PREMIER JOUR -LE [Mass Market Paperback]

This was the first book by Marc Levy that I have read. It was a wonderful piece of writing with characterization that created full personalities in just a few sentences. Even the walk on characters came alive. I also enjoyed the variety of dialog, especially reading this in a foreign language. The intellectuals used complicated sentences and nuanced vocabulary in contrast to the more down to earth characters who spoke simply.

In places, the book had the sort of delightful farcical quality of a Wodehouse story. Combined with the science/spiritual fiction that seems to characterize other contemporary French novels, Le Premier Jour was a really unusual mix of humor, pathos, intrigue, and exotic scene. As Levy's web page points out, the book has everything.

I suppose that it all depends on your level of French, but with dictionary in hand there was very little that I couldn't understand. I only wish I could remember the beautiful phrasing and colloquialisms for my own attempts at speaking French. It was such a delightful novel that what have been a tedious task reading in a foreign language was actually a complete pleasure.

Among the great mysteries in the world of books and literature is Marc Levy's success. He is the most read French author outside French borders: 10 novels, 20 million copies sold, 41 languages... quite an achievement. Another mystery is why on earth I picked one of his book a few months ago. I had read Mes amis, mes amours a few years back, and didn't like it. So what possessed me to give him another go? What I found in Le Premier Jour (The First Day) appalled me. Levy doesn't write well, but that's okay. We all know that you don't need to know how to write to write books and be successful. There are innumerable examples of this. No, what really irked me this time is the obvious lack of respect of the author for his readers. The book is full of blatant errors which show that he didn't even research his facts before writing his novel. Let me give you a few examples so that you understand where I am coming from. The two protagonists are an astrophysicist and an archeologist (I don't know enough about archeology and Ethiopia to be in a position to say anything about that aspect of things, but I bet it's full of inaccuracies like the rest.) The astrophysicist is searching for "the first star, the mother of all stars...." (sic). The descriptions of world astronomy sites are wrong: telescopes are described as ten story buildings, when in reality they are only twelve meters in diameter, for example. The story's heroes land in the Nicobar islands in India and see... toucans (which only live in Latin America). They travel from Europe to China - They want to go to Xian - so they book a flight to Beijing and rent a brand new four-wheel drive!!! For those who have never been to China, you should know that you cannot rent cars in China, because you are not allowed to drive with non-Chinese licences. What you do is rent a car with a chauffeur. Levy must have realised there was a problem because he says his hero was smart enough to use a GPS to drive all the way to Xian (probably to avoid having to read road signs in Chinese... very smart...). A GPS in China? How ridiculous. And no one in their own minds would dream of driving from Beijing to Xian - You fly. But of course the heroes had to drive, otherwise they would never come across Hua Shan... Too easy, Mr Levy. Oh, and what about this one? Get ready. From Xian, the protagonists need to fly to the Nicobar Islands, so they simply rent a small, old plane (with a pilot this time!), which takes them there and back in 48 hours or so... And how do they cross some of the best protected borders in the world? "By Flying low, and crossing borders at lunch time when custom officers are having lunch..." (Please take a breath.) Guess what? You reach the end of the 500 page book to discover that the story doesn't end there, but that there is a second part (The First Night), which you need to buy if you want to know the end of the story... Great marketing device, but too low for my liking! Enough said, you won't hear another word from me about this author.

› Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews  3.5 out of 5 stars