Amélie Nothomb
Author of Fear and Trembling
About the Author
Disambiguation Notice:
(nor) The first date of birth and birthplace are originated from the official site; the second ones are confirmed by the family genealogies published in État présent de la noblesse belge" 1979, 1995 et 2010.
(fre) Just one birth date on academic and offical text : 1966-07-09
Image credit: Wikipedia user ΛΦΠ
Works by Amélie Nothomb
Elettra 5 copies
Les champignons de Paris 3 copies
Diavoli d'autore: 10 anni Voland — Contributor — 2 copies
Pétronille: A Novel 1 copy
Cosmetica del nemico 1 copy
Stupeurnet tremblements 1 copy
Les Aérostats 1 copy
Fiche de lecture Métaphysique des tubes de Amélie Nothomb (Analyse littéraire de référence et résumé complet)… (2018) 1 copy
Преступление. Ртуть 1 copy
petronella 1 copy
Primeiro Sangue 1 copy
Hygiène de l'assassin 1 copy
Non renseigné 1 copy
Antéchrist 1 copy
Ni dEve ni d'Adam 1 copy
Sed 1 copy
Sững sờ và Run rẩy 1 copy
Vòng tay Samurai 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Fabienne-Claire Nothomb, Baroness
- Birthdate
- 1966-07-09
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- Belgium
- Country (for map)
- Belgium
- Birthplace
- Kobe, Japan
- Occupations
- writer
Members
Discussions
Man tells the girl he enslaved that she is ugly and no mirrors allowed in Name that Book (January 2017)
Reviews
Fear and Trembling by Amélie Nothomb
Good, witty, writing, but after a while I got tired of it and all the negative descriptions of Japanese culture. Was it meant to be funny? I found it gloomy. It was one of those books that when you put it down, you later have to force yourself to pick it up again. Happily, it's a short book -- a novella.
Belgian 22-year-old woman, raised in Japan and speaking Japanese, achieves her dream working for a Japanese company only to spend a humiliating but amusing year cleaning toilets. Well written and novel.
Book club pick :)
I’ve never read anything by Amélie Nothomb, now I think that it would be nice to read more. This book is an homage to and a biography of the author’s father, Patrick Nothomb (partly fictionalized, I’m guessing).
It begins with Patrick facing a firing squad during a hostage crisis and ends with a rescue. In between, there is a life. I liked the writing very much.
“… je vois ma joie insolite d’exister.
Insolite parce que insolente: autour de mois régnait le chagrin. J’avais huit mois quand mon père est mort dans un accident de déminage. Comme quoi, mourir est un tradition familiale. ”
There is a kind of frozen dignity in the prose. Things are described with sympathy, a touch of sarcasm, and a touch of heartbreak. Patrick’s mother cannot love him:
“Ses chaussures à talons faisaient en s’éloignant un bruit superbe qui me rendait malade d’amour.”
My favourite part was the time Patrick spent with his paternal grandfather the baron and his family. The baron is so charming, so dignified – and terrible, out of touch with reality. The household is ridiculously horrific (horrifically ridiculous?). Yet Patrick experiences that naive and oblivious happiness of childhood, when you adapt to strange situations you don’t completely understand and learn to enjoy them. Perhaps you enjoy them even more if you are not loved enough.
“De ce que j’avais connu en six années et demie d’existence, ces vacances de Noël furent ce qui ressemblait le plus au bonheur. ”
I was slightly less interested in Patrick the adolescent, checking how much time I had left in every chapter. The story of how he met his future wife was entertaining, though. And the last chapter was riveting.… (more)
I’ve never read anything by Amélie Nothomb, now I think that it would be nice to read more. This book is an homage to and a biography of the author’s father, Patrick Nothomb (partly fictionalized, I’m guessing).
It begins with Patrick facing a firing squad during a hostage crisis and ends with a rescue. In between, there is a life. I liked the writing very much.
“… je vois ma joie insolite d’exister.
Insolite parce que insolente: autour de mois régnait le chagrin. J’avais huit mois quand mon père est mort dans un accident de déminage. Comme quoi, mourir est un tradition familiale. ”
There is a kind of frozen dignity in the prose. Things are described with sympathy, a touch of sarcasm, and a touch of heartbreak. Patrick’s mother cannot love him:
“Ses chaussures à talons faisaient en s’éloignant un bruit superbe qui me rendait malade d’amour.”
My favourite part was the time Patrick spent with his paternal grandfather the baron and his family. The baron is so charming, so dignified – and terrible, out of touch with reality. The household is ridiculously horrific (horrifically ridiculous?). Yet Patrick experiences that naive and oblivious happiness of childhood, when you adapt to strange situations you don’t completely understand and learn to enjoy them. Perhaps you enjoy them even more if you are not loved enough.
“De ce que j’avais connu en six années et demie d’existence, ces vacances de Noël furent ce qui ressemblait le plus au bonheur. ”
I was slightly less interested in Patrick the adolescent, checking how much time I had left in every chapter. The story of how he met his future wife was entertaining, though. And the last chapter was riveting.… (more)
It was easy enough to read and has a consistent tone... but it's so racist. I guess some of it must be true? Like a lot of japanese companies really do have a noxious work culture... but nothomb's characterization of a lot of japanese culture rings completely false to me.
she's also really wapanese - there are bits in this book where she talks about having been born in japan and wanting to rediscover the culture, but i've heard they're absolutely false.
she's also really wapanese - there are bits in this book where she talks about having been born in japan and wanting to rediscover the culture, but i've heard they're absolutely false.
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Statistics
- Works
- 79
- Members
- 14,284
- Popularity
- #1,612
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 450
- ISBNs
- 622
- Languages
- 32
- Favorited
- 73
