La dégustation

Yann Queffélec is a french author with many books and essays published under his name. La Dégustation was published in 2005 and as the title suggests wine and wine tasting features heavily in the novel. Nice in the south of France with its vineyards and rich lifestyle, a marriage between a successful entrepreneur of 50 years to a woman of 21 years, who are very much in love, the blue Mediterranean always visible, hints of dark secrets from the past; all sounds very promising, however I found the book confusing and very much of it never rung true with me.

Bernard Tragore is the 50 year old wine producer and publisher who marries Muriel, whose mother refuses to give her consent and is barely able to go to the lavish wedding. Muriel show more discovers a talent for tasting wine encouraged by her husband and studies to become a sommelier: it is 1973 and so there are few women involved in the profession. Bernard however has nightmares about the second world war and it soon becomes obvious that it was the part he played when he was 20 years old; Muriel is jewish but seemingly has no suspicions that Bernard might have been active in the Milice. Bernards nightmares and strange night visitations by a German man puts a strain on their relationship.

Yann Queffélec does produce some striking images, but it took me some time to get familiar with his vocabulary and this probably did not help with my enjoyment of his novel. Not my favourite read of the year by some way and so three stars. show less

D'après la 4ème de couv, je m'attendais à une histoire d'amour entre une jeune femme et un homme mûr sur fond d'oenologie. Hélas, ce livre s'apesantit plutôt sur de sombres histoires de collaboration sur la Côte d'azur pendant l'occupation. La narration s'enlise parfois dans de longues diatribes parfois incompréhensibles et souvent pénibles, le tout entrecoupé de flashbacks qui m'ont désorienté. Sans doute Queffelec a-t-il mérité ses prix littéraires, mais, si ce livre est représentatif de son oeuvre, ce n'est vraiment pas ce que j'apprécie. A moins d'une chaude recommandation, j'écarte désormais cet auteur de ma liste de lecture.