Paris in July 2024
Paris in July does not just include books. Contributions on your Paris vacation, your favourite meal or restaurant, French movies, music, art, Paris history and more are very welcome
In the Cafe of Lost Youth by Patrick Modiano ;2007 - translated by Chris Clarke.2016 - A Paris in July 2024 Work
Patrick Modiano, winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize for literature and an internationally beloved novelist, has been honored with an array of prizes, including the 2010 Prix mondial Cino Del Duca by the Institut de France for lifetime achievement and the 2012 Austrian State Prize for European Literature. He lives in Paris.
In the Cafe of Lost Youth is the sixth work by Patrick Modiano I have featured during a Paris in July event.
The Café of Lost Youth is vintage Patrick Modiano, an absorbing evocation of a particular Paris of the 1950s, shadowy and shady, a secret world of writers, criminals, drinkers, and drifters. The novel, inspired in part by the circle (depicted in the photographs of Ed van der Elsken) of the notorious and charismatic Guy Debord, centers on the enigmatic, waiflike figure of Louki, who catches everyone’s attention even as she eludes possession or comprehension. Through the eyes of four very different narrators, including Louki herself, we contemplate her character and her fate, while Modiano explores the themes of identity, memory, time, and forgetting that are at the heart of his spellbinding and deeply moving art.
For those new to Modiano I suggest you start with his Occupation Trilogy set in Nazi controlled Paris.
In the Cafe of Lost Youth is a powerful account of being young and not so young in parts of Paris out of the affluent areas. It features a book store as a central setting and has numerous wonderful literary references
Mel Ulm
I love Modiano, and have read several of his book, not this one though. Sounds like I should.
ReplyDeleteI learnt of Modiano when I read an Antoine Laurain book. At least, I think it was there!
ReplyDeleteNice! I have read many books by Modiano, but not this one yet!
ReplyDeleteI usually recommend my students to start with Missing Person (Rue des boutiques obscures), the book that got the Prix Goncourt and started make him famous. Plus it's very characteristic of many of his books to come.
Yes, this is one I read some years back. Here is my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1685321707
ReplyDeleteOf course the idea of a bookstore setting is nearly irresistible, but I appreciate that you've recommended another starting place, all the same.
ReplyDelete