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Au Revoir, Tristesse: Lessons in Happiness from French Literature
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37/99
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16/99
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77/99
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About This Book
A lighthearted look at how to bring more humor, happiness, and joie de vivre into our lives through French literature Like many people the world over, Viv Groskop wishes she was a little more French. A writer, comedian, and journalist, Groskop studied the language obsessively starting at age 11, and spent every vacation in France, desperate to escape her Englishness and to have some French chic rub off on her. In Au Revoir, Tristesse, Groskop mixes literary history and memoir to explore how the classics of French literature can infuse our lives with joie de vivre and teach us how to say goodbye to sadness. From the frothy hedonism of Colette and the wit of Cyrano de Bergerac to the intoxicating universe of Marguerite Duras and the heady passions of Les Liaisons dangereuses, this is a love letter to great French writers. With chapters on Marcel Proust, Victor Hugo, Gustave Flaubert, Stendhal, Honoré de Balzac, Albert Camus, and of course Françoise Sagan, this is a delectable read for book lovers everywhere.
Reviews
"Groskop achieves this by frequently interspersing comic asides that some readers might find irritating."
"She isn't trying to unearth new gems or evangelize for the overlooked; this is a star show about books and writers so famous that Groskop can compare them to celebrated films ..."
"It might be unfortunate that we meet Gustave Flaubert but not Jules Verne, and Victor Hugo but not Émile Zola ..."
"Part-memoir, part-cultural analysis, Au Revoir, Tristesse is composed of 12 short chapters, each framed by a pithy, witty epithet that summarises the thrust of Groskop's central thesis: that books play an important role in helping us to navigate the emerging narratives of our own lives ..."
"An exuberant yet superficial celebration of French classics."
"A rather over-generous sprinkling of digressive, somewhat self-indulgent though determinedly self-deprecating personal stories are thrown into the chatty mix ..."
"The book's greatest asset lies in Groskop's restating of insights derived from literature ..."
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