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Morning In Antibes
Out of print. In a Mylar dj protector. Author's third novel and first since A Separate Peace.
- GenresFiction
222 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1963
About the author
John Knowles
109 books419 followersJohn Knowles was an American novelist best known for A Separate Peace (1959).
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 9, 2019
Twenty years after first reading MORNING IN ANTIBES, I still love this book, and a second reading did not disappoint. From lazy mornings through discontented afternoons and into the frenetic night, Knowles's French Riviera is a character in itself. His (human) characters are compassionately but unflinchingly portrayed in all their glory and shame through the ever-perceptive, if somewhat pessimistic, Nick. As with A Separate Peace, Knowles demonstrates a deep understanding of the human condition - our brokenness, our striving, our failing, and the spectacular victory we accomplish in quiet moments of courage.
October 20, 2026
Nick is in Juan-les-Pins nursing his wounds following the failure of his brief marriage to Liliane. An American citizen, Nick is half-French/half-Russian by birth. Liliane is French, and now she has drifted to Juan-les-Pins too. Nick still loves her, and perhaps she still loves him too, but she is searching for something she can’t define. This has led her into a string of sordid affairs which she doesn’t enjoy but can’t seem to resist. Nick would like either to have her back, wholly his, or to be able to move on and leave the marriage behind, but he is stuck in an emotional limbo until she decides what she wants, and despises his own indecision.
The time is 1958, just before de Gaulle’s election, during the Algerian War. There is unrest in France, with rival Algerian factions fighting and killing each other, and terrorist incidents against the French authorities. The French are living in a state of anxiety, made worse by the ongoing repercussions from the Occupation of France, with Pétainists still held in contempt for their support of the Vichy collaborators.
Despite being set in the wrong era, this has very much the feel of a Lost Generation novel – feckless, wealthy young Americans, bed-hopping around battered Europe, and whining. In fact, the similarities to Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises in both setting and story are so striking that it sits rather uncomfortably between ‘influenced by’ and ‘plagiarised from’, in my opinion. What saves it from the worse charge is the inclusion of the Algerian strand, which gives it a contemporary relevance to its time, although modern readers (like me) may have only a sketchy knowledge of the Algerian War.
It is also lifted by the quality of Knowles’ descriptive writing – in my view, he is a much better writer of prose than Hemingway, or at least his style is a better match to my taste. Where Hemingway is clipped and often banal, Knowles is lush and occasionally poetic. Unfortunately, Knowles spoils this advantage by having far too much description surrounding what is a rather slight story. I’ve said it before, but sometimes even short books can be too long, and sometimes a novella would be preferable to forcing a novel when there isn’t enough content to justify it.
A young Algerian, Jeannot, attaches himself to Nick in the hopes of being employed by him, and eventually Nick obliges. It’s through Jeannot that we get a picture of what’s going on in Algeria and how French-Algerians are being sucked into the factions that have spread from Algeria to France. Knowles’ depiction of how the French talk about Algerians and the politics of colonialism is uncomfortable – intentionally so, I feel. Knowles is making an argument that feels self-evident now, but clearly wasn’t in the France of that time – that the Algerians can’t simply be classified as Muslims, or extremists, or thieves, and dismissed accordingly. Jeannot’s strand brings more complexity to the story – the problems he has to contend with show the total superficiality of Nick’s angst over an unfaithful wife. I’m not sure, however, that Knowles intended to provoke that comparison. I suspect we are supposed to care about Liliane’s crazy mixed-up-ness and Nick’s emotional wallowings.
The other major character in the book is the setting itself, and here Knowles excels. This is Antibes before mass tourism, when only the idle rich spend months there each summer, wasting their time and daddy’s money on pursuing happiness – a futile pursuit for most of them. In August, there is an upsurge, as the French and a few English arrive for annual vacations, suddenly and briefly turning the place into a happy family zone, and leaving the longer term visitors at something of a loss as their beaches and restaurants are filled by strangers actually enjoying themselves. And then they leave just as suddenly, and autumn approaches, and Knowles shows the remnants of the careless summer inhabitants having to face whatever their future might be as Antibes closes down – to return home to work or disapproving parents, to discover if the love affair that has lasted the summer months will survive the onslaught of winter and real life, to count their debts and worry anxiously about how to pay them.
The Nick/Liliane strand attempts to echo Hemingway’s examination of masculinity, but Knowles doesn’t quite achieve Hemingway’s depth. I suspect this may be because Hemingway’s characters were so clearly damaged, emotionally or physically, by their experience in the Great War, adding to the emerging literature that would paint that war as uniquely harrowing for the men who survived it. Knowles touches on the lingering after-effects of occupation in France, but too lightly to achieve any kind of profundity. And it’s not clear where Nick’s ‘damage’ comes from – we are not really given enough reason to care about his angst over his own masculinity. He is just a man confused by his love for a confused young woman. Hemingway’s characters will live forever in my mind, as will some of the scenes in his book. Morning in Antibes, I fear, is already fading.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
The time is 1958, just before de Gaulle’s election, during the Algerian War. There is unrest in France, with rival Algerian factions fighting and killing each other, and terrorist incidents against the French authorities. The French are living in a state of anxiety, made worse by the ongoing repercussions from the Occupation of France, with Pétainists still held in contempt for their support of the Vichy collaborators.
Despite being set in the wrong era, this has very much the feel of a Lost Generation novel – feckless, wealthy young Americans, bed-hopping around battered Europe, and whining. In fact, the similarities to Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises in both setting and story are so striking that it sits rather uncomfortably between ‘influenced by’ and ‘plagiarised from’, in my opinion. What saves it from the worse charge is the inclusion of the Algerian strand, which gives it a contemporary relevance to its time, although modern readers (like me) may have only a sketchy knowledge of the Algerian War.
It is also lifted by the quality of Knowles’ descriptive writing – in my view, he is a much better writer of prose than Hemingway, or at least his style is a better match to my taste. Where Hemingway is clipped and often banal, Knowles is lush and occasionally poetic. Unfortunately, Knowles spoils this advantage by having far too much description surrounding what is a rather slight story. I’ve said it before, but sometimes even short books can be too long, and sometimes a novella would be preferable to forcing a novel when there isn’t enough content to justify it.
A young Algerian, Jeannot, attaches himself to Nick in the hopes of being employed by him, and eventually Nick obliges. It’s through Jeannot that we get a picture of what’s going on in Algeria and how French-Algerians are being sucked into the factions that have spread from Algeria to France. Knowles’ depiction of how the French talk about Algerians and the politics of colonialism is uncomfortable – intentionally so, I feel. Knowles is making an argument that feels self-evident now, but clearly wasn’t in the France of that time – that the Algerians can’t simply be classified as Muslims, or extremists, or thieves, and dismissed accordingly. Jeannot’s strand brings more complexity to the story – the problems he has to contend with show the total superficiality of Nick’s angst over an unfaithful wife. I’m not sure, however, that Knowles intended to provoke that comparison. I suspect we are supposed to care about Liliane’s crazy mixed-up-ness and Nick’s emotional wallowings.
The other major character in the book is the setting itself, and here Knowles excels. This is Antibes before mass tourism, when only the idle rich spend months there each summer, wasting their time and daddy’s money on pursuing happiness – a futile pursuit for most of them. In August, there is an upsurge, as the French and a few English arrive for annual vacations, suddenly and briefly turning the place into a happy family zone, and leaving the longer term visitors at something of a loss as their beaches and restaurants are filled by strangers actually enjoying themselves. And then they leave just as suddenly, and autumn approaches, and Knowles shows the remnants of the careless summer inhabitants having to face whatever their future might be as Antibes closes down – to return home to work or disapproving parents, to discover if the love affair that has lasted the summer months will survive the onslaught of winter and real life, to count their debts and worry anxiously about how to pay them.
The Nick/Liliane strand attempts to echo Hemingway’s examination of masculinity, but Knowles doesn’t quite achieve Hemingway’s depth. I suspect this may be because Hemingway’s characters were so clearly damaged, emotionally or physically, by their experience in the Great War, adding to the emerging literature that would paint that war as uniquely harrowing for the men who survived it. Knowles touches on the lingering after-effects of occupation in France, but too lightly to achieve any kind of profundity. And it’s not clear where Nick’s ‘damage’ comes from – we are not really given enough reason to care about his angst over his own masculinity. He is just a man confused by his love for a confused young woman. Hemingway’s characters will live forever in my mind, as will some of the scenes in his book. Morning in Antibes, I fear, is already fading.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
January 16, 2020
Nick, a young American of Russian descent, is living on the French Riviera during the Algerian crisis of the early 1960s. He's separated from his wife Liliane, who is also there but exploring relationships with other men. As they try to reconcile their relationship they weave through a panoply of other characters: rich dilettantes, displaced Algerians, dissolute Spaniards, local aristocracy. This does a good job of capturing a time and place, I suppose, but it seemed dated and too obtuse. I never could get into it.
September 24, 2011
A story of the "lost generation" reminiscent of Hemingway, but with lyrical descriptions more like F. Scott Fitzgerald.
June 27, 2021
Weird but it’s John Knowles so I dug it
December 25, 2012
Pleasant enough reading.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews