Alexandre Jardin

This is the second novel where Alexandre Jardin tries to deal with his somewhat unorthodox, zany, free loving, polygamist, insane, unstable and prone to suicide family. Are the fictional memoirs real or legend? A bit of both. A lie that speaks the truth.

Jardin's family and all the people that gravitated around them were artists, poets, politicians. Jardin's father, grand-father, uncles were known womanizers with multiple mistresses. Both their wives had multiples stay in lovers. This novel, show more this lie that speaks the truth is Alexandre's way to make peace with this very marginal upbringing, to make sense of his own life.

The tone is up beat, light but it's a lie because beneath the laughter and the outrageous you can hear the anguish about being different, the pain of losing his father very young, the hurt of not having something stable ever, the despair of a young man to live up to the family legend. Even at 40, when he wrote this fictional memoirs Alexandre still struggled with the weight of being a Jardin. show less

A perverse romance from the point of view of a young man who is a terrible tease and a peeping Tom. The language was fun, but the guy creeped me out.

This is a rather fabulous book I picked up from the French version of Amazon . Telling the tale of 3 children who have lost their mother, and who seek the help of their mad scientist neighbour when a thunderstorm erases their computer's disk of all traces of her. With his help they set off on a 'voyage extraordinaire au centre d'un ordinateur' in an attempt to find her.

The story itself is charming enough, but it's really brought to life by the fact that the book (in larger than A4 format) is show more fully illustrated throughout with wonderful montages of photography, modelling and computer drawn images which show the scenes they're experiencing in wonderful technicolour glory. Odd perspectives abound, as well as mad typography with changes of colour and font for emphasis and atmosphere. The whole is rather reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's films in parts, though obviously rather lighter.

The science is of course nonsense, and doesn't pretend to be more, but as a modern SF fairytale this is utterly delightful. show less

Alexandre Crusoé et Fanfan ont vingt ans lorsqu'ils se rencontrent pour la première fois. Il comprend très vite que cette fille imprévisible est la femme de sa vie et qu'elle l'aime ; mais il n'a pas le courage de tromper ou de quitter Laure avec qui il coule des jours paisibles. L'idée de marcher sur les traces de ses parents inconstants le panique. Il rêve de stabilité et redoute l'énergumène passionné qui sommeille en lui. En digne descendant de Robinson Crusoé, Alexandre se show more lance alors dans une aventure singulière: il décide de résister toujours au désir que lui inspire Fanfan et de ne jamais avouer sa passion afin de la soustraire à l'usure du temps. Faire la cour à Fanfan sans fléchir devient sa maxime. Elle est libre et non libérée. Sa désinvolture fascine Alexandre autant qu'elle l'affole. Amoureuse, elle usera de toutes les ressources de son imagination pour exacerber la concupiscence d'Alexandre, avec l'espoir de l'obliger ainsi à renoncer à sa résolution. Fanfan est le roman d'un jeune homme qui voulut prolonger éternellement les préludes d'un amour. show less