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Title: In Our Strange Gardens by Michel Quint, Barbara Bray ISBN: 1-57322-916-4 Publisher: Riverhead Books Pub. Date: 04 December, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (10 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Could Be A Tough Sell
Comment: How do you decide if you have received enough enjoyment, gained knowledge, or accumulated whatever is important to you from a given book? "In Our Strange Gardens", may bring the issue to mind whether it has arisen before or not. Michel Quint offers a very poignant tale in a very small book with even fewer pages. Unless you read French you must cut the book in half, for the book shares the story twice with the reader, once if you do not read French. What appears on a page, with generous white space, can be covered with a 3x5 card.
The story works not because it is unique and not due to the unusual number of trap doors that open with regularity as the story closes. It works because the author really does give the reader some very real dilemmas to ponder, and a final twist that will decide whether there was one surprise too many.
The author places his characters in a situation that any definition of what would be described, as normal behavior is absent. War can be the setting for countless examples not only of horror and atrocity, but also of humanity, courage, and selfless sacrifice. Left alone, the inclusion of every revelation asks a great deal of the reader. If one decision is taken away the entire story still is a description of remarkable behavior. It also would be less of a task to quantify. The actions by 2 people at the close could then be viewed as pragmatic if painful on several levels, or heroic, or patriotic. But this requires that one event not take place. When viewed in its entirety the one decision was too much for me to suspend disbelief. I will admit that such a story could be true, but when put on paper it becomes a bit of a leap.
I very much liked the book. I came to my opinion only after thinking about the story, and that is what a good piece of writing should do. That I did not like every bit does not diminish the worthwhile read it was. For me if there were one less twist, the story would have been one of the better very short stories I have read. Even with the element I did not care for, the book is worth the time, and just worth its price.
Rating: 5
Summary: Fantastic Surprise!!!
Comment: Though short, "In Our Strange Gardens" is a gripping story. The power of this book is found in the memory of a father, uncle, and aunt, and in the history from which it was penned.
The story starts at the end with the close of the trial of Maurice Papon then carries the reader through childhood embarrassment, to the Vichy Government in France during World War II, and to the efforts of two young French resistance fighters who are captured by the Nazis and held with two innocent French citizens.
The author recalls the source of his childhood embarrassment of his father who is a respected school teacher by day and a talentless clown by night. The clown persona is the cause of the author's embarrassment.
It's in the evening after the family attends a film that the author, still a young person, learns of the heroic actions of his father, uncle, and aunt. The clown, the shame of his youth, then becomes a source of pride.
The depth of the book is found with the knowledge of the events within. If the reader is unfamiliar with the history of the period then look it up as you go--it is worthwhile and adds tremendously to the story.
The story is only half of the book as there are an English and a French translation within.
It was a fantastic surprise!!!
Rating: 1
Summary: The best thing about the story is the length.
Comment: The description on the flap of the book is much more interesting than the actual story. This novella about two men who, during the second World War, were imprisoned for their participation in an attack on a German controlled power installation in France. The son of one of the captured men tells the story. The father is a schoolteacher who moonlights as a clown. His son is embarrassed by the clown persona. As the story unfolds, the son learns of the importance of the clown in his father's life and eventually wear's the mask himself albeit for different reasons. There is nothing special or highly creative about this text. The book contains the French version and the English translation of the story. As with any story translated from its original language, its difficult to tell if some of the meaning was lost in the translation. Perhaps that is the case with "In Our Strange Gardens". The best thing about this story is the length. Can't recommend this one.
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Title: The Sacred Art of Dying: How World Religions Understand Death by Kenneth Kramer ISBN: 0809129426 Publisher: Paulist Press Pub. Date: May, 1988 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Pobby and Dingan by Ben Rice ISBN: 1400031885 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 08 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade by Thomas Lynch ISBN: 0140276238 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Measure of Our Days: A Spiritual Exploration of Illness by Jerome Groopman ISBN: 014026972X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Devil in the White City : Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson ISBN: 0609608444 Publisher: Crown Pub. Date: 11 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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