A Man Who Knows
by Emmanuel Bove
50 Members (3.93)
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Maurice Lesca, the sour hero of A Man Who Knows, is fifty-seven - older than Bove's other protagonists, not much wiser, no less painfully comical in his failures and confusions. Though he is well educated, financial and amorous miscalculations have leveled him. A failed doctor, he lives in poverty with his widowed sister, whom he sees only at mealtime. Kept afloat by odd handouts from family and connections, Lesca also milks his remaining acquaintances. When he starts visiting a divorcee who show more runs a dim little bookshop and encourages her to extort more money from her ex-husband, he begins to sow the seeds of dissatisfaction and distrust that will infect his world. But Lesca is a survivor, he will always survive in the modern city. A Man Who Knows was written in 1942 but not published in France until 1985. It is the last of Bove's major novels and the most mature example of his characteristic method. show lessTags
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ThingScore 75
"Ein Mann, der wußte" ist ein leiser, unspektakulärer Roman, zu dem man erst einen Zugang finden muss. Doch die Suche lohnt sich: Wer sich auf die langsame Erzählweise, die sich teilweise nur zögerlich entfaltenden Dialoge, die langen auktorialen Erzählpassagen, die sich oft erst auf den zweiten Blick erklären, einlässt, entdeckt ein außerordentlich einfühlsames, gleichzeitig aber show more auch bedrückend hoffnungsloses Buch. show less
added by Indy133
Author Information
67 Works 1,183 Members
Emmanuel Bove (1898-1945) was born in Paris. With Colette's patronage, he became a popular writer, dividing his career between pulp fiction and the handful of serious novels upon which his reputation now rests.
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Een man die wist
- Original title
- Un homme qui savait
- Original publication date
- 1985
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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Statistics
- Members
- 50
- Popularity
- 605,251
- Rating
- (3.93)
- Languages
- 6 — Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 2
