Private Property

by Paule Constant, France Grenaudier-Klijn (Translator), Margot Miller (Translator)

When Tiffany Murano’s parents, French expatriates in Africa, send her to a Catholic boarding school in France, her homeland feels nothing like home. In leaving colonial Africa, she loses the natural world, the people, and the animals she knows and loves. Behind the walls of the Convent of the Slaughterhouse Ladies, Tiffany, whom readers met in Paule Constant’s award-winning first novel, Ouregano , leads a life cut off from the world, a life of immutable and ironically secular ritual. She finds solace only in visits to her grandmother’s nearby farm, which becomes a sanctuary, paradisial in its isolation. But it is only a matter of time before this magical world is threatened.


Based loosely on Constant’s own experiences, Private Property is at once deeply moving and intellectually exacting, an exploration of identity, home, and the tenuous relationship between mothers and daughters.

178 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Paule Constant est une écrivaine française, qui a passé une grande partie de sa vie à l'étranger: Afrique, Asie et Amérique du Sud. Depuis le 8 janvier 2013, elle est membre de l'Académie Goncourt.

Paule Constant is a French novelist, who spend many years abroad: Africa, Asia and South America. Since january, 8, 2013, she is a member of the Académie Goncourt.

Reviews

[Akeiisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this a difficult book to stick with through the end. A lot of the story is rather dull, day-to-day life in a boarding school. The descriptions of the property are nice, but overall I had a hard time following what was going on and keeping track of who was saying what (no quotation marks for dialogue).

[Diane C. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has a style similar to Elegance of the Hedgehog, but is too depressing and heavy with symbolism. An accurate portrait of a poor little rich school girl's life in '50's France, however.

A bit pedantic too. I actually did NOT finish it.

[Bettina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Often profoundly moving and often dull. Has the feel of assigned reading that, mercifully, has beautiful passages. Almost ditched it.