1914: Romain Gary - Resources and General Discussion

(1914 - 1980)

Romain Gary was a very prolific and ver popular French author, who now seems somewhat forgotten. He is the only French author to have won the prestigious Prix Goncourt twice.

At least two novels of Romain Gary are listed on the 1001 must, etc:

The Roots of Heaven & Promise at Dawn

He is one of my favorite authors but I've always had trouble recommending his books as they were not readily available in English. My favorite of his is still Roots of Heaven. I was planning on reading one of his books this year for this anniversary but I didn't bring any to Japan with me. If I go back to the States I'll have to try to fit him in before the end of the year.

Romain Gary is a new author to me, and one I had never heard of. I have started reading Chien Blanc (English: White Dog. It is a somewhat slow read, but there is so much to munch on every page. I like his mix of irony and seriousness, which seems typical of the 1960s.

Being French, Romain Gary was recommended to me so many times by my mother and grandmother. They finally bought me Roots of Heaven and I was hooked; it was such a beautiful read. There was a group read of it a few months ago and I was surprised that it wasn't as well received as I thought it would have been.

When I was in France in July the bookstores there were also putting his books aside (along with Marguerite Duras') in little commemorations of their anniversaries.

>4 lilisin:

On Saturday, I just bought a pile of books by Marguerite Duras. The French bookstore in Beijing, L'arbre du voyageur re-opened after having been closed for 5 months. Although I had read Duras before, reading more of her work and enjoying the discussions in the Author Theme Reads Group warmed me to this author. I am now planning to buy her complete works in the Pleiade series. A bit expensive, four vols., but it seems worth while.

For Romain Gary, besides Chien blanc (Engl. White Dog), I bought Promesse de L'Aube (Engl. Promise at Dawn) and Éducation européenne (Eng. A European Education. I will probably go back and order Les racines du ciel (Engl. The Roots of Heaven.

Ah, the Pleiade series. Beautiful but I'm also so afraid of turning the pages. We have quite a few of the French classics in that edition (Zola, Hugo, etc...) and I always look at them thinking someday I'll get over my fear and read from the collection we have.

Of what I own of Gary, I haven't yet read Éducation européenne and I got halfway through Promesse de L'Aube which I only put down because at the time I was in a weird reading funk where I was stopping midway through my books.