make his death a big deal for the reader, and also make it easier to dislike him as a character.

Jack London possesses an amazing writing style that allows him to transcend thehttps://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/42/5c/f4/425cf41c2e35cbad381f2977bd46ee75.jpg sensations, the struggle, the doubt, the strengths and the weaknesses of the character and the feeling of cold directly to the reader. London also managed to make this story powerful thanks to his personal path since he took part in the Klondike Gold Rush during the winter of 1897-1898. The description and the personification of all the elements which surround the character succeeded in making nature alive as a real character of the story. Finally, I decided to write an article about this short story in an effort to honor the 100th birthday of the author’s death since Jack London died on 22 November 1916.http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lE7CQ0u14Pc/VLFUbB_-5CI/AAAAAAAAHpk/C9dPmUjWP5w/s1600/TBAF_05_hd.png

The help, Kathryn Stockett

   The Help is a novel written by Kathryn Stockett and published in 2009. It is quite known since then, it was a best-seller, but I really wanted to talk about it because I think it is really worth it. It deals with racial segregation in the USA in the 1960’s, which is a serious and important topic. The story occurs in Jackson, Mississippi, a southern state where segregation was present everywhere.

   We follow the life of two main characters, Aibileen and Minny who are both African-American and who work as maids for white families. The third protagonist is Skeeter, she is a young white woman who studies journalism and she has a different mentality comparing to the other white women she spends her time with. Indeed, even though she also has a maid, she cares about her and behaves well with her, not like the rest of her friends. When she comes back to her house after finishing her studies, she finds out that Constantine, her maid, left without saying anything. Then, she decides she wants to collaborate with black women to write a book about the maids’ living conditions, life, etc… At first, this project seems impossible due to the racial laws of the time but a surprising friendship will appear.

   This book is quite hard to read in english because it is written in an oral way so I actually recommend to read it in french. I loved this powerful story because it showed that even if there was segregation, some black and white people could still be wise enough to work together in order to change things. The events that happen are well told because the author was herself born in Jackson and raised by a black woman. A movie was adapted from the book in 2011, the cast is amazing, the actors embody their characters so well. Even if you’ve seen the movie, you can still read the book because there are some differences regarding the point of views, etc…

Delicacy

   Delicacy is a novel written by David Foenkinos in which a young woman called Nathalie is the main character. At the beginning of the book, she lives an enviable life : she’s in a wonderful relationship with her husband and has a great job. Unfortunately, everything falls apart after seven years of marriage when her husband is hit by a car during his jogging and dies after getting in a coma. Even with her family and friends, Nathalie can’t find some comfort and feels like she will not be able to live without her husband. One day she decides that she has to keep living and so, go back to work. There she is everyday confronted to her boss Charles who is desperately in love with her and Markus, one of her co-workers, who she has kissed one day for no reason.

   What I loved in this book was Foenkinos’ writing style : very simple and beautiful. Also, there was a little bit of humour, which is always nice. Something I had never seen before : between two chapters there are sometimes lists or quotes related to what happened in the previous chapter. I found it surprising, unusual and thought it was a great way to keep the reader reading by adding something that changed from the chapters. The short chapters and simple writing makes the novel accessible and easy to read. You can find some great quotes in it and you can read the whole book in just a few days because it is a short novel.

« War horse » – Michael Morpurgo

 Hi everybody,

Today I’m going to speak about a novel entitled « War horse » written by Michael Morpurgo, published in 1982 and adapted by Steven Spielberg in 2011.
I haven’t seen this movie but someone told me that he was amazing and very touching. So if he really respect the book it will be interessant to see it. I have read this book in college and if I remember, I think I’ve cried several times. This is such a sad story but it’s allow us to have another vision, perspective and another point of view of the First World War. And the fact that the narator was a horse makes us feel the story differently and it’s allows us to put ourselves in the place of the horse.

So this novel was obviously  inspired by true events. The story talked about a horse named « Joey » who was bought by American soldier at the beginning of the first world war to be a war horse.
We are going to have empathie for Joey and we will also focus on him. You have to know that the entire story is seen and told by the horse, so we can see things differently.
So joey goes to war and lives many adventures, he sees horror and atrocity of the war (during the battle, the bombing raid….).
Joey will go a long way during years, he will be ill, heart … he has just one wish: go back home and be alive.

So if you want to know what happened to this horse and know if he will survive you have to read or watch the movie.
Trust me you won’t be disappointed.

« The perfect murder » – Peter James

Hi everybody,

Today I’m going to speak about a novel entitled  » The perfect murder « written by Peter James (my favorite writter at that time) and published in 2010.
This book is one of the lastest novels published by Peter James.

 So this novel talked about a couple ( Victor and Joan ) that can no longer stand. They are married since twenty years old but things did not happend like they had hoped years ago. Now Victor want to kill his wife and Joan feels the same. So both planned a way to kill his spouse. In some point of view it’s two perfect crime but characters have to keep calm because things can degenerate.
However things will not happened as good as previous and it’s going to be a hell for one of them.
During the story there are suspens and we want to know the following and see the future of the characters because if you will read it you ‘ll see that characters behaviour evolve.

 So if you like suspens, crime … I recommend this book and furthermore this novel is very fast to read.

Charlotte, David Foenkinos

This novel isn’t a fiction, it retraces Charlotte Salomon’s life, a german-jewish painter deported at the age of 26 while she was pregnant. After a childhood in Berlin marked by a family tragedy, Charlotte is progressively excluded by the nazis in every german society spheres. She liveS a founding love passion, before she has to leave everything behind to take refuge in the South of France just after the Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). Thereafter, the outcasted women decide to undertake a composition of 769 individual works that we could describe as autobiographical (different from self-portraits) named « Leben? oder Theater?: Win Singspiel » (Life? or Theater?: A Song-play) realized with a fascinating modernity. Knowing herself in danger, she entrust her drawings to her doctor telling him that it represents « her entire life » . Today, these works are kept in Amsterdam . This book is a thrilling portrait of a talented young woman, totally inhabited by her art which makes her fight despair and the barbarism of her time, but also it’s a mention of a tragic fate. The book also represents the story of a search driven by a writer haunted by this artist. Indeed, it contains some first person narrative passages where the author talks about his research on Charlotte, the places he went linked to her..

I admire the emotion and the beauty of the text, mixing prose and poetry. The short sentences punctuated each time by a point induces a slow but pleasant rhythm. I loved this book, it is so well-written and so touching. Moreover it made me discover this wonderful artist. I truly recommend it.

Misery, Stephen King

Misery Chastain is dead. Paul Sheldon killed her with pleasure. And all of this is quite normal because Misery Chastain is his creature, the main character of his novels. He made a lot of money thanks to her, but she also smothered him: his death finally freed him. Now he can write a new book.

A car accident leaves him paralyzed into the hands of Annie Wilkes, the nurse who takes care of him in her house. A perfect nurse who loves her books but doesn’t forgive him Misery Chastain ‘s death. Then, nailed in his wheelchair, Paul Sheldon revives Misery unwillingly. Indeed he has no choice …


I must say that the idea of ??the admirer who sequestered her favorite author because he killed her flagship heroine is grandiose. Annie is completely crazy, Paul was really unlucky to meet a fan like this and he’ll dearly pay what Annie considers as « betrayal ».The death of Misery is unacceptable to her and she’ll employ all the most atrocious subterfuges to make the writer bend back on the denouement of his narrative.

Weirdly,  I loved Annie’s character.The fact that she has absolutely nothing for her, amplifies our desire to know more about this woman. It’s a bit an icon in her way, her madness fascinates and on each page I wondered how far she was ready to go and what were her limits. Behind an unpleasant and cruel torture facade she’s a real drifter that does not have much in her life and and that’s pretty sad .The atmosphere of the novel is simply perfect? As a claustrophobic, I felt like stifling throughout this reading. King has so well handled its context that we could believe we’re in it.


All the ingredients are gathered in these stressful closed doors, to put the nerves of the readers on edge.

Only Stephen King could write such a nightmare. I really recommend this nerve-racking  book and also the 1990’s film with Kathy Bates and James Caan. ( gifs come from the movie)

Demain tout commence – Hugo Gélin

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Hey everyone ! Recently, I saw Demain Tout commence, a French comedy-drama directed by Hugo Gélin and released in December 2016. The main characters are played by Omar Sy, Gloria Colston and also Clémence Poésy.

It’s a dramatic story about Samuel, a young man who is working in the South of France, near the see : He has an easy life without any importants problems until Kristin, from London, one of his old girlfriend  comes back and announces him that he have a daughter, gloria, still a baby. The problem is that Kristin leave the beach and left the baby behind her.

Samuel, who has any experience as parents-being will going to London to find her, but in vain. Finally, he will live in London, educate and make his daughter grow up alone, give her all his love and become a stuntman. However, Gloria wants to know her mother : Samuel sent her fake e-mails with a fake Mail Adress (with the Kristin’s name), and make her think that her mother is writing her.

But after 8 years, Kristin comes back and wants to gets her daughter whereas  she wasn’t present the last 8 years. We learn that she met somebody else and started a new life.

Subsequently, numerous problems will be added : Gloria is suffering from a severe Heart disease and has 4 years to live. At the End, we learn a tragical news : Samuel is in fact not the Gloria’s father.. At this moment, the world around him collapses, and nothing more exists.

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I found this story really sad and dramatic : Indeed, although Omar Sy plays ordinary funny roles, he is also really good in drama movies : At times, it’s really touching, For instance when Samuel and Gloria are together, we can see that he is giving her all his love, the actors  almost looks like  real relatives !!

Although it’s a dramatic movie, there is also Funny’s moments, which give a real interesting side to the story and made us like this even more.

I really found it good and I advise it to you !

Have you already seen the movie ? 🙂

[youtube]https://youtu.be/OAt0mmfW8S4[/youtube]

Oedipus The King- Sophocles

Hey everybody ! Let me talk you about one of the Two books we have to read and study this year for the Litterature exams.

Oedipus the King (also called in Latin Oedipus Rex) is a myth rewritten many times into differents forms. Indeed, after the Sophocles’s play, the classical Authors made a new version (like Corneille or Sénèque) or Philosophers Authors like Voltaire.

But Igor Stravinski has also composed an opera called « Oedipus Rex » in 1920.

Let’s talk about the Sophocles’s version today :

Sophocle wrote Oedipus the King in 429 Before Christ, and after Odipus at Colonus which is also very well-known in the litterature field.

It’s about Oedipus, who became king of Thebes, a city in Greece after he killed the Sphinx which condamned the city. Oedipus managed to solve the riddle asked by it.

Therefore, he became the Jocasta’s Huband, the queen of Thebes. But there is a problem : Peoples are suffring from the plagues : That’s why Oedipus sent Creon, his brother-in-law to Delphi to Talk to the Appollo’s oracle and finding solutions : We discovered that it’s because of the recent Laius’s death, the former King of the country. Oedipus will investigate and meet Tiresias, a mind-reader to find the culprit of the murder. But the surprise is really astonishing because it’s Oedipus himself who would have killed Laius. Althoug he doesn’t take care Tiresias said, he will discover that it’s the truth..

But it’s not the most surprising : Indeed, whereas hAfficher l'image d'originee was educated by the queen and King of Corinth(an another country), they’re not his real parents : When he was young, an oracle said : « He will kill his father and will marry his mother ».                                     

And the curse occured unfortunately.

Discovering all this informations in the same time, with the Joscasta’s death, he decided to pluck his eyes : But became blind is not the only thing we wants : he begs to be exiled with his two daughters: Antigone, and Ismene.

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We saw also the Pasolini’s film version directed in 1967:

It’s really close to the Sophocle’s version : Nevertheless, we can see a « before » with Oedipus as a baby and his birth and an « after » with the exil of Oedipus. But there is a lot of anachronism like Twenties’s cars, or Fireworks… Pasolini decided to adapt his life in his film : Indeed, the actress of Jocasta represent his mother and as his father was a soldier, Laius has a service’s man suit . He directed in Marocco, in Bologne in the Italia, his birth and studies city , and gives to Afficher l'image d'origineOedipus a different character : Indeed, Whereas the Sophocle’s Oedipus is really authoritative and smart, the Pasolinis’s Oedipus seems to be really excessive(he screams everytime!!) and doesn’t always thinks.

It gives to the movie a humorous character and sometimes ridiculous.

But, it’s anyway a good adaptation.

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Here’s the trailer :

[youtube]https://youtu.be/qcSwIU_pCYE[/youtube]

Stranger Things By The Duffer Brother

Stranger Things is an american series where the story take place on Hawkins in 1984
A strange vanishing of a child after surnatural event sows panic on the city. The friends of the missing search him with hope. They met an etrange shaved girls who have got telekinesis power and who says know where is their friends. She maybe is the keys of the mystery that hides the Hawkins city.

It’s an original Netflix series realeased in 2016 and again on production. Very insteresting by his filmic method very aesthetic on an 80’s atmosphere. I find the actor play very good.

I advice this series at the amator of fantasy and suspens.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them By David Yates ; J.K Rowling

« Fantastic Beasts and where to find them » is the new David Yate’s  fantasy movie, written by J.K Rowling. It was realeased on November, 16.

We are on Harry Potter’s universe but on an other continent, the USA, and 100 years before. Wizard’s world are in danger, they are threatened by « Salem’s Faithful » wich is an organisation who want to killed all the wizards. Furthermore, a mysterious force sows chaos in the streets of New-York. We met Norbert Dragono, a british wizard, who arrive in N.Y with his bag filled with fantastic animals. His bag reminds us of Dr Who’s tardis. She « is bigger inside » and abound of many recesses for his Beasts. Many things arrive to him, he is arrested, to showing his power at « No-Maj », muggle for us, and to have lost some fantastic animals. He is suspected to be the origin of the chaos in new-york by the Magical Security Percival Graves’s directess.

It’s a fabulous story where I was able to find all the Harry Potter’s universe and spell like « actio » « pertricus totalus », my favorite things when I was younger. If you want to became a child, go see this movie now !

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S Lewis ( 1950 )

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the first book from the Narnia series, it’s a fantasy novel written by C.S Lewis and published in 1950.

The story takes place in 1940 during World War II, to escape for what’s happening in London at that time, 4 siblings ( Edmund, Lucy, Peter and Susan Pevensie ) are sent by their parents to live with Professor Kirke in the countryside. One day when all the kids were playing hide and seek, Lucy found an old wardrobe and hides in it, while hiding she found out that this wardrobe is a magic portal which leads to a forest in a land called Narnia. All the siblings will, then, go to Narnia and their adventure will begin there.

I absolutly love all kinds of magical / dystopian novels and the Narnia series is a part of my collection.  These novels are a classic and if you haven’t read it yet, you probably already saw one of the 3 extremely long movie adaptations, talking about this, the The Silver Chair is apparently going to come out in 2017…

Goodbye, Up There, Pierre Lemaitre

Today, I would like to speak about a novel written by a French author whose name is Pierre Lemaitre: Au revoir là-haut (Goodbye up there). This novel received in 2013 (the year of its publication) the well-known Goncourt Price. This book belongs to the picaresque genre. One of the features of this genre is that the protagonist is an unfortunate character and he generally lives outside the society. In Au revoir là-haut there are two leading characters named Albert Maillard and Edouart Péricourt. They were French soldiers during World War One (the first chapters unfold this period). As we all know, France « won » this conflict. But after, the country essentially concentrated on the dead – by spending a lot of money to honorably bury the victims and to build memorials- and not on the survivors. The reader follows these two former soldiers and is going to discover how they want to make money.

Before giving my opinion about the book I would like to precise that the title of this novel was inspired by the last words of Jean Blanchard, a soldier who was unfairly accused of desertion and shot. Indeed, he wrote to his wife: (approximately translated)  « I fix an appointement for you in heaven where I hope that God will reunite us. Goodbey up there, my dear wife ».

This book was very interesting to read. I didn’t imagine that some survivors of the War were so forgotten. There was not enough money to pay them and they lived in poverty. Moreover I also learned about the « coffins trafic ». Soldiers were buried everywhere because there were too many deads and it was forbidden to exhume the corpses but some families wanted to bury their relative in the cemetery of the town they lived in so they became law-breakers by exhuming the corpse at night and re-burying it elsewhere.

Au revoir là-haut was adapted into a comic that I’ve not read but I saw it and the drawings are really beautiful and I heard that it was very faithful to the book. A movie is also going to be released (I don’t precisely know the date) and I will surely watch it!

Did you know this book? Do you want to read it?

Emma, Jane Austen

The novel that I want to speak about is entitled Emma. It was written by the famous English author Jane Austen. You may know her thanks to her work named Pride and Prejudice. This may be the most well-known book of this writer but I personally do prefer Emma. What is this book about? The story unfolds principally in the village of Highbury but other fictional places like Hartfield or Randalls are mentioned. Emma, the lead character, lives with her father in Hartfield which is in fact their domain (we can see that they are rich). During her childhood, her governess –and friend- Miss Taylor took care of her. Later, Emma arranges Miss Taylor’s wedding (with Mr Weston). Then she meets Harriet, a pretty seventeen years old woman who has humble origins. Emma decides to guide her and to help her to find a husband. But there are some unexpected consequences …

“I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like” This is what Jane Austen said about her character Emma. What is ironic about Emma is the fact that she doesn’t want to get married but she likes to meddle in relationships that are nothing to do with her. She is indiscreet, too much sure of herself, beautiful and rich. She doesn’t recognize when she was wrong and she takes the liberty of saying audacious comments for a woman at that time. She is also a faithful friend and an intelligent woman. I made this list of adjectives only to prove that Emma is a clever mix of faults and qualities. I appreciate this complexity.

Now I would like to talk about another character that I loved in this book: Mr Knightley. Who is he? Mr Knightley is a friend of Emma but also his brother-in-law. Indeed, Emma has a sister, Isabella, who married John Knightley, the little brother of Mr Knightley (George). The most important to retain about Mr Knightley is the fact that he is the only one who dares to contradict Emma. When she is wrong, he is the one who says “I disagree with you” and that’s why he is –for me- her most sincere friend.

Did you know this novel?  you have read another book of Jane Austen?

The Shawshank Redemption – Frank Darabont

Hi everybody! Today, I would like to speak about the film The Shawshank Redemption . This movie was directed by Frank Darabont in 1994 and it was inspired by Stephen King’s novella « Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption » published in 1982.

Andy Dufresne, a young banker, is unfairly sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife and her lover. He is imprisoned to Shawshank, the most severe penitentiary of the State and proclaimed his innocence for a long time. During his detention, he met Red, an another prisoner imprisoned for several years, with whom he became very friendly. Both, they are going to try to restore the truth.

It should be noted that, in the beginning, this movie was a commercial failure but it is now considered as a cult movie ! It is considered as being « culturally, historically, and aesthetically important » !

This movie is beautiful and full of emotion. I think it is one of movies which is necessary to see! Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins are great !

« We sent you here for life, and it is exactly what we take you »

Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer

« I want a life more intense and richer. »

Once upon a time, a man who preferred to live his dream rather than to dream his life…

This true story is the story of Chris McCandless, which inspired Jon Krakauer in his book « Into the Wild » published in 1996. In this biografical novel, the author recounts the life of this young man who decided to leave the consumer society to return to the wild life. Moreover, this adventure inspired also the film director Sean Penn in 2007.

Chris has one dream: go in Alaska and live there. So, after having his university degree, he begins his trip with his old car and gives up everything : his family, his money, his comfort, his civilized life… He says about him he is a « leather tramp ». Chris travels the South of the United States before realizing his big dream : live alone in Alaska and in harmony with the nature. He decided to settle down in a abandoned bus and lives as he can : he hunts game, eats some roots etc…

But living in the wild is not always easy and Chris has to face many difficulties to survey in this hostile environment…

« I learnt that the main part in life, it is not to be strong, but to feel strong. »

I find this book so interesting and fascinating. It brings us in another universe. This book also makes us think about our role in the consumer society. Through Chris, the reader wonders, throughout the book, if he could have the courage to leave everything to live what we really wish…

This is where I leave you, Jonathan Tropper

Hi Everybody !

Today I would like to talk about the book This is where I leave you  written by Jonathan Tropper and published in 2009.

Jonathan Tropper is an american author, he wrote The book of Joe, Everything Changes… Tropper created with David Schikler the television serie Banshee. His book This is where I leave you also has a film adaptation realesed by Shawn Levy with Jane Fonda and Adam Driver.

The book talks about a family in mourning. Before his death Morton Foxman expressed a last will : that his family celebrates Shiv’ah, a Jewish tradition. Seven days of mourning, together in the same house. They are all different, on the one hand Judd is in depression, on the other hand there is Wendy with his hyperactive children and her husband all time on his phone. The disputes break out with family secrets. The week risks being very long…

This is where I leave you is not big litterature but this book gives us a huge palette of personnalities, thanks to that we sometimes recognize a member of our family. This book made me laugh and it does good at this moment. This is where I leave you is a big portrait of life : hard moments, happy, sad (…). I am really impatient to read another Jonathan’s novel !

 » Family I hate you ! « 

I am a Pilgrim , Terry Hayes

 

Hi Everybody !

Today I would like to talk about the book I am a Pilgrim written by Terry Hayes.

Terry Hayes is an English screenwriter, producer and author. He wrote several scenarios adapted for the cinema by th biggest studios of Hollywood of which From Hell, Dead Calm and also Mad Max 2. I am a Pilgrim is his first novel, it was published on 2013 and it is a thriller.

A young woman murdered in a hotel of Manhattan. A zoologist, father, decapitated in Soudi Arabia. A series of murders all linked up with a man : Pilgrim. Under this name a man hides who in the past ran a unity of secret service and who before leaving, has writing a boof of reference on criminology and legal science. But past catches him, with all his secrets.

I have hesitated for a long time before reading it beacause it seemed to me violent. So yes, this book is violent, but the suspens makes addicted. It is not big litterature but the novel remains very rich in characters, in places, the book is also very interesting because there are different points of views. The link with our reality is well present, and it is what returns the terrible book.

“You can kill a thinker, but you can’t kill the thought »   

Terry Hayes.

The Strange Library – Murakami

Hello !

Alright Kids, it’s New Year, time to take good resolutions and…
No wait, don’t change, stay yourself.

Well, today I’ve decided to speak about one of my christmas present, a little book called « Fushigi Na Toshokan » or « The Strange Library » in english. That’s a short story written by Haruki Murakami a famous japanese writer. See ? I don’t only read mangas !

This little book had a big impact on me you know ? No, don’t think it’s exceptionally clever or something that denunce something. It’s more of a fantasy or a-totally-what-the-hell-is-going-on book ! Yeah that’s the least I can say, it’s pretty disturbing at first, but then it becomes usual.

For the story, a boy named… Er who has no-name if I’m right, goes one day to the local library to borrow some books about a question he wondered about during his way-back home : how taxes were collected in the Ottoman Empire ? With that you already understand the context and the genre of the story ! That’s what he does, but it turned out to be more complicated… To read books about it, he has to go in a special room, in some underground tunnel… where he’ll find himself trapped ! Here he’ll meet strange characters like a sheep man (who’s really good at cooking donuts…) and another crazy psycopath ! I don’t tell what he does ’cause it’s important in the story -and pretty gore. Of course, then he’ll try to escape this strange library…

This book although short was really rich in madness ! (But don’t think all japanese are writting crazy things !) It was moreover entertaining and pretty funny at some moments. Because it’s a short story, all things aren’t equally developped and sometimes and it seems to be said quickly, but it stays cool to read. The character tries to find a way back to normality and that’s really interesting, you’re totally with him when you’re reading the book (plus it’s told with 1rst-person narrative) so you’re fully in it.

In a nutshell that’s a nice little story to pass time for example.

Well, that’s all for me, see you guys !

The Spook’s Apprentice – Joseph Delaney

TheSpooksApprentice-JosephDelaney.jpg

Alright people, today the book I’m gonna present you is pretty different from what I’ve done before. Indeed that’s a scary book, a dark fantasy one. As you maybe know I’m really fond of fantasy books (just like my dear Harry Potter) and this one I discovered wandering in the library was my new crush. That’s one of the reason that explain why I really love libraries, since you can find things that you wouln’t find normally. On the book was written « do not read at night » what I found really attractive, I took it and read it late in the night (you can call me crazy I accept it). That was freaking disturbing and scary (not so much but a little anyways) therefore I loved it so much ! What’s strange is great for my mind, I can’t explain it :’)
So this book is the first in a serie of 13 called « The Wardstone Chronicles ».

Tom Ward is the main character and is the seventh son of his father (who’s himself a seventh son), what makes him different from his brothers or sisters. Thus he has special abilities that allow him to see things that others can’t just like ghosts, witches and things that aren’t real. When you are like that, you can be a Spook, which mean that you hunt magical and demoniacal creatures and save people from these of course.
We’ll follow his adventures as the Spook’s apprentice, because he has to learn the job naturally. Living with him, he’ll learn all he has to know to become a good Spook. Of course his life won’t be a bed of roses…

For the moment I didn’t read everything but sure I’ll do it someday because the story was very catchy and… spooky (I had to do it excuse me). Yeah really some phrases and sentences weren’t reassuring ya know, so that was a kind of tense and really scary atmosphere. When you start reading this book, when the action is fully launched you’re totally in it and you’re eager to know what’s going to happen next ! To be honest I was really stressed while reading that but in a good way. Yep really entertaining it was.

In a nutshell go to the library, borrow this book, read it at night and you’ll live a great fantasy adventure. Aw that’s true, there’s a film adapted from the book called « Seventh Son »… I heard it was a dung. Just with the trailer you understand that they transformed it into an action-packed film with too many SFX.
Yeah as always books are better !

See you later 😉

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon.

« My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.  But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black— black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly. Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster. »

[The official back cover of the book]

 

Today I’m going to speak about Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon, a not famous author but promising and talented. The novel is American and published in 2015. We are in a sterile universe of Madeline Whitter, a teenager with a rare disease that affects her immune system and forces her to live at home, locked up, without contact with the outside world.

     Madeline Whittier is a teenager with SCID (Severe Combined Immune Deficit), a rare disease that, with the slightest bacteria, can kill her and his father and brother are died when she has 4 months. Maddy (her nickname) is therefore confined to her room disinfected since her youngest age : she has never been able to feel the slightest ray of sunshine caressing her skin. She adapts, she has friends on the internet, she reads a lot of books and creates articles, she takes lessons online. She lives normally because she only knows that. I felt this confinement and the weariness of the repeated tasks : Maddy always plays the same games, often watches the same films, it’s a sort of comfort because it is the only thing she knows and she can share with someone (her mother or nurse), but it’s also depressing because the heroine feels prisoner, useless, with no future. But one day, the outside intrigues her and offersher unknown desires so far. The outside has a name : Oliver (Olly). He is his age and has just moved in front her house. He’s a good character, and he also has family problems. We learn in the same time of Maddy that his sister, his mother and him are beaten by their father. The conversations between Olly and Maddy are simple but invigorating. Maddy tries to resist to Olly, but how can she refrain from observing her only source of comfort and joy ? She knows very well that no matter the nature of this possible relationship, she is doomed to failure : who would like a friend whom one can not frequent or a girlfriend that you can not even touch ? And yet, it is well known that Olly may well be the only person on earth to take an interest in Maddy. She can’t talk about her existential problems with her mother without adding more guilt, so Olly is the first person with whom she can open up. And for Olly, Maddy represents something healthy and cheerful, the opposite of what he finds in his home when he’s returning from classes.

     I had already heard of the SCID but it is a little known and a little neglected by the media or literature. Nicola Yoon touched a sensitive point with this disease, because if we complain about our small everyday problems, we realize how we are ridiculous. This story is just beautiful. I encountered a multitude of emotions over the pages. Compassion, frustration, joy, anger, sadness, hope,… I wanted to fight for Madeline as she did herself. It is the desire to live one’s life, to take risks, to exceed the limits. A life without having lived is a waste of time. And in front, we have fear, anxiety. Everything, Everything reads very quickly and has its small peculiarities. Nicola Yoon brings us even closer to her character, she has personalized certain thoughts, we find them in the form of drawings, explanatory diagrams, diaries, notes with humor and freshness. I had started this book with no hope for the heroine, the SCID being incurable. I was expecting the relationship between Maddy and Olly to stop, it was clear to me that even though Olly was in love with Maddy he could not stay with her, because a relationship without touching one another, kissing oneself, without dating really, seems to me impossible. As much to say that I had not seen this end coming, until this famous mail from the doctor of Hawaii. Frankly, the idea that her mother had not recovered from the trauma of the loss of her husband and her son had not even occurred to me. For me she suffered (normal) but I thought that the shock had passed. So, I understood the reaction of Maddy who saw her life pass under the nose, but I had compassion for her mother who never recovered from this accident.

     It was a great discovery. This novel is cute, poetic, and filled with love. It is the kind of light romance that must be read from time to time and that does good to morale.

« The greatest risk is not taking one ».

When the night becomes day by Sophie Jomain.

    Today I’m going to speak about When the night becomes day, a shocking and realistic novel by Sophie Jomain on the desire to die. The novel is French and published in 2016. The author seizes on a serious subject, that of euthanasia, through a young woman, Camille, who has suffered fromsevere depression since her teenager.

     There are novels that one does not want to let go, and that one is nostalgic to close, once the last page read. This is the case here. If the question of euthanasia is not new, the way the author treats it comes out of sight and revision. When the night becomes day is written from the point of view of Camille, a young woman of twenty-nine years old. She recounts her life as in a newspaper, she invites us in her head and introduces us to the one that accompanies her from her early memories of youth until the present of her story : her suffering. Yet the young woman, an only child, lives in a loving family, with parents with a comfortable financial situation and infinite love for their daughter. But Camille can not bear : a violent physical rejection that causes her to make several suicide attempts and lead to violent physical pain like headaches or vomiting.This hatred towards her body begins at twelve years when she is very skin. Then as a teenager, she becomes obese and then alternates phases of anorexia and obesity for several years. When she decides to ask for euthanasia in Belgium, she is almost thirty-years old. This is accepted despite the fact that she does not have an incurable disease, as doctors consider it an incurable depression. She then goes to a medical-psychiatric clinic about two months before her scheduled death.

     The story continue and we attach ourselves to Camille, we hope that each pages will be sweeter for her. And this is the case. With the arrival at the clinic, the novel is less black, one even smiles and one has the impression that the weight that carries Camille is less heavy. But it is without counting the days and hours that pass, bringing the young woman closer to her death. The story told is very violent. From the very first lines, the reading is difficult. We’re wondering if we should continue. When we continue to read, we follow Camille gradually from childhood to her twenty-nine years old. We see the difficulty of adulthood, the first emotions in love, the doubts, the difficult self-acceptance, etc… The author describes extremely well the pain of Camille and the rejection of her body, all the more so as the author tells the story in the first person. And yet, one can not imagine the pain she feels. For the character, the violence of these questions is multiplied. We do not know if it is she who has never accepted her body, or if society has never allowed, accepted her. The author has found the words and the way to speak of a very hard subject, and still taboo in France, without falling into the psychological tearing or the excess. It’s written with accuracy and for my part, I understand the choice of Camille. In a sort of introduction, Camille summarizes her life and the why of her choice. The rest is the countdown between the date of her death with the management of the situation, the declaration for theparents and their reactions, her accompaniment with the medical team, and also more.

     I like to read real stories, or those that could have been. I think it’s because the world is so complex, so rich, so diverse, so tragic and so beautiful, that its own stories enchant me enough. I can’t get out of the story, detach myself from the characters. I live through the characters and their emotions. When the night becomes day is a fictive story, and yet it has taken me to the guts like an autobiographical novel. It’s a short story but really touching with a tormented character that is sometimes difficult to understand. But really a great story. The issue of euthanasia is addressed in an interesting way. 

U2

Bloody Sunday

Sunday Bloody Sunday is a song from the music group U2, it’s an Irish group who was formed in 1976. This song went of the 11 March of 1983 and tells the story of The Troubles and escpecially the Bloody Sunday. Here is the lyrics of the song:

Yeah
Hmm hmm

I can’t believe the news today
Oh, I can’t close my eyes
And make it go away
How long
How long must we sing this song?
How long? How long

’cause tonight we can be as one
Tonight

Broken bottles under children’s feet
Bodies strewn across the dead end street
But I won’t heed the battle call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall

Sunday, bloody Sunday
Sunday, bloody Sunday
Sunday, bloody Sunday

And the battle’s just begun
There’s many lost, but tell me who has won?
The trench is dug within our hearts
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart

Sunday, bloody Sunday
Sunday, bloody Sunday

How long
How long must we sing this song?
How long? How long

’cause tonight we can be as one
Tonight tonight

Sunday, bloody Sunday
Sunday, bloody Sunday

Wipe the tears from your eyes
Wipe your tears away
Oh, wipe your tears away
I wipe your tears away
(Sunday, bloody Sunday)
I wipe your blood shot eyes
(Sunday, bloody Sunday)

Sunday, bloody Sunday (Sunday, bloody Sunday)
Sunday, bloody Sunday (Sunday, bloody Sunday)

And it’s true we are immune
When fact is fiction and TV reality
And today the millions cry
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die

The real battle just begun
To claim the victory Jesus won
On

Sunday, bloody Sunday
Sunday, bloody Sunday

Now we have to replace the historic context to understand the song. The Troubles is a ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland between 1968 and 1998, at the beginning the conflict was political and nationalist (but it had also an ethnic dimension although it wasn’t religious). On the one hand, loyalist who are mostly protestants and considered themselves British, wanted Northern Ireland remain within the United Kingdom. On the other hand, Irish nationalists/republicans who are mostly catholics, considered themselves Irish and wanted to leave the United Kingdom. It was a complex conflict with numerous armed and political actors.

The song tells the story of the Bloody Sunday wich took place the 30 January of 1972. It was a shooting Attack in wich British soldiers shot 26 anonymus civilians during a paceful protest march against internment without trial. 14 people died: 13 were killed instantatly and an another man four months later by his injuries.

Analysis of the song:

The first stanza: The singer, Bono, can’t believe his eyes. He saids that he can’t rest insensitive and powerless : « I can’t believe the news today, I can’t close my eyes and make it go away ». He calls up the gathering of Irish people.

The second stanza: the tone is darker and the anger present « Puts my backup against the wall ». Bono describes a battlefield full of dead people  » Broken bottles under children’s field »

The musical bridge: The singer asks stop crying « Wipe the tears from your eyes », we have to keep hope.

Chorus: The singer repeats « Sunday, bloody Sunday », it’s a mark of insistence.

Third stanza: It’s a criticism of the media wich trivialize the violence to the point that it doesn’t shock anymore  » And it’s true we are imune when fact is fiction and TV reality ». However some poeple are still crying into indifference  » And today the millions cry ».

But the battle continues, not the one who will see the Victory of catholics or protestants but the one who will see the victory of Jesus « to claim the victory Jesus won ».

Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The picture of Dorian Gray is the only novel of Oscar Wilde published in the July 1890 of Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. The editor of the magazine explained that the story was indecent and censored five hundred words before the publication. Despite this censorship, The Picture of Dorian Gray offended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers : they said that Wilde violating the laws of public morality. First, Wilde defended his novel in correspondence with the press. Then, he delete the most controversial words and publicated his book the following year,

The Picture of Dorian Gray begins on a summer day in Victorian era when a famous artist : Basil Hallward is painting the portrait of an handsome youngman named Dorian Gray. Through Basil, Dorian meet Lord Henry Wotton who convinced him of the value of beauty and pleasure above all things. Dorian is really disturbed by Lord Henry’s words and terrify of his own image and fears that his youth and beauty will fade. Dorian becomes jealous of this painting wich remain forever young while he is have to to aging and passionately whishes that the marks of life appeared on the portrait and no on his face. Lord Henry is fascinated of Dorian’s innoncence as much as Dorian is impressed by Henry’s way of life, they become fast friends.

Dorian soon falls in love of a poor but talented young actress named Sibyl Vane. They become engaged and he brings Henry and Basil to a theater. Sibyl plays here but her acting was inexplicaly terrible. On backstage she tells him that now she loves him but that her feelings are going to pass away. Disgusted, Dorian breaks of their engagement and leaves Sibyl. He returns to his home and discovers that his portrait had now a slightly different facial expression. He realized that the portrait was alive : a linving mirror of his soul.

Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones

Don’t you think that we all need a bit of wizardry from time to time? I sometimes find it delightful to go back in time, and it’s easier to do than you might think. No need of a magic wand, simply one of those book that you read a long time ago. One of those bewitched books whose worlds feel like weird but mesmerizing places you visited with a pounding heart but that you know so well that they are now as many shelters. However, the book I would like to talk about contains its share of mystery, involving a wizard with odd habits, a door opening to four different places, a sweaty young-looking witch, a young girl in disguise and even a fire-demon…

Have you ever heard of Howl’s Moving Castle? Maybe you have, but I would be surprised if it really was about the book and not the equally wonderful but rather different motion picture created by the internationally acclamed Hayao Miyazaki. The movie you may know was actually inspired by a British book written by Diana Wynne Jones, who published over 30 books.

castle

The protagonist of this story is seventeen-years-old Sophie Hatter, the eldest of three sisters. Their father owns a a hat shop in the town of Market Chipping, in Ingrary. For Sophie, being born eldest of three is just enough to be the beginning of her troubles. You see, as everyone in this land knows, succeeding in the role of fortune-seeker is reserved to the youngest children and the eldest are merely those who fail first, if not even worse… Actually, we first hear of our eponymous wizard in the first chapter, where Jones teases the well-known clichés of the fantastic genre, as the land of Ingary is depicted as a place « where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist« . Sophie is resigning herself to live a dull life making hats as it will follow for sure, while her sisters both live exciting existences, until a moving castle appears on the hills above the town and refuses to stay motionless. At first afraid that it would belong to the dreadful Witch of the Waste, the townspeople are then soon saying that its owner is the wizard Howl, who can’t help but have fun « collecting young girls and sucking the souls from them. Or some people said he ate their hearts. »

Nonetheless, Sophie unwillingly attracts the Witch of the Waste’s anger and finds herself stuck into an old lady’s body. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the always-moving castle seenable from her hat shop: the Wizard Howl’s Castle. And since she aged so much, she isn’t scared anymore. Furthermore, she will have to handle Howl himself, who is so vain that he spends hours in the bathroom before going out, his young helper Michael and Calcifer, the talking fire… Becoming Howl’s housemaid only becomes possible after setting an uncanny bargain with the demon-fire in the hearth: although she can’t speak about the spell she is under, Calcifer knows it and agrees to give her back her appearance if she manages to discover and break the contract that links him up with Howl. But who is really Howl? Why is he so difficult to pin down? Can Sophie trust this mischievous fire crackling on the hearth? How does the castle manage to be in 4 locations in the same time? And does the jars in the bathroom labelled HAIR, SKIN and EYES contain limbs of unfortunate girls who came too close to the wizard?

It may just sounds like a foolish little tale, but it’s more than that. It would be nearly impossible to write about all of the astonishing surprises and elements that this story incorporates, so I will tell those I am the most amazed of.

First of all, there are many fairytales connections. But Jones knows them so well, that she easily explores them, reshuffes them and goes even further by subverting them, which is truly refreshing and remarkable to me. To begin with, doesn’t the name of the Witch of the Waste remind you of someone? It could be this other sorceress straight out from « The Wonderful Wizard of Oz » whose name is interestingly the Witch of the West. Furthermore, the opening chapter about Sophie’s life is reminiscent of Cinderella‘s tale, without Sophie having bad relationships with her relatives and siblings, fated to create hats her whole life long. Similarly, Howl and Sophie seem to embody the roles of the Beauty and the Beast alternately- Sophie is both the Beauty and the Beast at times, just like Howl is- and they can’t be easily defined. Also, Howl is a very interesting hero, who has qualities but is so far away from the perfect character that he becomes very human. He is vain, sees himself as a drama queen (or king) but also incredibly coward at times, he often throws a fit because of meaningless matters: he catches the flu, or his hair’s colour is wrong…Although it isn’t a humorous story, there are many really funny moments.
howl

“I feel ill, » [Howl] announced. « I’m going to bed, where I may die.”

Then, it is also such an optimistic story! Although Sophie ages prematurely, she is never down and always sees things as the part of the bottle that is half-full. Judging that this new appearance represents her true self better than her former youthful one, she just keeps going and overcomes every obstacle, finally daring to take charge of her own destiny. Jones also doesn’t mollycoddle her readers, she doesn’t look down on them, as she doesn’t explain everything but let us put every part of the puzzle together on our own. She trusts us. Which brings me to my last point: she words her sentences wonderfully, cleverly as well.

“Things are going round and round in my head–or maybe my head is going round and round in things.”

And it’s also the way this book can be perceived: its story is a story of words. Different kind of words: songs, curses, words that save or hurt, harm imposed after believing in words… This is a book that tells the importance of words, or how magical they can be.
roomThank you very much Manon for buying it to me 😉

The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson

poster2

Have you ever heard of the film director Wes Anderson? Or have you ever watched one of these movies: The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom, the Darjeeling Limited or the eponymous animated feature Fantastic Mr Fox based on Roald Dahl’s book… I am sure that if you did see one of them, you remember it for sure! He may have one of the most distinctive visual styles a popular American film director has ever had, which led to many parodies reproducing his unique work… For instance, he seems to be obsessed with symmetry and unique colours. The sceneries he imagines are always very colourful and look as if we just entered a magical fairy tale. Moreover, critics and writers, as well as Anderson himself often refer to his films as  « self-contained worlds« . The characters of his films always behave in a totally exentric way and have amusing but weird characteristics, as much physically as intellectually. But here is a warning: if at first sight, his movies just seem to be wacky comedies, they are actually more meaningful than that and marked by melancholic elements. His recurring themes are often grief, loss of innocence, parental abandonment, suicide, adultery, sibling rivalry…Don’t simply rely on the seemingly shallow lines, you should find the lines between the lines!

The Grand Budapest Hotel is one of his latest films and I really enjoyed watching it! It is the kind of movies you should watch when you are sad, sick or depressed: it will make you laugh a lot, cry of laughter and laugh some more…And then feel a bit melancholic?

lift

« The Beginning of the End of the End of the Beginning has begun... »

Wes Anderson creates a brand new world with a special atmosphere. The landcapes and aesthetic choices he makes are truly worth-watching! To sum it up, I could simply say that we follow the adventures of a legendary concierge, played by Ralph Fiennes, and known as Mr. Gustave H. He is in charde of a great hotel located in the city of Nebelsbad, in a fictional Central European state called Zubrowka, between the First and the Second World Wars. Known to court aging wealthy women who flock to the Grand Budapest Hotel, we get to know Mr. Gustave through the eyes of a trainee lobby boy, Zero Moustafa. Freshly arrived in the country after his hometown was invaded and his family executed, his most important mission is to give Mr. Gustave his precious fragrance, « L’air de Panache ».
Their life is quite comfortable until one of the concierge’s octogenarian guests, Mrs. (take a deep breath) Céline Villeneuve Desgoffe und Taxis, also known as « Madame D » or even Madame C.V.D.u.T, is found murdered..

« -What if I fall? -Oh, my darling, what if you fly?. »

.Both of them will meet Agatha, a resourceful pastry chef, with whom Zero will fall in love.
2They will also try to keep a mysterious painting called  » Boy with Apple » that everyone has their eyes on, they will be lockep up in an Internment Camp, playing a game of hide and seek in a monastery, chased by a cold-blooded assassin with a sledge, be involved in a chaotic gunfight inside of the hotel…Through plenty of twists and turns, Zero will become Mr. Gustave’s more trusted friend.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
cat killer

This action-packed movie is even harder to tell indeed because the film director chose a frame narrative. It usually means a story within a story. But you can’t just use this if you are Wes Anderson…This movie is more likely a story within a story within a story. It is divided in several parts, which are:

-Prologue
-Part 1: Mr.Gustave
-Part 2: Madame C.V.D.u.T
-Part 3: Check-point 19 Criminal Internment Camp
-Part 4: The Society of the Crossed Keys
-Part 5: The Second Copy of the Second Will
-Epilogue

This shooting script reminds us of a book, and it’s exactly what Wes Anderson wants us to think. He was inspired by the author Stefan Zweig’s work and this whole story is actually told by an older Zero Moustafa to a famous writer -played by Judd Law-. The former lobby boy is now the director of a shabby and empty version of the Grand Budapest Hotel, several decades after the end of the Second World War. He still visits his hotel now and then, to immerse himself fully in his memories. A deep scent of nostalgia emanate from the Prologue and we figure out, that if what we just saw felt like something magical but artificial, it now makes sense. The Grand Budapest Hotel seems to be an idealized, beautiful memory shared with the Young Writer, who will die. A Young Girl can be seen in front of his grave with a book of his. So, the story is a memory of Zero, whose audience is The Author as a young man. He then remembers it as an older man, whose audience is both us (as he talks directly to the camera) and the girl reading the book, and whose audience, finally, is no one else but us. It could be a beautiful metaphor of memories to cherish, as everything and everyone is going to die one day, but it also brings a bit of hope, as it can be remembered for a long time.

12

Do you know any of Wes Anderson’s other movies? If so, what did you think about it? ?

The Color Purple – Alice Walker

I’ve recently read a novel very touching, so I’ve decided to write an article about it. The Color Purple is a novel written by Alice Walker and published in 1982. It faced censorshipduring the 90’s since it was judged as inappropriate and too violent.

With epistolary form, the book tells the story of Celie, a 14 year old afro-american young lady. Deprived of education during her childhood, she lives with Alphonso, the man who took her away from her family. As she isn’t aware of « the good and the bad », she let him rape her and get her pregnant twice. She has a little sister, Nettie, who’s 12 years old. One day, a man comes to ask for Nettie’s hand. Alphonso refuses and proposes to give Celie instead of his younger girl. The man, named Albert, accepts. But he will treat Celie as bad as you can imagine. With him, she has another child : Harpo. After growing up, he falls in love with Sofia, a women with « shapes ». Anyway, Harpo tries to submit her to him, as his father asked. But Sofia resists. Celie first encourages his son to keep trying to submit the girl (the only thing she learnt is the fact that women are inferior to men…) But soon after she realises she was wrong and stands with Sofia. Then, Celie’s husband brings his lover at their house because she has health problems. At first, Shug (his lover), treats Celie as someone less than nothing. But gradually, the two women get to know each other and their friendship begins. Although Shug feels better, she stays to protect Celie from her husband. Both become more and more intimate: they have an ambiguous relationship now. But if Celie thinks that everything will be easier now, she is wrong. Many other difficulties are waiting for her… It’s up to you to discover which ones ! 

I admit that sometimes it is quite hard to read, but I assure you it’s worth reading it ! And if you’re not especially a fan of books, you can also watch the movie directed by Spielberg.

Café society by Woody Allen

Café Society is a movie directed by Woody Allen and released in 2016.

The plot unfolds in the 30s. The main character, Bobby (Jesse Eisenberg), works in his father’s jewelry but he can’t stand his job anymore. Luckily for him, his uncle (Steve Carell) is a wealthy artistic director in Hollywood. So Bobby decides to leave his peaceful life and to go to the Hollywood conquest. To do so, he asks his uncle to let him work in his agency. First, it is a failure : his uncle refuses because Bobby doesn’t seem to have the required qualities. But, after several attempts, he finally accepts to hire him… but as a  running menial errands ! Even if it isn’t what Bobby excepted, he takes the job. Soon after, he meets Vonnie (Kristen Stewart), his uncle’s assistant. He instantly falls in love with her… Unfortunately the last one is already taken. For all that, he persists because Vonnie is actually the only thing that matter for him since he can’t find any interest to his new life in Hollywood. As a misfortune never happens alone, Bobby will find out that his uncle is the one dating Vonnie. He will have to move forward, but it is without counting the other difficulties which are waiting for him.

All along the movie, we are witnessing each character’s failures. Even if the scenario lasts only a few years, we easily depict their miserable lives. Indeed, they mostly feel remorses and regrets although they belong to the upper class.

As always, Allen managed to captivate us. We all can recognize ourselves into one of the characters. Furthermore, the movie brings together all the « ingredients » necessary to please us : comic scenes, a one-way love story, unexpected elements… But above all : excellent actors. By the way, special mention to Jesse Eisenberg who perfectly fits Bobby’s role.

As you probably understood, I really like this movie. If you never saw it, I advice you to do. Here’s a little foretaste :

[youtube]https://youtu.be/LsmwF3xUWHM[/youtube]

Central Park Guillaume Musso

 

 

Biography:

Guillaume Musso was born in 6 june 1974 at Antibes and it is a French writter. Guillaume begin writting at the age of 19 years old. He is fascineted by USA and he live in New York some months. At 1999 to 2003 he becomes professor of Economic and Social Sciences, in Phalsbourg.

In may 2001 his first novel was published, this is Skidamarink , a trhiller. After a serious accident, he imagine in 2004 a story of a children who is come back of the death. This is a big succes. Guillaume Musso is a first French novelist most read and his book are translated into several languages.

The book Central Park was published in 27 march 2014, this is a detective novel.

Central Park:

New York at 8 o’clock ! A young woman Alice is a policeman of Paris and Gabriel is a jazzman pianist american and they wake up handcuffed, on a bench of Central Park. They don’t know each other and they don’t have a memory of their evenig. Alice make a party with her friend in Paris and Gabriel was doing concert in Dublin. Alice and Gabriel ask many questions of this situation? But Alice remark a task of blood in his skirt and she has a one ball less in his pistol. So ALice and Gabriel will have to work together, for discover the thruth.They will cross a many steps for understand waht is happened. At the end we are going discover the thruth and we can know the past of Alice upsetting and we can suprised by the story and the end change the story of character.

If you like an enigme we can learn this book and there are very suspense !

FUNKADELIC – MAGGOT BRAIN

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOKn33-q4Ao[/youtube]
Listen to the music while reading this article ! 🙂

THE BAND

Funkadelic is an american funk band founded in 1964. Initially known as The Parliaments, it began music in the hair salon of George Clinton, the leader of the band and change its name for Funkadelic in 1970. It is active from 1964 to 1981, and during this time, 13 album are released, the members of the group go through drugs problem, they change their band name twice… The group evolved but one of their musical piece is timelessness : Maggot Brain.

MAGGOT BRAIN

Maggot Brain is derived of the album also called Maggot Brain, realeased in 1971. The story behind the song is as legendary as mysterious. It lasts ten minutes, essentially composed of an electric guitar and a drum in the background. Eddie Hazel, guitarist of the band perfom Maggot Brain from beginning to end. Only George Clinton’s voice is heard as an introduction and shortly before the end.

Here are the lyrics :

Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time 
For y’all have knocked her up. 
I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe 
I was not offended 
For I knew I had to rise above it all 
Or drown in my own shit. 

Come on Maggot Brain 
Go on Maggot Brain

If we refer us to the legend, the musical piece was created on drugs (LSD more precisely) and George Clinton asked Eddie Hazel to play as if his mother had just passed away. There is an another version of the story : Maggot Brain was composed to accompany Jimi Hendrix’s soul who died a year ago.

Eddie Hazel recorded that song in one shot with a Wah-Wah pedal and a delay pedal if I’m not mistaken.

This piece of music represent a cosmic travel and the culmination to a state-of-mind which transcends all that human can imagine.

Maggot Brain was also played during the funeral of Eddie Hazel on 22, December, 1992.

Classified 60th on the 100 greatest guitar songs of all times by Rolling Stone magazine, Maggot Brain is one of the guitar solo the most crushing and masterful in the world.

In my view, this song is bewitching, captivating and aerial. It makes me feel a lot of thing that I couldn’t describe. I love listen to this musical piece, it is one of my favourite. I feel the same thing when I listen to Before The Beginning of John Frusciante. Besides, he said he was inspired by Maggot Brain to record his song. It is featured on his 2009 album called The Empyrean.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-hre6wfvig[/youtube]

There is also a recent song of Childish Gambino present on his new album Awaken ! My Love called The Night Me And Your Mama Met which reminds me of Maggot Brain. By the way, I think all his new album was inspired by Maggot Brain album.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT4MgAtBbJA[/youtube]

Through my research about this beautiful song, I stumble upon a cover of Maggot Brain with a violin. According to me, it is wonderful.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APP6-4i_pR4[/youtube]

If you have 10 minutes to lose, please, listen to Maggot Brain. And if you have 30 minutes to lose, listen to the other music I have introduced in this article. All are amazing.

On the road, Jack Kerouac

On the road, Jack Kerouac, 1957

The author :

Jack Kerouac, born in 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts, is a an american writer and a poet. He comes from a French-Canadian family.
Student in Colombia, sailor during the World War II, he meets in New York, in 1944, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, with whom he leads a bohemian life at Greenwich Village. Alcohols, drugs, sex, homosexuality, parties, jazz bop, he hangs out with his friends from New York to Mexico, via New-Orleans, Denver, San Francisco… His walk of life is totally the opposite of the « traditional », conformist american life. He dies in 1969, at the age of 47, ravaged by loneliness and alcohol.

The Beat Generation :

The Beat Generation is an artistic and literary movement born in the 50’s in the USA. The expression is used for the first time in 1948 by Jack Kerouac to discribe his circle of friends to John Clellon Holmes. There are many books depicting this movement : Howl, Allen Ginsberg (1956) ; Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs and obviously On the road by Jack Kerouac. Some members of the Beat Generation showed their homosexuality and it made a scandal in the puritan America. For example, Howl and Naked Lunch became the object of trials which allowed to develop the publishing world and the sexual liberation of the next generation. The three authors have influenced the youth walk of life of the 50’s – 60’s. The Beat Generation indirectly inspired May 68, the opposition to Vietnam war and Woodstock. It also illustrates the great commitment to big spaces, nature and spiritualities.

After his first book in 1950, The Town and the City, he develops a new write technique, very spontaneous that will lead the publication of On the road in 1957 : it was written in only three weeks. It is considered as the manifesto of the Beat Generation. It is an autobiographical novel where Sal (Salvador) Paradise, a student and a writer, is Jack Kerouac. Sal, the narrator, just got divorced, meets Dean Moriarty, released from prison, with who he travels accross the USA hitchhiking, by bus or car. Their trip begins to the west, passing by California, then the to east and to the South. Each step of their travel is made of new experiences : meetings, parties, various jobs and problems.

I have like read this book : the characters wander aimlessly, they lived without thinking about their future. On the road offers numerous meditation about life, death, love, friendship… We can also see it through Sal’s monologues. They live from hand to mouth, meeting people, questioning themselves, unending race to find money, food and a place to stay. This book reminds me of Into The Wild at some point (even if the main character is not really here to have fun). Besides, the fact that the road brings aventures, discoveries, meetings makes me want to travel accross a country.

«  Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road. 

Doglands – Tim Willocks

Tim Willocks, what a man. This writter is not only a writter, he’s also a doctor and a profesionnal martial art, and we can see it truought his books. We find a part of his personnality in each one of his charaters, wich I admet, is intresting to discover. He worked with Steven Spielberg, and his firts novel has been adapted in a movie. But we are here talking about Doglands, a novel that brought him « la Pépite du Roman » in Europe for the teen section in 2012.

Doglands is his first novel for the children and teens, he wrote it in 2011 and it was published in 2012 by Syros in France. This books talks about a dog that is supposed to run for his masters. But he’s not the right breed so, he have to run away and abandon his mother. He brings his sister and his brother with him, and the story is basically about his travel to find the « doglands », a place where every dog is happy, a sort of heaven if you want. Poetic right ?

But the intresting thing about this book is the way the writter… write. Let me explain : the way the story is related, it seems that the dog speak. We see everything like this dog and we understand like him, everything is explain as if it was a dog that explain it to us. Get it ? That’s quite twisted, but to understand clearly, the only thing I have to say is : read it, as always. And as always, the end is cute, I wasn’t expecting that, could be better, but well, the whole book is plaisant so, we forgive the end.

Just, read it.

L’enfant sauvage or The Wild Child – T.C Boyle

French title ? I know, weird for an american witer, that’s what I thought when I read it for the first time. I studed it for my first second year in high school. First I wasn’t exited about reading that kind of book, the story wasn’t intresting in my opinion, but I was glad that it’s a small book, so I studed it with more or less enthusiasm. I understood why the title was in french, the story takes place in France actualy, but then we learn that there is two title, I don’t know why, the author is quite peculiar. The story takes place in Aveyron in Langudoc, that’s might be a reason.

Basically that’s the story of a child that lived in a forest for his entire life until a hunter find him in, arond 9 or 10 years old. Then a psychologiste take him to Paris and try to educate him until his 19/20 years old. We understand it quickly so I think that I can say it, the child is autistic. So the doctor can’t really do anything, in his case that’s difficult and he tried a lot of possibilities to nurture him.

Honestly, this book is really good. Even me I was touched by the end, some passages are satisfying because he finally succeed in something (we are talking about saying « milk » in front of a glass of milk for the fist time at 17 years old), but some others are ruthless and grievous… But, well, we love the feel of pain in our heart so, let’s read it. It’s kind of funny in certain passages.