Didier van Cauwelaert est un romancier et dramaturge français, né d'une famille d'origine belge.
Didier van Cauwelaert is a French novelist and playwright with Belgian roots.
Well-known French writer Didier van CAUWELAERT has some very big literary successes in his portfolio.
From the age of 8 he dreamed of taking up a pen to become independent and feed his family.
After devoting several years to theatre, to playing Sartre and directing Beckett, Anouilh, Ionesco, and after a brief career as a children's book critic, a chance meeting with a certain Greta GARBO got his foot in the door.
In 1982 he published (at last) his first book “Vingt ans et des poussières” with Editions du Seuil, just after his 22nd birthday. He would reach an ever wider public with every new book.
Awarded the Prix Goncourt in 1994 for “Un aller simple” (One way) this voracious writer let his imagination run rife and arrived at the pinnacle of his career.
An extraordinary author, Didier van CAUWELAERT has sold over 5 million copies and been translated into 30 different languages.
Films have been made of several of his books: “Un aller simple”, “Hors de moi” adapted for film as “Sans identité” and “J’ai perdu Albert” taken from his novel of the same name.
His latest work “La bienveillance est une arme absolue” (goodwill is the ultimate weapon) takes the mind to new horizons.
The ultimate weapon, a weapon to shock, to create joy, goodwill is the only answer to the moral crisis in which society finds itself.
Bof, ni remuée, ni émue, ni convertie... Je retiens l'histoire d'une Européenne qui débarque au Mexique et qui pos des jugements sur tout ce qui n'est pas européen...
The ingredients are all there: an intriguing idea for a plot, well-flowing prose and even some humour sprinkled here and there, yet none of this ever clicks together. Maybe it's the thoroughly unappealing protagonist with a depth of a cardboard cut-out that fails to cement the story, or maybe I went in expecting something more in the vein of Firbank's The Flower Beneath the Foot, or maybe Bolaño's By Night in Chile. Overall, the whole novel just feels more like a work of a skilled artisan just writing another book; it lacks a spark.
Note on the Polish translation: for some unfathomable reason, the text is scarred with translator's footnotes which either explain some foreign terms like "mariachis" or "tilma" - terms which are also sufficiently explained within the same sentence they appear in - or provide translation of the few Spanish words appearing in the original. While the first type is self-evidently unnecessary, the second type of notes actually goes against the grain of text, since the French first person narrator repeatedly speaks of alienation and lack of any foothold in Mexico, where everything from customs to the language seems so foreign to her. Yet, the Polish readers are comfortably furnished with gratuitous translations as if they were not to be trusted with following the narrator down the Mexican rabbit hole. Not to mention that one of these footnotes provides a completely butchered translation of a cemetery sign which reads El Panteon Civil: it is translated into a grandiose Civil Panteon, when just a quick check in a dictionary shows that panteon in Latin America means cemetery; the phrase simply means a municipal cemetery.
Como novela no está mal, es entretenida y juega con el tipo de polémicas sobre la Iglesia características de Dan Brown, se nota que sigue su estilo. Pero me parece muy poco trabajado el papel de la protagonista, que incluso finalmente pierde ese carácter de personaje principal. Y me parece muy triste el tipo de persona que representan, anclada en su pasado, torturada, "que se ha dejado", solo pendiente de su trabajo y con una casa inmensa que era de su madre y que solo usa dos habitaciones... es un personaje con el que en lugar de empatizar, apetece darle consejo. Y el "espíritu" del tal Juan Diego aprovecha este filón, haciéndole mansplaining todo el rato, opinando sobre cómo debería ella vivir su vida...
Un fouillis de passages mélangeant les états d'âme d'une ophtalmo célibataire endurcie, descriptions désobligeantes des us et coutumes du Mexique, diatribes pour et contre la religion, détails barbants sur la hiérarchie politique au Vatican, et, cerise sur le gâteau, la voix désincarnée de l'esprit de Juan Diego qui tente d'échapper à sa canonisation imminente!
C'est trop répétitif, et surtout, pour les passages à la voix du futur saint, très agaçant à lire.
Heureusement, ça tient en 213 pages. Vite lu, vite oublié.
“Quel est l’interet des religions au regard de l’évolution ? Fournir un code de conduite, des bases de réflexion, un message d’espoir et des conseils d’hygiène. Le reste, c’est de l’abus de pouvoir. ”
Enquête commanditée par le Vatican sur une Audi que de saint Un ophmatologue. Dois montrer que les symboles visibles sur l’image de l’œil du sujet sont de simples taches . de son étude dépend la canonisation de ce saint . curieux histoire avec eux relance de Davene six code
Entretenida, pero me dejó la sensación de muchas vertientes mal desarrolladas, como de algo demasiado superfluo para los temas que toca. Además, con la excepción del padre Abrigón, los demás personajes no se hacen simpáticos. Lo rescatable es que se basa en un hecho real.