It was not always that I was in love with French culture. Perhaps, when I was young, I was tired of being thought to be French just because my last name is Paris. (Actually, it’s pronounced PAH-rrhish with a slightly trilled “r”.) It reached a crescendo in 1976, when my Laker Airlines flight to London stopped for some cockamamie reason at Le Bourget in Paris when we were all subject to security checks. When a French border guard wanted me to open up the back of my Olympus OM-1 camera and expose half a roll of film, I refused and called the man a cochon. Fortunately, I got away with it, though I probably shouldn’t have.
Now I am a devoted Francophile. What happened? First of all, Martine is French; and I went to France with her twice, where I found the French to be not at all as I thought them to be. Even the Parisians were all right. I suspect they seemed better because I speak fairly decent French and I could communicate with them.
I am now co-moderator of the Yahoo! French Literature reading group. Although the group concentrates on French literature of the 19th century, I discovered many 20th century classics reading books with the group. I thought I would share the ten I liked best over the last few years, presented here in alphabetical order by author:
- Georges Bernanos: Diary of a Country Priest. Made into a wonderful film by Robert Bresson.
- Louis-Ferdinand Céline: Journey to the End of the Night. I had read this before, but liked it even more on re-reading it.
- J M G Le Clézio: The Prospector. Looking for pirate treasure in Mauritius.
- Albert Cohen: Belle du Seigneur. A great novel about obsessive love set in the period between the two world wars.
- Jean Giono: The Horseman on the Roof. A wonderful historical novel about plague in Southern France.
- Julien Gracq: The Opposing Shore. I had never heard of Gracq before, but this is a wonderful story about contacts between two civilizations that have drifted apart. Like the West and Islam.
- François Mauriac: Thérèse Desqueyroux. A profoundly Catholic novel about a murderess.
- Patrick Modiano: Out of the Dark. Recalls the world of the New Wave films of the 1950s and 1960s. I have since read several more of Modiano’s books and find he is one of my favorites.
- Marcel Pagnol: My Father’s Glory. A sentimental memoir of a childhood in Provence.
- Raymond Queneau: The Last Days. I just read this one a couple of weeks ago. A wonderful study of life in Paris circa 1920.
I have left out Marcel Proust, who means more to me than all of the above put together, and also Georges Simenon, who also is well known in the West.
Aside from Proust, Camus, and Simenon, I only recognize a few names on your list and actually have read none of them. I’m probably more familiar with 19th century French writers than with 20th and 21st century writers.
i read Georges Perec’s: ” Life: A User’s Manual” not too long ago and liked it quite a bit… but his pov is a bit different, i confess…
I like it, too. Except I read it on my own, rather than with the Yahoo! French Lit group. I also liked his A VOID.
I every time spent my half an hour to read this web site’s content every day
along with a cup of coffee.