Posted by: Iain Fisher
« on: January 10, 2011, 09:50:13 PM »I just read Whore by Nelly Arcan, translated from the French by Bruce Benderson. A powerful and sad book.
It is a novel, so fiction, but there is obviously a clear link to her life. Lines like
"...no, in the end it isn't easy to die, it's easier to chatter, worm, whimper, and besides, my mother has never killed herself, why I don't know, probably because it takes strength to cut your wrists, to kill yourself you first need to be alive."
and
"...I'll kill myself in front of you at the end of a rope, I'll make my death into a poster that will reproduce itself on the walls, I'll die like they die in the theatre, in the din of hie and cry."
It is the only book of hers in English (so far), I hope the rest will come out. It is worth reading, with good insights.
Iain
It is a novel, so fiction, but there is obviously a clear link to her life. Lines like
"...no, in the end it isn't easy to die, it's easier to chatter, worm, whimper, and besides, my mother has never killed herself, why I don't know, probably because it takes strength to cut your wrists, to kill yourself you first need to be alive."
and
"...I'll kill myself in front of you at the end of a rope, I'll make my death into a poster that will reproduce itself on the walls, I'll die like they die in the theatre, in the din of hie and cry."
It is the only book of hers in English (so far), I hope the rest will come out. It is worth reading, with good insights.
Iain