From Publishers Weekly
This disarming and often witty debut collection of stories by Desplechin (Sans Moi) is set in a Paris of lonely hearts and ill-fated friendships. Heroines wave a common banner of resigned romanticism on the march through frequently doomed relationships, and the blackly comic one-liners fly thick and fast: "You only escape from loneliness in fits and starts. I love friendship. It's like the gulp of air torturers allow their victims before they push their heads back underwater." Hobson's translation renders Desplechin's wry humor effortlessly from the original French no small feat. Some of the stories seem unfinished: there are missing details, inconclusive scenes, unexplored characters. But in the best of these tragicomic tales of sex and love and dinner parties, a meditative emotional wisdom is at work. "Joy," the life story of a gynecologist told in the first person, is a satiric delight; "Something's Wrong," about a woman who moves in with her boyfriend, is more tense and meditative; "At Sea," which chronicles a woman's various boating mishaps, is funny and observant. The title story may suggest Desplechin's true range: when city siblings B‚n‚dicte and Th‚o visit ailing and lonely Granny in their hometown outside of Paris, a bitter childhood nostalgia blinds them to their own grandmother's toughness and resilience, borne of a terrifying youth in Nazi-occupied France. In these stories, no one admits they're looking for love, but everyone is and their eyes may be too sharp ever to find it.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
What would you give up for love? What is more important, love or friendship? Passion or security? How much of yourself should you give away, and how much should you expect from your beloved? What does it mean to live with someone, to cheat on someone, or to marry? Desplechin poses many such questions in these stories that make a sophisticated examination of modern relationships that meander from love to lust and from abandonment to ennui. Some she answers, some she leaves for readers to answer. One female character finds revelation in a one-time fling, another rediscovers freedom when she leaves her unfaithful lover, a third becomes depressed after deciding to move in with her boyfriend, a fourth reconciles with her lover after seeing him interact with her son. Dealing with issues of sexual awakening, boredom, and frustration, Desplechin's characters question their expectations for relationships and often redefine love and sexuality personally. Their stories are witty, sad, detached, exuberant, and delightful to read.
Bonnie JohnstonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
