No hablemos más de amor

by Le Tellier Hervé

Barcelona. 23 cm. 227 p. Encuadernación en tapa blanda de editorial ilustrada. Le Tellier, Hervé 1957-. Traducción de Rosa Alapont. Título Assez parlé d'amour .. Este libro es de segunda mano y tiene o puede tener marcas y señales de su anterior propietario. 9788425345692

Genres: Fiction, France, Romance, Novels, Contemporary, Literature, Roman

232 pages, Paperback

First published August 26, 2009

Reviews

[El desván del lector · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cuando Alicia se encontró con el gato, ésta le preguntó que qué camino debería tomar. El gato le respondió que adónde quería ir. Alicia dijo que no sabía. Y el gato le respondió que entonces carecía de importancia que camino tomar.

Y con esta reflexión que nos ofrece “Alicia en el país de las maravillas” podemos resumir con acierto este libro. Una historia construida sobre unos personajes que sin un rumbo claro en la vida decidieron tomar decisiones que a priori parecían acertadas, pero que con el paso de los años se han dado cuenta de que igual no lo fueron tanto. Y es que como bien nos decía el pequeño Chesshire, si no sabemos a dónde vamos cualquier camino que cojamos nos sirve, la cuestión es si hemos acertado inconscientemente o si nos acabamos dando cuenta de que no estamos donde queremos estar.

Publicado en 2009 y reeditado en España en 2023 de la mano de Seix Barral, “No hablemos más de amor” es una danza magistral, una telaraña de acontecimientos en la que el autor recrea con viveza el desmoronamiento de dos matrimonios, con sus diferencias pero también con sus similitudes. Personas que en su día eligieron un camino y han acabado dándose cuenta de que puede ser que no fuera el correcto.

Y los errores pueden subsanarse, evidentemente, ¿pero cuál es el precio? Si sabes que tu felicidad está a un paso, pero implica destrozar la vida de otra persona, sin duda no sería fácil tomar una decisión. En otro orden de cosas, también cabe preguntarse hasta que punto está una persona dispuesta a renunciar a una vida de comodidad, lujos y bienestar aunque sepa que su matrimonio está basado en la infelicidad y la mentira.

Egoísmo, vanidad e ironía se dan la mano en esta novela para hablarnos del peso que tienen las decisiones que tomamos y de como afectan a nuestro entorno vital y personal, desde pequeñas variaciones sin importancia hasta grandes terremotos que pueden sacudir nuestros cimientos.

Y también, este libro es un retrato del concepto de la felicidad y del precio que debemos pagar (o que estaríamos dispuestos a pagar) por ella, ya que todos, en algún momento, elegimos caminos equivocados por dos motivos: el primero porque somos humanos y cometemos errores de los cuales podemos aprender (y esta es la base del conocimiento y la experiencia humana), y el segundo porque es muy difícil saber a donde ir en un mundo que cada día lo pone más complicado.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, so if you all missed Elizabeth's first installment of this drunk review then you should probably start there. I have decided in the wake of her drunken brilliance (BRILLANCE!) that I can only cover what I feel to be The Drunken Review: The Recast Lost Footage. And by the Lost Footage, I of course, mean that we are trying to redeem our reputations on national television after we turned over the table and screamed “prostitute whore!” at this book. (No. I will not explain that- housewivesofnewjersey- reference. And yes, I feel ashamed for knowing it.)

We didn’t mean it. We liked it! Elizabeth is totally right about that. I swear. I am going to explain why.

Well, one, let’s be honest was because of all the vodka and the wine. But it was all in the service of DBR so I’m going to give us a pass on that.

But really, we like this book! Here’s why, #1: This book was actually quite complex. In exploring the every day experience of love and desire, the author often separated out his chapters into pairs of characters who were in love, or connected by love to another character. He was excellent in depicting the shifting geometry of the whole shifting dance. We discussed that maybe this could be condemned as a total Hollywood rom-com, but the author did everything possible to save it from that, including a really good job depicting the mindset of the mens around the place.:

Elizabeth: I felt like Yves (the author stand in) was the only one who understood love at all, maybe Stan, and that the ending was just him mocking us, and particularly Anna, of that. I think he wrote it after a bad break up.
me: I'd believe that. However, I defend his depiction of Stan.
I think he really got inside his head and dealt with the realistic questions of a man who is in love with his wife and doesn't want to leave her.
Elizabeth: I liked Stan. I did want him to punch someone though.
me: he fucked someone instead.
Elizabeth: yeah, well, he is french.I think he really did well with the men
me: yes. Yves is pretty sympathetic. I did not like Thomas.
but I definitely know that guy.

Damnit, okay, so this sounds like why we hate things about men here again, but I swear it isn’t! I think the author did not make his characters sympathetic, but he had two women going, “OH, THAT GUY,” so I think that he’s really not that far off, right? I went further and talked about his psychological depiction of the “white knight” complex of men who only want to rescue people like the long dead heroine of Thomas’ heart. Even after he’s in love with someone else- his life decision revolve around this completely unhealthy person who needed to test his love by almost jumping off a cliff. But we only find out the whole story at the very very end. Le Tellier shows us how much is hidden from view, despite whatever we might try:

Elizabeth: What I mean, the author popping in and out with all the discussion of writing books by the characters really made it seem to me like there were two levels we were looking at the love stories, the level of the characters and the level of the author and what it meant to write about love. It reminded me a lot of SNOW for that reason.
me: Cool parallel. But in Snow didn't we get the sense that everything was unreliable? That the translation through a translation was only and ever a myth? I felt like here it was omnipotent and movie like in its documentary. we see what we see.
Elizabeth: hmm. it's unreliable here too. We heard about the pregnancy scare of Anna (?) only as a passing remark in the past tense when everything else had been present tense. We realize there is a lot we weren't being told.
me: Oooh, that's true.
Elizabeth: The tenses were really fascinating.
me: I totally agree! trying to co-opt the audience into the action? or was it a statement about love, like, "this will always be happening"?... or am I getting too french?

We get tons of characters telling their stories over and over again and we still don’t know WTF happened on the last page, not really. We find THAT out later. There’s wheels within wheels within novels within dominoes, and it repeats over again. There’s no logic to the little vignettes we get of the various relationships going on. It’s just a scene out of a life which you have to figure out without knowing what anyone said to each other yesterday. Which is fun when we get to the part where we find out “40 memories” about one of our characters in our novel within a novel.:

Elizabeth: I actually lost track of the two women. When I was reading the book at the end, the 40 impressions, I forgot which one he was supposed to be writing about.
me: hahahaha.Anna's the one with the weird Jewish thing. Louise is perfect and does not matter at all because she is perfect. at least Anna had a neuroses.I actually thought she was more human than Louise.
Elizabeth: I think they could have been interchangeable. Either man could have been with either woman.

Okay, goddamnit. We both liked that part. I swear. We did. It was sweet. He spent time talking about their trips to restaurants, or her smell in the morning, or okay, her red lacy special underwear, but still! Yves wrote down forty times that he loved Anna, and was unashamed about talking about why, straightforwardly, and sincerely and even sat there while she read this little book he created just for her about how great she was even though she kind of wasn’t. It was this really sweet rhythm where not even “pussy” could interrupt the flow. As Elizabeth has already pointed out, I think (Not sure, I’m a little drunk) we were confused about the insertion of “pussy” into this lovely French world of love and L’AMOUR. But we liked this!

Why is this proving so hard to justify? I thought this would be easy.

Well. There is always its accessibility! Elizabeth decided to spare you all (ie, spare me) my humiliation in our bad movies from the 90s conversation. But I will TOTALLY not, because I have far less shame than she and also deserve to be publically castigated for the travesty that follows. So yeah. Very accessible. This author drew from all sources possible, I maintain.:

Me: did you notice the part where Yves quoted Clueless??? It happened!!
Elizabeth: no.Where?
me: So there's the part at the beginning where he talks about all these questions he comes up with while jsut wandering, thinking his deep writerly thoughts. and one of these 'deep' questions is "I know you can be overwhelmed, and underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?"
Elizabeth: oh right
me: which is like, verbatim, out of Clueless. Which I think was unintentional.and therefore even more hilarious
Elizabeth: That was in 10 Things I Hate about You.
me: .......wow.
Elizabeth: :-)
me: i remembered ditzy teenagers.
Elizabeth: Gabrielle Union says it.I know my shakespeare adapations.
me: OMG. I can't believe I got the wrong teenage movie.
Elizabeth: they're really all the same.
me: I am so ashamed.
I think I lose my American passport or something.

… I was just wrong about what teenaged movies that draw from classic sources he was inspired by. AKA, Elizabeth owns me at 90s movies AND Virginia Woolf. Just unfair. Either way, Frenchmen love American teenagers and find them deeply insightful into the clichés of love and life they observe, which I feel is the important point here. Hear that teenagers? Stop wearing black and smoking up while reading Sartre- you don’t have to try that hard! Just throw on some more glitter and sassy soundtracks and you’re fine! Or at least, you are with this author who loves him some younger women. Just like certain other great authors of our (not) acquaintance *coughPamukcough*:

Elizabeth: did you see Moira's post of a picture of him and some young woman at the beach? That makes me think of Thomas and Louise here and Le Tellier and "Sarah" to whom he dedicated this book.
me: yesyesyesyesew
Elizabeth: This book has that weird feeling of being completely accurate and complete fantasy.
me: you know he wrote a book just before this or just after it about an aging writer in love with a young woman he follows to Ireland who is in love with someone else?
Elizabeth: Is that him? I thought that was someone else.
me: Nope, it's him: http://www.amazon.com/Intervention-Go...

Fuck, why do we sound like we hate this novel AGAIN? Why is this the most negative review of a book that we’ve both actually liked??? Please, explain, booze!! I hold you responsible. I didn’t even talk about the hugely icky part that randomly talks about Jews and the Holocaust like it is an acceptable discourse of justification for adultery. (For real, there’s a part where the woman is literally like: “He’s not Jewish, so he’s so not part of my world. He doesn’t go to synagogue, so I’m totally not breaking my vows! Also, Jews and Christians are so essentially different that I can’t imagine a future with him anyway- just fucking. Because that’s a productive way to imagine relations between conflicting groups!”) Goddamnit!! Again!!

But what about his depiction of women? Elizabeth and I clearly agreed that he had some issues with his idealization/hating on women by reducing them to a few character traits. However, the real problem was that there were apparently no other women who existed in the world of each woman. At all. Ever. Like, not even a salesgirl, or a mistress/hooker for when their lover hadn’t seen them in a few days:

Me: The only time we saw women in a room with each other was with Anna and her mom in that one scene where yves came to pick her up.
Elizabeth: sorry, it was also about what they like in bed. He was sure to point out that Anna liked to be bit.
me: And then it was about how women agree that there are different kinds of shoes.
Elizabeth: Anna and Louise are in the botique at the same time, shopping.
me: Oh right! There is that 30 seconds.
Elizabeth: Oh! WHAT THE FUCK was it about when Anna breaks up with her lover and then 30 seconds later buys a new outfit?
me: Um, she's the shallow one? Didn't he underline that enough for you with her liking clothes? Clearly that is the only reason she didn't leave her husband.
Elizabeth: (and, right, when I'm cursing in all caps, it's no more vodka for me).
me: God. Maybe he needs to reference the Holocausta gain for you. And hot dresses.
...hahahaha. I'm totally getting another glass of wine.
Elizabeth: you go!
me: …Okay though seriously. Anna got hit with the weird jewish thing AND the clothes obsession. Is his point that only shallow women don't leave their husbands? I don't get it.

Fuck it, I give up! Elizabeth and I are clearly a tough crowd. What is it going to be like when we review a book that we DON’T like??? Stay tuned, intrepid viewers.

We clearly had way more fun discussing this than the novel could ever be. Everyone should definitely read this. And smile. And twirl around in a dress that feels French with large sunglasses and then smile at each other. That’s kind of the way to read this one. And then talk about postmodernism, the real French translation, and trainers. It all makes sense in context. I promise. So does Hevre Le Tellier.

… I think.

[Pali Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Le Tellier sa mi v tejto rovine páči väčšmi. Zvláštne prepletená romanca, ale žiadna limonáda. Spôsob vyrozprávania z nadhľadu mi navodzoval pocit, že pozerám scény hry s komentovanými titulkami.
Páčili sa mi osobnostné profily postáv v medziľudských trajektóriách. Tie sa občas len tak mihnú vedľa seba, bez následkov a občas pretnú, ovplyvňujú a menia rozohrané karty života, nehovoriac o tom, čo sa môže diať, keď sa prehodnocuje láska. Ale dosť o tom, dajte si…

[Holly · Rating 1 out of 5]

So you know what it's like where you're browsing the library's New Releases shelf even though you have 500 books on your "nightstand" already and you notice a couple of new titles you'd probably never purchase - but one is a novel by an author you've heard-of-but-never-read and the other is that "quintessential 'French novel' of the season" with the provocative premise and the promise of being witty and luminous, and you could really use something witty and luminous because you need a respite from working all week on the scholarly study of misogyny in the Middle Ages; so you decide what-the-hell I'll take these and give them a shot and maybe I'll be impressed and pleased and gratified?

Yep.

When I began reading the first novel (Graham Joyce's The Silent Hand) I was so disappointed by the prose I had virtually no inclination to read beyond the second page. To wit: "He cruised to an elegant stop beside her.[...]Jake had close-cropped black hair and baby-blue peepers that she'd fallen in love with instantly, even if his large ears had taken her a little longer." The baby-blue peepers I simply cannot abide, and a quick skim of other pages revealed more of the same. I read between the lines of the hardcover's sole blurb and realized that no, Jonathan Lethem hadn't been praising the writing at all.

So when I pick up the other novel, Herve Le Tellier's Enough About Love, I am already possessed of that stingy feeling of requiring a book to prove it's worth to me. Immediately I find the syntax more interesting and the telling less direct, calling on me to do a little more work as a reader; I can detect promises of literary ingenuity that might not be showy and shallow. But then, before page 20, a character at a friggin' cocktail party shamelessly tosses off a disturbing and horrifying story about a Romanian pimp's act of unimaginable violence and cruelty -- an anecdote so vile I couldn't get it out of my mind for hours -- and this story is told so blithely as to seem gratuitous. It's immediately followed by the partygoer's "pretty flick of her hand [as] she pushes a drooping lock of hair" and then flirtatious, coy banter on another topic. I just didn't trust Le Tellier after that point. I kept reading, though, and soon grew weary of the urbane, pretentious, smartly-dressed, vapid, adulterous Parisians (and I'm bored with the assumption that all educated people are in psychotherapy). I did read to the end, more or less, but with growing apathy if not outright disdain. C'est la vie.

[Lily Weissgold · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the anomaly so much and was so disappointed by this frustrating and vapid book. Obviously he is a lyrical writer (it’s hard not to be in French).

[jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

hervé le tellier's fiction, like that of his oulipo brethren, is based on the use of literary constraint. of the french writer's three works yet translated into english, enough about love most closely resembles a proper novel. with abundant charm, le tellier relates the lives of four individuals encumbered by a middle-aged malcontentedness that yields easily to amorous, extramarital activity. while le tellier never explicitly states the constraints employed in the work's construction, one of his characters, himself an author, outlines his own idea for a book that mirrors the format of enough about love:

yves wants to write a novel around six characters. he will associate each of them with the numbers on dominoes, with the blank applying to a secondary character, though never the same one. the novel will reproduce the trajectory of a game of abkhazian dominoes: every double played will give rise to a chapter with just one character, a tile with two different numbers to a chapter with two characters, very occasionally three if one of them says and does nothing... yves's novel will be called abkhazian dominoes, but nothing about its structure will be explained to the reader. particularly as yves ends up never entirely respecting his own rules.

we are thus treated to a glimpse of le tellier's methods, espying the scaffolding upon which the book was built. later on, as we follow the ensuing doubts and double dealings, the games are brought to a head as the characters are faced with decisions affecting more than their mere love lives.

enough about love is an alluring story, despite its few forays into pedestrian philosophizing about the nature of romance and relationships. le tellier is an imaginative writer, and his works are often intriguingly composed. as each of his three books available in english differ so greatly from one another, any new le tellier translation would be a welcomed gift to readers, as one never really quite knows what to expect from the frenchman's books, save, of course, for abundant creativity and charm.

i measure the scope of your declaration. it's not the emergency itself you're talking about here, but the requirement for truthfulness that emergencies demand of us. all at once i grasp for something else, between the lines: that, with me, you would leave the serenity of an illusory eternity where your days are not counted, for an unreliable world in which they are. illness would finally launch you into that world where time actually passes. i understand what it is that i give you, it's being afraid.

[Chris_P · Rating 4 out of 5]

Το πιο κοντινό στο πέντε τεσσάρι που έχω διαβάσει ποτέ.

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thomas loves Louise, a lawyer. Louise is married to Romain, a scientist. Louise loves Thomas. Yves, a writer, loves Anna. Anna, a psychiatrist, loves Yves, a man she found "unsettling." Anna is married to Stan, an ophthalmologist. Thomas is Anna's psychoanalyst. No, this isn't an LSAT logic problem or a torrid soap opera. These are the characters that comprise Le Tellier's urbane, au courant Paris comedy, a droll romp that is nevertheless intimate and complex within the playful pages. It's packed with contagious quotes that you want to spread:

"Everyone should have analysis. It should be compulsory, like military service used to be."

Or, let's say you are jealous of a woman and want to share a canny reproach with a friend:

"She sees herself as slim, lives being slim as synonymous with being rigorous. Gaining weight, she is convinced, is always a lapse."

Lots of light, saucy bon mots flash through this story, but there are small earthquakes that convulse now and then. At 228 pages and 51 short chapters (and an epilogue), most chapters are structured in pairs, such as "Thomas and Louise" and "Anna and Yves," alluding to couples, as well as Abkhazian dominoes, a game that is close to Yves' heart. "He is a writer who has readers, but not a true readership." He may obscure himself further by titling his next novel after that titular game.

Throughout the wry novel, the coupling and uncoupling of husbands, wives, and lovers overlap and cross, and sometimes meet. The themes and ideas may be common but the characters are genuine and close. The dialog is inspired, not prepared or clichéd. The prose slides creamily off the tongue, like a filled croissant, and is peppered with paradox and the double entendre, pointed aphorisms and learned allusions. And life can be turned into aphorisms, instructs Thomas to his patient, Anna, as a way of fixing life into words.

"...what attracts us about another person has had more to do with what makes them fragile...Love is kindled by the weakness we perceive, the flaw we get in through, wouldn't you say?"

There's a gravitas that manifests subtly, an accretion of observations and details that examine love from every curve and angle. You can visualize this dialog-heavy book as a film, or a play. There is no way not to compare Le Tellier to the best of Woody Allen--a little bit Lubitsch, a little bit Jewish, some Annie Hall, some Stardust Memories, a profusion of Freud. But this is French, and you will imagine that you are walking through Jardin du Luxembourg or running across the Quai des Grands Augustins on a grey, Paris day. It's eclectic, though, with American as well as other infusions. The savvy prose serves up a savory atmosphere, drifting through outdoor cafés and public squares. Some of the time, though, you are indoors, near a bookcase, and often a bed...

Cultural icons, such as François Truffaut, are included, not just as a reference, but as meaning to the story at hand. Thomas emails Louise, after they first meet, that doesn't a scene in Stolen Kisses anticipate the future of email? But the scene he shares, in detail, is the buttering of his desires.

There is even a postmodernish, double-column chapter; on one side is Yves' dry, but increasingly inventive lecture of the word "foreign," with emphasis on the fact that the French have only one word for it, l'etranger. Juxtaposed on the other side is the cuckolded Stan, seated in the back row, agonized in a stream of invective consciousness. The linguistic stunt work by the author is more than a showcase; it concludes in a probing, poignant place of alarm and discovery.

The characters in these triangular love affairs share universal elements-- sex and death, guilt and virtue, grief and ecstasy, illusion and certainty, passion and ennui. And, of course, love. But enough about love.

Eminent credit goes to Adriana Hunter for her luminous translation from the French.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enough About Love is a quintessentially French novel about the vagaries and capriciousness of love. Two women – Anna and Louise – both beautiful, both married with children, both married to successful and trustworthy men, uproot their lives thorough unexpected yet passionate affairs with two unusual men. Anna, married to another respected physician, falls under the spell of Yves, a writer. In the meantime, Anna’s analyst, Thomas, has gotten into his own tryst with Louise, an attractive lawyer married to a much-renowned scientist named Romain.

With a structure borrowed from a game of Abkhazian dominoes – discussed briefly in one section of the book – the various characters (Anna and Louise, their husbands, and their lovers) find themselves interacting in all kinds of combinations. We see, for example, Louise with Thomas (her lover), followed by a chapter with Louise and Romain (her husband), followed by another chapter of Thomas and Romain…and so on.

There are a few chapters that stand out for their audacity and their elegance. In one of them, Yves (the author and lover of Anna) is conducting a public reading on the subject of “foreignness.” In the audience is Stan (the husband) who feels like the ultimate foreigner as he puzzles why his wife would be attracted to this man and castigates himself for letting the magic slip away. The juxtaposition of these two men is displayed in a two-column “split screen”, visually communicating the differences between them.

In another, Yves is signing copies of his book when a man who he presumes is Anna’s husband enters the bookstore. He lectures Yves on one of the author’s former books, stating, “…he also suspects she loves him because he embodies unpredictability, a sense of adventure she always longed for, but he exploits her dreams to draw her in. It’s a woman thing, like Emma Bovary meeting her Rodolphe.” He forces Yves to hold a mirror to himself.

In yet a third vignette, Yves presents Anna with a book he wrote about her – Forty Memories of Anna Stein – bursting with intimacy and immediacy. As readers, we become compliant in the affair, being titillated with the passionate details.

And so, love in all its interactions is explored – married love, adulterous love, rejected love, mundane love, love that endures, love that dies out. There are many, many pithy lines and startling revelations from an author who is obviously confident and even playful in his craft.

As someone who married late in life, with an understanding of the fragility of relationships and the false euphoria of “love” flirtations, the cavalier attitude of the characters was sometimes unsettling to me. It is a testament to the power and mastery of this work that I placed my own value system aside and read on, enchanted, with no doubt in my mind that this was an intelligently-crafted, beautifully rendered work. In the end, it is a delicious read.

[Zeilenlieblich · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rezension "Kein Wort mehr über Liebe" von Hervé Le Tellier, erschienen am 17.08.2021 im Rowoltverlag.
Seitenanzahl: 223 Seiten

Man nehme Frankreich im Hochsommer und das Leben von sechs Menschen: zwei Frauen, ihre Ehemänner und ihre Liebhaber.

Ich habe mir eine nette, seichte Unterhaltung in Frankreich erhofft, jedoch plätscherte die Geschichte nur so vor sich hin. Das Liebeswirrwarr der Pariser war klischeebehaftet und die fehlende Kommunikation der Paare machte die Geschichte zu einem langwierigen Chaos. Die Protagonisten waren für mich nicht greifbar und ich konnte an ihnen nichts liebenswertes finden. Die Romantik, die ich mir erhofft hatte, war nicht vorhanden und ich las das Buch mit einer distanzierten Gleichgültigkeit. Gefühlt kannte jeder jeden, dennoch war es den Protagonisten nicht klar, wie einsichtig und wie eindeutig ihre Geschichten waren.
Mich konnte das Buch leider weder abholen noch berühren und ich war froh, als sich das Buch dem Ende entgegen neigte.
Zusätzlich fand ich die Formatierung der wörtlichen Rede, nämlich mit Gedankenstrichen, mehr als anstrengend und verwirrend.

Ich habe mir ein schönes, seichtes Buch erhofft und wurde enttäuscht. Für "Kein Wort mehr über Liebe" kann ich leider keine Empfehlung aussprechen.

(Lieben Dank an Netgalley für das Rezensionsexemplar)

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wasn't your usual love story. There is mature love, jealous love, love that continues to change. The love triangles merge into each other, and we see inside more than just one character and how they are effected by love, by extramarital affairs, by age. I have read reviews that say the women were too much alike in the novel and I have to say I agree. The women should have been better developed. This story reads a bit like a play. I loved it though, I loved the thought of people thinking love was done with them to discover love comes regardless of the chronology of our hearts.

[ΠανωςΚ · Rating 3 out of 5]

To «Ένα τραμ στη Λισαβόνα», του ιδίου, μ' είχε ενθουσιάσει. Αυτό, αν και με άρεσε αρκετά, περισσότερο απ' ό,τι δείχνουν τα τρία αστέρια, με απογοήτευσε κάπως. Η γραφή του Λε Τελιέ παραμένει εξαιρετική, παιχνιδιάρικη, ευρηματική. Οι παράλληλες με την κεντρική ιστορία των δύο ερωτικών τριγώνων μικροϊστορίες επίσης με άρεσαν πολύ. Αλλά η κεντρική πλοκή: έλεος! Ολη την ώρα έβριζα τους γάλλους μεγαλοαστούς και τα γαμημένα προβλήματά τους. Ο θυμός που προκάλεσαν τα ερωτικά πάθη των ηρώων ίσως να είναι ενδεικτικός της ποιότητας του βιβλίου. Αλλά ακόμη και τώρα, στο μυαλό μου κυριαρχεί μόνο μια φράση που ενδεχομένως δεν εξηγεί επαρκώς τον λόγο της ενόχλησής μου: «γαμημένοι αστοί με τα κωλοπροβλήματά σας». Και να με συγχωρείτε για τα... γαλλικά μου.
Βέβαια ο Λε Τελιέ είναι αρκετά έξυπνος και σκανδαλιάρης ώστε να παίζει και να ανατρέπει τα κλισέ μιας ιστορίας με ερωτικά τρίγωνα, κι αυτό σώζει το βιβλίο σε αρκετές περιπτώσεις, όχι όμως σε όλες.

[Alma · Rating 5 out of 5]

aucun rapport mais je suis bloquée sur le goodread anglais j'ai pas les versions fr c'est relou

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

To appreciate this novel is to understand that it is written with Gallic sense and sensibility. That is to say, it is not a linear story with a predictable arc that reaches a climax and culminates in a resolution. In substance and style it is a novel of process, of conversation, of debate. It is, like the culture which it represents, maddening, thoughtful, intriguing, and seductive.

To enjoy this novel is to not expect a romance or a comedy- for it is not- but to delight in the romantic or comedic moments when they occur.

To read this novel is to be reminded that none of us truly knows another's marriage, even that of a close friend, a sibling, or a colleague with whom you spend more time than your own spouse.

Enough About Love is a perfect title. It sound like a command, as in "Enough, already!" or "Let's not talk about it anymore!" It could be the plea of psychoanalyst Thomas Le Gall, who pays off a small villa in Italy by listening to the angst-ridden memories and confessions of his patients. It could be the irritated and guilty brush off of stunning Anna Stein, a just-forty psychiatrist and mother of two, to her husband, the devoted Stanislaus. It could be the impatient demand of lithe Louise Blum, hot-shot attorney, as she instructs her husband, biologist Romain Vidal, on the fine art of speech delivery. It could be the jaded sigh of esoteric writer Yves Janvier, disagreeing with the suggestion that his next novel should have "love" in the title, to attract more readers.

These characters' lives intersect; whether in a therapist's office, in a cafe, on a sidewalk, or in a bed, the smallest ripples of chance force waves of change. By meeting, they are each compelled to examine their belief in love and where it diverges from passion or converges on friendship.

Le Tellier manages to make you care about characters whose lives are vastly removed from most. These are exceptionally attractive, successful, well-read, well-bred Parisians- conditions that are determined by birth into France's upper-middle class, largely unavailable even to the hardest-working. The women live up to the impossible French notion of the ideal woman: she who brings home the bacon, fries it up in pan, and never lets Monsieur forget he's a man. The men are allowed more diversity: a paunch in the belly, a thinning pate, weaker of character and of heart. For this I fault the male and the French in Le Tellier and the American in me. Perhaps his French readers expect no less; I weary of female characters whose physical perfection turns them into caricatures.

Le Tellier, through his intellectual-elite characters, also brings out the question of Jewish identity and French remorse and guilt about the treatment of Jews in France during the Second World War. At times it is poignant, at times shocking how contemporary France embraces and rejects its Jewish past and present.

Considering the style of Enough About Love. There is enough conventional novel structure to seduce you into a story of love and infidelity. But anticipate being walked through a maze of literary flourishes: a chapter that is one long inventory of Anna's clothing purchases; a speech and a internal dialogue that run simultaneously for several pages, mirroring a game of Abkhazian dominoes- a game that takes on a life of its own within the story; a love sonnet comprised of forty distinct memories. All aspects- conventional and odd- are delivered by an anonymous and omniscient narrator that is so close to the characters' innermost identities it borders on the more intimate second person narrative.

This is a quick read, but it is not light. There is a beautiful economy of words that is so quintessentially French - I commend the translator Adriana Hunter for the conveying the precision and clarity of the French language in the rich and muddled mess of English.

Someday I will have the courage and time to tackle reading an Oulipo work in French. Le Tellier has been an Oulipo member for some twenty years. Enough About Love would be an encouraging place to start. There is enough familiar and straightforward storytelling to ease into the Oulipo experimental methods.

[Mojgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the author's style of story-telling...this book was a light enjoyable read.
There is a short number of character's involved (6 main characters) and the author spends adequate time to explore them.


Spoiler alert:

I really liked when the idea that Yves has for his next book, kinda turns out to be the book that we are reading....that was neat!

[Miss.Sophie425 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kein Wort mehr über Liebe. Ja - der Titel hält, was er verspricht: Von Liebe findet sich hier tatsächlich nichts. Aber sehr viel Egomanie, Narzissmus und Selbstmitleid. Selbstverliebte, unsichere Frauen, die man im realen Leben meiden würde und Männer, die ganz klischeebehaftet "auf der Jagd" sind und das "verliebt" nennen.

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're in your 30s-40s and you loved Eat Pray Love, huzzah, this is the book for you! Unfortunately, that is not me and I felt little connection to the book or the characters.

[Rissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enough about love was very descriptive which was a good thing but also not. You get all the details, every single detail it was a bit much at times but other times i was able to picture the room and the people and felt like i was transported into the book.

[Νατάσσα · Rating 4 out of 5]

Έξυπνο, σύντομο, λιτό, "καθαρό" εκφραστικά, εξαιρετικά γραμμένο μυθιστόρημα. Μπαίνει στ' αγαπημένα μου, με τη μία.

Εξαιρετική και η μετάφραση του Αχιλλέα Κυριακίδη.

[M João (Livros?gosto) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Opinião em:




https://youtu.be/-D5zZdzw4wI

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

这本Mmmmm主要是看主要内容简介买的，中文名叫说烦了爱，但是期望值过高的作品。果然不能被内容简介骗了！

前面读起来不太有味，后面还行，就是所有中年男作家的影子，出轨，出轨出的清新脱俗，鉴于这是一本法国小说，完全就是没有过多描述为啥就爱上的铺垫，一见钟情你就是平淡无聊的婚姻生活中无法抵抗的那个人，其实这本书，不厚，内容其实有许多可以展开的，但是作者直接很简单的就过了。

作为一本实验小说，我是喜欢这种题材，个人觉得里面有点失败的，里面主角4个人物，人物性格不太突出，我看不到鲜明的对照亮点，这本用不同的人物名字做开头，然后短篇的描写切换，这种排版模式尤其适用我种不太感兴趣的人，因为有种看的特别快，以及啊又换了一个描写了呀，新鲜感又来了。

内容上，真的非常跳跃，确实很法式，伊夫软绵绵甜甜的表白啊，会写爱情的男作家让人非常想要爱，非常心动啊，里面写犹太人的部分没看懂。不哀伤的悲剧，讲一个好笑的是一节，男主伊夫签售，来了个挑事的男的，拿他之前写的一个关于勾引有夫之妇的小说争论，把他吓的，快要打起来，他以为是自己绿的那家男人，哈哈哈哈哈，其实人家只是来说说你的书

[Mirka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Na základe anotácií ani recenzií som vôbec nevedela odhadnúť, čo ma čaká. A kniha ma prekvapila. Milo. Je to príbeh o manželoch, manželkách, milencoch a milenkách, o ľuďoch rôznych profesií, príbeh o dvoch manželských pároch a ich bokovkách... príbeh o tom, že sa to stane veľmi ľahko, niekedy je to cesta zo stereotypu a križovatka k lepšiemu, inokedy – napriek vzájomným sympatiám – si zúčastnení uvedomia dopady a potenciálne straty a hľadajú cestu späť... je to dynamická spleť príbehov o krehkých vzťahoch v rôznych kombináciách postáv, ktoré sa poznajú aj nepoznajú... Ich emocionálny svet, myšlienkové pochody, vnútorné monológy a ich reakcie a rozhodnutia sú opísané veľmi zručne a myslím, že autor ich charaktery podal bravúrne, pomerne úsporným štýlom bez zbytočných príkras, veľmi realisticky, zároveň farbisto, ale nie ružovo (t.j. netreba čakať žiadnu sladkú limonádku), a tak je jasné, že opisované vzťahové problémy vôbec nevidí čierno-bielo, ale v celej ich zložitosti. Za mňa veľmi dobré.

[Pablo Calzado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tienen una estructura muy moderna. Ligero y divertido. Me ha gustado.

[Magda Tsakiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Διαμαντάκι

[Büşra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perec seven bunu da sever.

[Monica Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thomas Le Gall has not taken his eyes off Romain Vidal for a moment, though. This is the man who wakes every morning beside Louise Blum, the woman he is falling in love with, and whom he has just made love to for the first time. Romain Vidal is not his rival, because no one ever has a rival. Thomas had no urge to confront the image of "the husband." He wanted to see the man Louise Blum had loved and still loved, and also, perhaps, wanted to put his own feelings to the test. Thomas feels the beginnings of sympathy for this great tall boy whose secret shyness he can see, whose fluid logical train of thought he admires, and whose friendship he knows with regret he can never have.

Herve Le Tellier's Enough About Love is the quintessential French Novel. It takes love, the eros love, and shows us how it can enter into our lives suddenly, without invitation, and how it can leave without explanation. It's a portrait of what we will allow love to give and to take away from us. It begs the question, "Is love something you can dismantle or does it age and fade like we do?" I can say that I enjoyed this novel for it's style, perspective, humor and distillation of emotional moments, but I also felt that it was indifferent to the fate of characters and to love, lacking the depth I wanted it to have. Subjective, to be sure, but also a reaction. Le Tellier lures us in with his short, apt descriptions of the characters and their interactions, but skims the surface and never dives below which is why I felt a little cheated.

The chapters are short, succinct and seamless. Le Tellier focuses on two love affairs: one between Thomas and Louise and one between Yves and Anna. Thomas is Anna's analyst, Louise is a lawyer, Yves is a writer and Anna is a psychiatrist. Anna and Louise are both married, both have children and both think they are happy. When Louise meets Thomas at a dinner party, there is an immediate spark which Thomas cannot ignore. He contacts Louise and an affair begins. Louise's husband is also a writer who doesn't seem to connect with her anymore. Anna, who falls for Yves, has no idea she is capable of loving someone other than her husband. Le Tellier limns effectively the energy of these instant connections and how they burrow into our emotional lives in glorious yet inconvenient ways. The way he views love is as an unstoppable force that we ultimately can't control but can only limit how much we succumb to it. Although it's close third person narration, the male characters seem to have more nuance, insight and introspection where the female characters are drawn with wider strokes and appear more practical. Not to say that the female characters have to be emotional and introspective, but there is a sense of Le Tellier's comfort in his presence of the male characters. There are passages where Le Tellier appears as if he standing behind a transparent scrim like this passage that tell us Thomas lost his wife and child a long time ago:

There are some works so luminous that the fill us with shame for the meager life to which we are resigned, that they implore us to lead another, wiser, fuller life; works so powerful that they give us strength, and force us to new undertakings. A book can play this role. For Thomas, it is La vita nuova, in which Dante weeps for his Beatrice. A friend gave it to him shortly after Piette's death. But Thomas does not believe that his Piette waits for him in a future life, he doubts that anywhere in the infinite plurality of Lewis's worlds there is a peaceful universe where a happy Piette gave birth to their little boy.

There is definitely a mournful quality to this book that is very engaging and nostalgic. Le Tellier's style is sparse but full of the right details as well as incredibly original details. In the end, we all decide what love is worth to us. It's the journey to the decision which is painful. Not new territory, but in Le Tellier's hands it is precious and ruminative and expressed through some very clever ways like a chapter where Yves reads a section of a his book abutted against the narrative of this novel. This could be irksome, but it comes off as refreshing.

This is quick read and an enjoyable read. But I wouldn't call it a tremendously deep read. It does not have the need to because in effect love can make us poignant and shallow. I wanted to delve more into the fear of what leaving a relationship or giving up the chance at a great one brings to us. Not there the characters have no fear, but it feels glossed over. But if you are wanting a traditional and creative novel about the French idea of love, Enough About Love is a read to turn to when you feel like love is the one thing you just don't understand.

[Noelia Villanueva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bonito ,sutil.Hay cierta originalidad sorprendente , pero que a veces desgasta el ritmo. Un relato de amor burgués.

[Golddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Μ'αφηνεις, γιατί δεν κατάφερες ποτέ να μας ελεήσεις με ένα μέλλον. Αυτό είναι το αόρατο τείχος πάνω στο οποίο δεν θα πάψεις ποτέ να συνθλίβεσαι, σαν τις πεταλούδες στο τζάμι. Το μέλλον, έπρεπε να το φανταστώ, δεν ήταν για' μένα : σε κάθε σου γράμμα, ο μέλλων χρόνος σου ήταν στον δυνητικό του τύπο "

[Edwin Lang · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book and enjoyed all the characters too. I found the story well stated – mathematically precise – and creatively written: a book difficult to put down and one that’s deep and worthy and memorable.

The story centers primarily around two women, unrelated and approaching 40: one, very conservative, traditional, filled with mid-life angst; the other has had affairs before. All the book’s characters seem to be upper middle class, and for the most part, endowed, educated, successful and pretty well lacking little.

At the beginning of the story I felt considerable anger at the seeming superficiality of their lives - or as a male protagonist quoted ‘there are some works so luminous that they fill us with shame for the meagre life to which we are resigned’. I also wondered why the author had chosen upper middle class characters, who seemed to have had it all. Was it because they didn’t - in spite of appearances? It left one wondering if they weren’t all just spoilt and undisciplined, and whether the book had enough elegance to be made into a slick love story. Or was it to reassure us - who perhaps don’t have it all - that we are all, all of us, simply humans in need.

Both my initial annoyance and distrust passed, and even on a 2nd read, the story retained its vibrancy. I sympathized with all the characters, even the minor ones, liking them and appreciating their plight. Each of the characters we met in the story seemed to be likeable and good people, and each has a vulnerability, a chink in their armour through which we can see them and like them.

I also enjoyed the many observations, many of which were insightful and some of which were chilling
• ‘The adventurous life that will have required many transgressions’;
• (a husband wronged): ‘I know I let the magic slip away, it’s my fault, all the laziness and routine’;
• ‘Why won’t she dare to want to fail’: it seemed that success is frequently becomes a prison of its own;
• And my favourite, from Pascal I believe – but it’s a notion of vulnerability that those who for example in L’Arche or work with the handicapped know well – ‘what attracts me to a person has more to do with what make them fragile, the chink in their armour’.

One of my favourite chapters was when the author had a cuckolded husband attend a presentation given by his wife’s lover, and while narrating what the presenter was saying having us listen in parallel to the husband’s thoughts, with them spanning curiosity, anger, envy, regret, confusion and pain. One wonders how we take this behaviour so lightly, given the pain it causes. I remain troubled by how morally wanting all the characters seemed to have been. As if Western civilization has no ethos and no history, as if we wander about almost aimlessly and empty, desiring what another has. I wonder if the superb writing only serves to document or maybe even further popularize a winner-takes-all opportunism. It reminds me of the words from a Dolly Parton song which (at least on CBC) had become popular again under Norah Jones

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I’m begging of you please don't take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don't take him just because you can

You could have your choice of men
But I could never love again
He’s the only one for me, Jolene

Or, when one character says, and not unkindly but for readers heart-wrenchingly sadly: ‘It must be me then. I know you can leave a man.’

Edwin

[Jael · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Right now, she is asking him to find the words that will help her draw on her own strength to give up what each photo says. Look at this happiness, my happiness, my husband, my house, my children, my parents, look. It's all there, spread out on this kitchen table, years of life in fading colors, I give them to you, I'll abandon them for you, my love. But what about you, what are you offering? Tell me that." -- Pg. 102


Is it worth it to give up your life, marriage, and family for another person? You've spent years working on a marriage and suddenly you meet a charismatic person, who makes you question everything you thought you knew. Is it worth it to change everything? I've never been in that situation nor do I want to. The characters in Enough About Love by Herve Le Tellier (translated from french by Adriana Hunter) give into their passions, but not without consequences.

Anna and Louise don't know each other, but the problems in their lives are very similar. When she's not working, Anna spends her days whining to her psychiatrist, Thomas le Gall. After a 1,000 appointments, Thomas wonders where Anna's treatment is going. A chance encounter with an intriguing writer, Yves, leads Anna to lie constantly. She's so seduced by Yves, but is unsure if he's worth giving up her life for him. Will her children except him? Can he fit into her life?

Meanwhile, Thomas becomes downright giddy when he meets Louise at a party. The emotions don't make sense to Thomas. Why is he so in smitten with Louise? She's married with children, and therefore unavailable, but he can't resist. Louise is equally smitten.

Louise and Anna both become more bold in their encounters. Anna feels confident in asking for more sexually. Louise isn't afraid to proclaim her love for Thomas publicly. Louise can bring Thomas around her children without fear. Is their attraction right? Are they just living in the moment? Can these feelings last forever? Is it just infatuation?

"...what attracts us about another person has more to do with what makes them fragile, the chink in their armor. Love is kindled by the weakness we perceive, the flaw we get in through, wouldn't you say?"

Are we attracted to someone we think we can fix? Are we attracted to someone we think can fix us? I'm sure some people don't want to admit that. Some of the characters in the book don't want to admit it.

The book is told from several points of view. You kind of feel like a peeping tom. Should we be seeing this? The emotional breakdowns of the husbands in the book is heartbreaking. They both have a chance to meet the competition, and can't help but feel empathy for them. I don't feel so sorry for Anna or Louise. It seemed like Anna was looking for an adventure. Why not turn to your husband for that adventure? And I thought Louise had an affair because she could. They are all flawed characters, and thankfully the ending isn't wrapped up in a bow.

Rating: Give it a try

Note: I received a copy of the book from the publisher (Other Press) in exchange for an honest review.