The Destiny of Nathalie 'X'
by William Boyd
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This new collection of eleven stories by the author of The Blue Afternoon takes readers back in time from a contemporary Hollywood film shoot to World War I in Vienna, introducing an unforgettable cast of characters. Artful, witty, moving, The Destiny of Nathalie X is a confirmation of Boyd's standing as a master storyteller. 208 pp. Author tour. 15,000 print.Tags
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Unlike the last book I read, this one has a strong central theme. It is: Men Are The Worst. I’m not sure whether Boyd intended this theme to bring the stories together; nevertheless it does. Throughout, women are images, objects, and possessions rather than people. Even the one story with a female narrator is entirely concerned with men and their feelings. Additionally, as with many short story collections, the first is the best and gives the book its title. ‘The Destiny of Nathalie ‘X’’ is an often hilarious satire on Hollywood film-making. I especially enjoyed everyone’s solemnly expounded theories. The subsequent stories are well written - although Boyd is too keen on the word ‘farinaceous’, which is best used show more sparingly. Their content, however, was laughable. I’ll summarise each in a sentence so you can see what I mean.
- War is hell, philosophy is hell, all my friends are dead.
- My car broke down but I banged a hot chick from Paris so it’s all good.
- I really wanted to bang this Portuguese waitress because I’m obsessed with Brazilian music, but she turned out to be Italian so my life is tragic.
- I’m obsessed with these French sisters and an American dude pays for all my drinks because I promised I’d introduce him to them.
- I’m banging the less hot one of identical twins and it’s making me insane with jealousy.
- My wife, who I can only describe in terms of her appearance, has left me and none of my immense wealth or privilege is any comfort whatsoever.
- My husband died, then this guy who seemed nice turned out to only want to see me for a few days a year in order to act out his weird sexual fantasies.
I simply can’t take this kind of thing seriously. Sorry, William Boyd, faced with characters such as these in real life I would laugh in their faces and strongly discourage my friends from dating them. The Hollywood satire is great, though. Probably because it isn’t about a man’s feelings. show less
- My car broke down but I banged a hot chick from Paris so it’s all good.
- I really wanted to bang this Portuguese waitress because I’m obsessed with Brazilian music, but she turned out to be Italian so my life is tragic.
- I’m obsessed with these French sisters and an American dude pays for all my drinks because I promised I’d introduce him to them.
- I’m banging the less hot one of identical twins and it’s making me insane with jealousy.
- My wife, who I can only describe in terms of her appearance, has left me and none of my immense wealth or privilege is any comfort whatsoever.
- My husband died, then this guy who seemed nice turned out to only want to see me for a few days a year in order to act out his weird sexual fantasies.
I simply can’t take this kind of thing seriously. Sorry, William Boyd, faced with characters such as these in real life I would laugh in their faces and strongly discourage my friends from dating them. The Hollywood satire is great, though. Probably because it isn’t about a man’s feelings. show less
I rarely enjoy books of short stories; usually they are simply not long enough for the author to bring a character to life. In this collection of short stories William Boyd exhibits his customary writing flair, sketching scenes and drawing the reader in, but ultimately it is a frustrating read: as each story ends, you're left wanting more. This collection is also notable for the lead character in one of the short stories it contains (Hotel des Voyageurs), Logan Mountstuart, whose story Boyd later developed as the central figure of his masterpiece Any Human Heart.
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78+ Works 20,468 Members
William Boyd is a writer who was born in Ghana on March 7, 1952. He was educated at Gordonstoun school; and then the University of Nice, France, the University of Glasgow, and finally Jesus College, Oxford. Between 1980 and 1983 he was a lecturer in English at St Hilda's College, Oxford, and it was while he was there that his first novel, A Good show more Man in Africa (1981), was published. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005. Boyd was selected in 1983 as one of the 20 "Best of Young British Novelists" in a promotion run by Granta magazine and the Book Marketing Council. His novels include: A Good Man in Africa, for which he won the Whitbread Book award and Somerset Maugham Award in 1981; An Ice-Cream War, which won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was nominated for the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1982; Brazzaville Beach, published in 1991, and Any Human Heart, which was long-listed for the Booker Prize in 2002. Restless, the tale of a young woman who discovers that her mother had been recruited as a spy during World War II, was published in 2006 and won the Novel Award in the 2006 Costa Book Awards. Boyd published Waiting for Sunrise: A Novel in early 2012. In 2015 his title, Sweet Caress: The Many Lives of Clay, Amory made the new Zealand Best Seller List. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Destiny of Nathalie 'X'
- Original title
- The Destiny of Nathalie 'X'
- Alternate titles*
- L'amour fait mal
- Original publication date
- 1995
- People/Characters
- Logan Mountstuart
- Disambiguation notice*
- Ne pas combiner l'édition française de ce titre avec l'édition anglaise :
Les CONTENUS sont DIFFERENTS
L'édition française de ce titre "Le destin de Nathalie X" est une version r... (show all)emodelée, avec amputation et ajouts de nouvelles par rapport à l'édition anglaise "The Destiny of Nathalie X and other stories".
Différences entre la version française et la version anglaise :
Ne sont pas inclues :
- La nuit transfigurée (Parue dans "La chasse au Lézard, Seuil, 1990)
- Alpes-Maritimes (Parue dans "La chasse au Lézard, Seuil, 1990)
Sont ajoutées 3 Nouvelles inédites en français :
- "Memory of the Sausage-Fly" ("Souvenir de la mouche saucisse")
- "Lunch" ("Déjeuner")
- "Loose Continuity" ("Continuité souple")
Le contenu de la version française est le suivant :
- Le destin de Nathalie X ("The Destiny of Nathalie 'X'")
- Continuité souple (Nouveau) ("Loose continuity"),
- Hôtel des voyageurs ("Hôtel des voyageurs"),
- Jamais vu le Brésil ("Never Saw Brazil"),
- L'amant de rêve ("The Dream Lover"),
- N pour N ("N is for N"),
- La persistance des images ("The Persistence of Vision"),
- Déjeuner (Nouveau) ("Lunch") ,
- Du liège ("Cork"),
- Souvenir de la mouche saucisse (Nouveau) ("Memory of the Sausage-Fly")
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Languages
- English, French, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 12
- ASINs
- 3
