Spirale

by Anne Philipe

D'une saison à l'autre, l'auteur éprouve la permanence et l'éphémère de la nature et de la vie humaine. Ces deux sentiments qui occupent ses pensées, se croisent sans cesse, s'éloignent et même parfois coïncident.
Les thèmes de cette rêverie sont à la fois universels et ressentis avec beaucoup d'intensité personnelle. C'est la vie, la mort, l'injustice qui règne sur la terre, la misère, la faim, l'amour, la maternité, la séparation. On y sent souvent un accord presque panthéiste avec la nature et le monde.
Tout le livre est un effort pour se mettre en accord avec la vie, telle qu'elle est, et jusque dans sa contre-partie qui est la mort :
"Arriverai-je un jour, sans effort et sans mensonge, à accepter que la plénitude d'aujourd'hui, le raisin mûrissant, les figues éclatées, l'arbre superbe, les enfants, moi-même, ne soyons qu'un moment?

Aucune femme, aucun homme, ne pourra rester insensible au ton d'Anne Philipe posant des questions qui concernent chacun.

Anne Philipe a déjà publié aux éditions Gallimard un Gérard Philipe en collaboration avec Claude Roy.

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Born Anne Marie Nicole Ghislaine Navaux, she was the wife of French actor Gerard Philipe

Reviews

[Konstantin · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a sidenote, this review might be biased by the great smell and feeling of the copy that I have that I just randomly picked up from one of those bookshelfs standing out and about. This was the type of book where the smell just makes you go "Ahhh" and sit down and read it in one go.

The language is poetic to the point of just putting in newlines in the middle of the sentence. This type of poetic language works here at times, at others it is just too traditional in its themes. That is alright with the type of length that this book has but would be utterly boring if it was any longer. There was a section about doing a division where every calculation is described in detail and I get it that some people find that poetic and all but I just skipped that section. Credit where it's due, Anne Philipe made the worst section of the book skippable by just checking where the numbers end.

The themes are multiple but the book is pervaded by a sort of nostalgia, a slow living kind of desolation and sorrow. Maybe I also just picked up on that without the writing actually having any indication of it but I guess that happens when you write poetically: You can read anything into it. But this all evoked a similar feeling as looking at a Hopper painting, some kind picture where the detachment calmly jumps out at you, but you delight in looking at it, possibly because you yourself are so detached from the picture itself.

Anyway, these are some random thoughts that came to me while reading the book, and it is the type of book where there is not really any story at all. It is the kind of book that you read, let the words sink in a bit and then form some thoughts about the world that is described in it and about the world that you yourself sit in. And then you put it down and don't think about it all that much more but when you sit down to write a Goodreads review you start thinking some more and write down some of these thoughts.

In any case I like books that make me think and I liked the experience of reading this book (it was the smell, I am sure) but no more than that.

[Ocean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plein de petits essais qui comparent la vie humaine au végétal et plus largement, à la nature.
Même si c'est bien écrit et agréable à lire ça ne m'as pas vraiment touché ou intéressé outre mesure, je ne pense pas que je l'aurais terminé si il n'avait pas été aussi court.

[illiterate.bookworm alice humphreys · Rating 3 out of 5]

c’était doux comme un baume au coeur mais sans plus