Should have found another title. When have we ever not had a good week. It has had it's moments of 'oh dear', when Mike's beloved Mac, died a sudden death. 2006 model, which in computer terms means positively geriatric. To the extent that the graphics card which had caused the problem was irreplaceable - from anywhere. And as always advances were such that no new software would work with it either. So expensive month for the cost of a new mac. Then of course the replacement software, which for Mike is essential - same price as the computer. Eek. Glass of wine needed. Anyway, the problems are in the process of being resolved. Although for the moment the taller Shearing has to use my computer, which is extremely annoying! But needs must for favourite person!
Went over to Thouars the other day to meet some newly made friends for a walk round and lunch. Haven't been over there before. Great market - quite extensive. There's also a indoor/covered market. So between the two of them, pretty much everything you might want could be found. On to a lovely brasserie for lunch, just a short walk from the market, and then we headed into a permanent exhibition about the resistance in the local region during world war two, as well as more national elements. A mixture of panels, films, objects, photos. Well presented and very informative. Very pleased we went. A really fun day.
Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of the birthday of the wonderful Marguerite Duras. One of my favourite novelists for a long time, some of whose books I've only been able to read once, because their impact was so strong. She was also a cracking playwright. My friend Angie may remember the production of Savannah Bay that we saw together ages ago, at the Edinburgh Festival. It's never left my head. Interesting article about Marguerite Duras in La Nouvelle République last week, which I may well hang on to. Also had the pleasure of meeting her translator - Barbara Bray - in Paris one time, when we were working on a theatre project. Would imagine intellectually these two ladies were perfectly matched.
Have just been introduced to another French writer via my local book club. Sorj Chalandon. Every now and again, a book appears which is very very special. In this instance a book,
' . . .that renders war magnificently, but leaves a peaceful impression - that of a reader who has discovered a great book' (Le Magazine Littérraire)
I'm in the middle of reading Le Quatrième Mûr, which is in French and seemingly not available in English, although some of his other works are. Sorj Chalandon is a French journalist as well as a writer - he writes for the satirical magazine Le Canard enchaîné. From 1973 - 2007 he worked on Libération, covering events in Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan. It is the Lebanon that provides the backdrop for this novel. Terrifying in places to the point where you almost can't breathe, L.Q.M. is also extremely moving, depicting individual courage and resiliance, sectarianism, cultural patrimony and in the process provides a window on the overwhelming complexity behind conflicts we constantly read about, sometimes for decades and which appear, unresolvable.
The starting point is Sam, a Jewish Greek refugee and theatre director who dreams of staging Jean Anouilh's Antigone, on a battlefield in the Lebanon, becomes terminally ill and passes the baton to a close French ally, Georges. I just don't want to get to the end. I sense that this will be another 'one-read 'book. The review in Les Echoes sums up the power of the writing perfectly as,
' . . . a cluster bomb that explodes in the reader's mind and is sure to haunt his memory long after.
The haunting has already begun.
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