Teoria niegrzecznej dziewczynki

by Hubert Haddad

Dziewiętnastowieczna Ameryka. Margaret i Kate Fox (postacie autentyczne) wychowują się w farmerskiej rodzinie na prowincji. W starym domu, do którego się przeprowadzają, Kate nawiązuje kontakt z duchem. Mr Splitfoot – jak go nazwała – przychodzi na każde wezwanie. Wieść rozchodzi się po okolicy. Medialne zdolności sióstr stają się zajęciem dochodowym. Rodzina przenosi się do Nowego Jorku, a Stany ogarnia fala seansów spirytystycznych…

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 2, 2014

About the author

Hubert Abraham Haddad est né à Tunis le 10 mars 1947, d'un père tunisien d'origine judéo-berbère et d'une mère d'origine algérienne, née Guedj. Après avoir vécu à Sfax, Bône et Tunis, ses parents émigrent à Paris en 1950. Écrivain, Hubert Haddad commence à publier à la fin des années soixante, d'abord dans des revues. Il fonde lui-même plusieurs revues de littérature, comme Le Point d'Être, revue littéraire, ou Le Horla. Très vite, il investit tous les genres littéraires, à commencer par la poésie avec Le Charnier déductif (Debresse, 1968). La nouvelle et le roman tiennent la plus grande part de sa production, avec d'un côté les Nouvelles du jour et de la nuit (deux coffrets de cinq volumes chacun rassemblant soixante nouvelles) et de l'autre une vingtaine de romans comme L'Univers, premier roman-dictionnaire paru en 1999 chez Zulma et réédité en édition augmentée en 1999, ou encore Palestine (Prix des cinq continents de la francophonie 2008, Prix Renaudot Poche 2009). Par ailleurs dramaturge et historien d'art, Hubert Haddad est aussi peintre (expositions à Paris, Chaumont en Champagne, Châlons, Orléans, Marrakech) et à l'occasion illustrateur. Il a publié de nombreux essais, comme Saintes-Beuveries (José Crti, 1989), Les Scaphandriers de la rosée (Fayard, 2002), ainsi qu'une somme encyclopédique en deux volumes sur la passion littéraire et les techniques d'écriture : Le Nouveau Magasin d'écriture (2006) et Le Nouveau Nouveau Magasin d'écriture (2007). Sous le pseudonyme de Hugo Horst, il anime depuis 1983 la collection de poésie Double Hache aux éditions Bernard Dumerchez. Il publie aussi des romans noirs, avec un personnage récurrent, l'inspecteur Luce Schlomo (Tango chinois). Hubert Haddad est un des acteurs de la Nouvelle fiction.

Reviews

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this novel through a Goodreads Giveaway. Thanks, Goodreads!

I wanted to love this book. I'm fascinated by mediums and spiritualism, especially the American roots of the movement. I enjoyed a the fictional take on the Fox sisters and the time period.

Despite my interesr in the topic, I had a tough time getting into the book. The rhythm of the language was often clunky; I was over aware of the wording, which pulled me out of the story. There were moments, however, where I was fully engrossed--when the sisters first experience phenomena, for example, and Kate's time with Mr. Livermore. I just wish the whole book read like those few moments.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

HALLELUJAH! I FINALLY FINISHED THIS BOOK!

Wow. Rochester Knockings was pretty terrible. I was excited to read it, because I was a history major in college and I live in (and love) Rochester. I knew of the Fox sisters and thought a neat work of fiction about them would be quite enjoyable. Sadly, it wasn't. I'm not sure if the original text was bad, or if something is very much lost in translation, but this little novel was exceedingly difficult to read. The language is clunky. It's verbose. Some of it is written from a childlike perspective that doesn't seem to add much to things. I think the novel also struggles with being a novel. It wants to stick to the truth, and has so little plot it almost feels like it's nonfiction. You could have done so much more with this, Haddad, if you just let it be fiction! Instead, we're stuck drudging through the lives of the three Fox sisters.

It's cool to see Rochester in the 1800s; I never knew what a bleak ending the Fox sisters had. Those are about the only two positives I have to take away from this reading experience. Don't bother with this one, folks.

[Ferris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book for two reasons. First, I read and love all Open Letter publications to date. Secondly,I plan on attending a release party for this book in a couple of days and received a complimentary copy prior to the event which will include a reading by the translator and other activities with the spiritualist theme. Yikes! Imagine my surprise when I encountered this poorly written novel. The story is based on fact, the Fox sisters from Rochester and their being the impetus for the Spiritualist Movement. I do not know whether the problem is with the author's writing or the translation. However, the choppy, awkward narrative was very difficult to read. I am disappointed in this, the first publication which elicits only frustration.

[Claire Le Mycélium · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un très beau style, mais une histoire étrange à laquelle je n'ai pas accrochée. Déçue, je n'ai pas compris où l'auteur voulait en venir.

http://chroniquesdunchatdebibliothequ...

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to read this book. I wanted to like this book. The topic and setting was very much of interest to me. But this book has some serious flaws. I can't tell if the translation is bad or if there's something seriously lost across cultures or if the writing is just bad. The first third of the book is very confusing. Each chapter is written from a different perspective, but it's unclear what the perspective is. There's random characters introduced that are never explained. The book jumps between chapters that are written like an academic historical monograph, chapters that are excerpts from a child's diary, and chapters that are fictional narrative. It felt like the author found a bunch of random pieces of history about a variety of people from western NY in the mid 1800s and crafted a story to include as many of them as possible even when the people aren't relevant to the overall plot. There are a few chapters towards the end of the book that have parts that are nicely written and interesting, but these pieces of poetry are very few and far between. Skip this book and hope that a better version of this story is told elsewhere.

[Yampersand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una novela muy muy bien escrita, con capítulos cortos, que recrea de manera principal la vida de las dos hermanas Kate y Margaret, y en general, la de su familia y su relación con el nacimiento del espiritismo americano. Paralelamente, asistimos a los pasos de la sociedad americana en la segunda mitad del s. XIX, donde inmigrantes ricos y pobres, nativos americanos, sectas y ideas religiosas puritanas exportadas de Europa, empresarios, soldados solitarios y hastiados de las guerras, ferias y espectáculos,...todos se dan cabida en la nueva tierra a conquistar. El escritor recrea ese mundo con una gran riqueza de imágenes y un detallismo preciso y rico.

¿Y qué pasó con las hermanas? Decir que la novela se basa en hechos reales en la idea general; No sé hasta dónde llegan todos los datos señalados en la novela, pero precisamente, un dato real, el último quizás de toda esta historia, sí está cambiado en la novela. ¿Cuál? Para eso, habrá que leerla e investigar un poco.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was exactly what I needed right now. It won't be for everyone. There is no plot. Things just happen. Few characters exhibit self-determination, and the ones who do are incidental to the main story. But the writing is beautiful, even in translation. (There were a couple of times when I read a sentence and had absolutely no idea what the author was saying, but these didn't impair my understanding of the events unfolding.) The details were lovingly researched and used to portray a fairly diverse population, though there were no indigenous or POC points-of-view presented. The author incorporated contemporary lyrics throughout, which reinforced my sense of the story as primarily musical, not narrative.

[Abby Kolstee · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to enjoy this book. I’m from Rochester and enjoy Spiritualism as much as the next gal, but I STRUGGLED to read more than a paragraph at a time. Maybe it was the translation to English or maybe this just wasn’t made for me but I really could not keep up with constant characters being introduced for no relevance and the switching of writing about the Fox sisters versus the overall climate of the world at that point.

[Maddie Curtright · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had the potential to be so interesting because the story it’s based off it so fascinating, but unfortunately this book is what you would get if you put a dictionary in a food processor and stuck it back together. The language was so dense, each paragraph took a century to read, and I could barely comprehend more than the broadest outline of the story. I could not be happier to be done. Phew

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only read about a third of this book. It's truly awful and I can't waste any more of my time on it.

[Michelle Mullens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating story marred by terrible writing. Not sure if it’s bad French & that’s all the translator had to work with or just bad translation.

[Maddie · Rating 1 out of 5]

It takes a special talent to write such a boring book about such fascinating topic. There is no story, nothing interesting or fascinating, nothing worth reading. Utter waste of paper and my time.

[Regulus☪️Black♏ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf na 70%
Starsznie to nudne,niczego niewnosząca historia o duchach,spirytyźmie i dwóch dziewczynkach...Ciekawsza będzie wizyta u wróżki

[Tonymess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spiritualism, another subject I know nothing about. Like most I know of those people who claim to be able to contact spirits, but the huge following it achieved in the 1800’s, the role that the Fox sisters played in the movement and the sensation that the women caused by running public shows where they “communicated” with spirits was something I knew nothing about. Step up Algerian writer Hubert Haddad, who writes in French, to give me a learning of the spiritualism movement.

Our fictional account of the Fox sisters opens with vivid descriptions of the 1800’s in the United States;

We arrived in the village without knowing any of its dramas. But children are quick to reveal everything to you. Lilly told me of the unfortunate Joe-Charlie Joe, the son of a former slave of a Mansfield ranch, who was hung form a great oak in Grand Meadow for taking a walk in the valley with the beautiful Emily. Before committing their crime, the lynchers would have obtained her vow that he had kissed her. If every stolen kiss of the young warranted the rope, there’d be none of us left to marry. It’s true, not everyone is black. The beautiful Emily Mansfield was full of remorse. Because of her, a black man hardly twenty years old went to heaven with a kiss for his last rite of Viaticum.

The date March 31,1848 is often set as the beginning of the spiritualist movement, as on that date, Kate and Margaret Fox reported that they had made contact with a spirit, the spirit making loud rapping noises, witnessed by onlookers. Early on in the novel the young sisters, Maggie and Kate, move with their mother and father to Rochester, into a house that creaks and moans and is rumoured to be haunted.

For my full review go to http://messybooker.blogspot.com.au/20...

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rich in historical detail, Rochester Knockings novelizes the rise and fall of the Fox sisters. When the youngest Fox sister talks to the spirit of Charles Haynes who was murdered in their family home, the girls become famous as spiritualists. They move to NYC and are eventually exposed as frauds but many people believe in them. They were considered the founders of modern spiritualism.

[Mary Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

The translation of this book was so confusing that i had to stop reading it. I was sorry about this as it's set in Rochester, the translator is a UR professor and the press is based at the UR, but it really needed another serious round of checking, editing, translating.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

The prose can be strangely awkward (which may just be the translation) but overall I found this fictionalization of the lives of the Fox Sisters quite engrossing.

The Eastman Theatre wasn't built until 1920, though.

[Bernard Pauwels · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boeiende materie maar iets te veel literatuur waardoor de spankracht uit het verhaal gehaald wordt. Het onderwerp (ontdekking en opkomst van het spiritisme) vraagt niet om poëtische sfeerscheppingen en beschrijvingen waar de auteur zich nogal aan bezondigt.

[Agnieszka Kalus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dobry temat, ale wykonanie bardzo średnie.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating:3.5 stars

[Gin Jenny (Reading the End) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not enough ghosts!