Billie

billie is a raw and jarring novel from one of my favourite writers. anna gavalda has written wonderfully about pain, belonging, love, and outcasts in her past works, so it is not surprising to encounter these themes again in this newest book. i will admit i was really surprised gavalda reused character names from Hunting and Gathering - franck and camille. i must get to the bottom of this! :) unlike her past stories, though, there is a sharpness, an edge, to billie - as the story unfolds, it's more in-your-face, and seems to create an urgency that i have not felt in reading her previous stories.

i like billie, but i don't love it the way i love Hunting and Gathering or I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere. i think it comes down show more to the way this story is told - billie and franck have had a accident while hiking. billie is slightly injured, franck moreso. they have to pass the night before billie will attempt to hike out for help. unable to sleep, billie begins to recount their lives and their friendship and talks to a star in the sky. at moments, of course, this feels like a religious exchange - i will tell you all this stuff with honesty, if you let my friend survive. but at other times it felt a bit precious or twee. 'oh my little star.' so i did not fully buy into this voice. and i am not sure about the ending. i am still thinking it over and can't decide if it's brilliant or too easy.

in this novel, billie talks briefly about being invisible. and i do think this story deals with some important issues, like gender, sexuality, class divides, things people do to survive. there is a novel that's been getting a lot of attention in canada lately: When Everything Feels like the Movies, by Raziel Reid. billie almost feels like a companion to WEFLtM, so gavalda's book may work well for readers of reid's book who are looking for something similar. i certainly think billie serves as a great crossover book between YA and adult fiction and that it would be an excellent book for mature high school students to read, or even be taught. oh sure, some parents (or readers) might get caught up in the fact there's bad language and sex, but i would suggest reading with compassion and getting over yourself. the pictures gavalda (and reid) give through their books are realistic and true. to think these stories are otherwise, that people are not living and struggling in these ways, is living in a bubble of ignorance that must be very nice for you.

(sorry!! i hate sounding rude. i think i get a bit defensive when readers review books that deal with difficult or sensitive issues, and do so in a completely judgmental and negative way. and i feel like gavalda and her characters could be judged negatively. certainly raziel reid has had to deal with a firestorm of haters. and it's very unfortunate. reading, they say, increases empathy. books like WEFLtM and billie certainly should help in this regard. but people need to have open minds and, as i have said already, compassion.)

hmm... i seem to have gone off on a tangent here. so i will close this up now. but, seriously, franck and camille, in two books. what's up anna gavalda? i will figure this out!! :) show less

Biillie and her life-long friend, Franck, have fallen while hiking. Franck is badly injured, and Billie spends the night reflecting on their lives before heading out int he morning to find help. This is how we learn about their struggles: she is from a poor, dysfunctional family and he is gay. Both have been outsiders all their lives, and this is a strong theme in the book, as is the life-saving power of friendship. Billie is a strong character, not always a likeable one, but one I couldn't help cheering for. The premise is a bit contrived, but the writing pulled it off. I will look for more by this author.

Diese und weitere Rezensionen findet ihr auf meinem Blog Anima Libri - Buchseele

„Nur wer fällt, lernt fliegen“ ist das erste Buch, das ich von Anna Gavalda gelesen habe. Beim ersten Versuch bin ich schon nach wenigen Seiten kläglich gescheitert, denn Frau Gavalda hat einen alles andere als einfach, eingängigen Schreibstil. Beim zweiten Mal wusste ich allerdings, worauf ich mich einlasse (oder konnte es zumindest erahnen) und habe das Buch dann auch glatt in einem Rutsch durchgelesen.

Anna Gavalda erzählt in diesem Roman die Geschichte von Billie und Franck oder viel mehr lässt sie Billie ihre Geschichte und die ihres besten (und einzigen) Freundes erzählen. Und diese erzählt die Geschichte einem Stern. Ihrem Stern, dem Stern show more ihrer Freundschaft. Denn Billie und Franck sind beim Wandern in eine Felsspalte abgestürzt und während Franck bewusstlos neben ihr liegt und Billie keine Ahnung hat, was sie tun soll, muss sie ihren Selbstzweifeln Luft machen.

Und so beginnt sie zu erzählen. Von ihrer Kindheit. Ihrer Jugend. Ihren Jahren als junge Erwachsene. Sie erzählt davon, wie es ist, auf der falschen Seite des Lebens geboren zu werden und aufzuwachsen. Von dem Mist, den sie gebaut und in den sie sich hineinmanövriert hat, um ihrem Leben zu entkommen. Davon wie sie es geschafft hat all dem letztendlich doch noch zu entkommen. Und natürlich davon, welche Rolle Franck dabei für sie gespielt hat.

Eine Nacht lang plappert Billie munter drauf los – versucht sich durch das Erzählen abzulenken von ihrer Hilflosigkeit. Dabei plappert sie wirklich. Einfach so, frei Schnauze und das wird, ihrer Herkunft sei Dank, oft auch recht vulgär. Aber es passt, denn es ist ja schließlich ihre Geschichte, die sie da auf diese teils recht unwillige Art erzählt. Aber einfach zu lesen ist es nicht unbedingt. Denn nicht nur sind Sprache und Ausdrucksweise immer wieder doch sehr eigenwillig, auch sonst ist die Erzählweise gewöhnungsbedürftig. Die Art, auf die Billie erzählt, ist teilweise regelrecht verworren und wirkt manchmal doch irgendwie konfus.

Schlecht fand ich die Art, auf die Anna Gavalda ihre Figur in „Nur wer fällt, lernt fliegen“ ihre Geschichte erzählen lässt, zwar nicht, eigentlich fand ich sie sogar ziemlich bestechend in ihrer Mischung, die einerseits zwar eigensinnig, gewöhnungsbedürftig und vulgär ist, gleichzeitig aber auch charmant, tiefsinnig und überraschend sanft. Teilweise wirkt das ganze dann aber doch etwas arg ungeschliffen, hier und da driftet die Geschichte zu sehr ab, die Zusammenhänge sind zu konfus, es wird langweilig. Ach, und das Ende fand ich irgendwie… dämlich? Unpassend? Unsinnig? Für mich jedenfalls funktioniert dieses Ende nicht.

Trotzdem, im Großen und Ganzen konnte mich Anna Gavalda mit „Nur wer fällt, lernt fliegen“ definitiv überzeugen, der Roman war zwar nicht unanstrengend aber faszinierend zu lesen, inhaltlich wie sprachlich außergewöhnlich, teilweise aber dann doch etwas zu ungewöhnlich, gerade zu etwas unfertig. Oder anders: Kompliziert, anstrengend und doch irgendwie wunderschön und zutiefst berührend. Ich denke, ich werde sicherlich noch das eine oder andere weitere Buch von Anna Gavalda lesen, aber erstmal brauche ich jetzt wieder eine Pause ;) show less

I liked this okay but didn't love it. The narration was somewhat manic and confusing at times; a girl is waiting with her best friend who's been injured on a hike. Little by little we get the story of their friendship, and how they ended up in this situation. She's worried her friend will die, and she recounts their story as much for herself as for him.

Translated from French, it's "one of France's most beloved novels". It's the story of two friends, an emotionally damaged young woman and a gay man. It's told in the first person by Billie, the woman, who is remembering the history of their friendship while her injured friend lies unconscious beside her. Though I found the writing style off-putting at first (and irritating throughout as I had to reread passages to understand what she meant), I got used to it and came to appreciate the raw truth and emotion when describing their separately difficult childhoods. I can almost imagine she wrote it as a way to deal with her own traumas...... I just picked it up on a whim at the library. I don't think it's worth going out of your way to find show more this book.... show less

Billie by Anna Gavalda

This is the story of a touching friendship, told in flashbacks after disaster happens while two best friends are hiking in the mountainous Cévennes National Park in Southern France. As they both lie broken at the bottom of some sort of crevasse, we hear their story and how their friendship has helped both of them survive difficulties stemming from abusive childhoods. It's a story of a perfect kind of love amidst an imperfect world with imperfect people. Great book!

Sometimes, I pick a book up that I've never heard of before, and start reading it with the hopes of finding something fine ... this book did not deliver on that hope, whatsoever. Other than a few, brief and meaningful moments, this book and my mind did not share a happy place. This is what's great about books, you never know.