صبية طيبون

by Patrick Modiano, باتريك موديانو, دانيال صالح (مترجم)

بهذه الرّواية وبأعمالٍ أخرى مسكونة ببحثٍ مشابهٍ فرضَ موديانو نفسه باعتباره روائيَّ فردوس الطفولة المفقود. في أعماله الأخرى صوّر أثر هذا الفقدان عليه وعلى شقيقه الأوحد الذي رحل مبكّراً. في الكتاب الحاليّ يتّسع المنظور ليشمل جيلاً كاملاً، جيل رفاقه في أيّام الدّرس، يعود إليهم بعد عشرين عاماً، ليصورّهم في عالَم المدرسة الداخليّة، ثمّ يرينا ما آلوا إليه.

في بحثٍ مشبوبٍ وتعاطفٍ أثير، يرسم هذه المسارات المعتكرة في أغلبها، ويستعيدها بتكتّمٍ من خلال حفنة شخصيّات وبضعة نماذج دالّة من زملائه وأساتذته. زملاء من جنسيّات وأصول شتّى، يجمعهم كلَّهم كونُهم مهجورين، شبه منسيّين من قبلِ آباءٍ أثرياء أو مدّعي ثراءٍ أو محتالين، مشبوهين عموماً، عهدوا بهم إلى المدرسة وغابوا عنهم. إليهم يعود الروائيّ في كتابة تتناوب فيها ذكريات أيّام الدرّس وتصوير أوضاعهم المتباينة والمتشابهة بعد عشرين عاماً، هبَّ للبحث عنها ممارِساً كتابة موضوعيّة كالعادة وفنّاً في «الرّيبورتاج» رفيعاً

Genres: Fiction, France, French Literature, Literature, Historical Fiction, Nobel Prize, Novels

303 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Patrick Modiano is a French-language author and playwright and winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature.

He is a winner of the 1972 Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française, and the 1978 Prix Goncourt for his novel "Rue des boutiques obscures".

Modiano's parents met in occupied Paris during World War II and began a clandestine relationship. Modiano's childhood took place in a unique atmosphere: with an absent father -- of which he heard troubled stories of dealings with the Vichy regime -- and a Flemish-actress mother who frequently toured. His younger brother's sudden death also greatly influenced his writings.

While he was at Henri-IV lycee, he took geometry lessons from writer Raymond Queneau, who was a friend of Modiano's mother. He entered the Sorbonne, but did not complete his studies.

Queneau, the author of "Zazie dans le métro", introduced Modiano to the literary world via a cocktail party given by publishing house Éditions Gallimard. Modiano published his first novel, "La Place de l’Étoile", with Gallimard in 1968, after having read the manuscript to Raymond Queneau. Starting that year, he did nothing but write.

On September 12, 1970, Modiano married Dominique Zerhfuss. "I have a catastrophic souvenir of the day of our marriage. It rained. A real nightmare. Our groomsmen were Queneau, who had mentored Patrick since his adolescence, and Malraux, a friend of my father. They started to argue about Dubuffet, and it was like we were watching a tennis match! That said, it would have been funny to have some photos, but the only person who had a camera forgot to bring a roll of film. There is only one photo remaining of us, from behind and under an umbrella!" (Interview with Elle, 6 October 2003). From their marriage came two girls, Zina (1974) and Marie (1978).

Modiano has mentioned on Oct 9, 2014, during an interview with La Grande Librairie, that one of the books which had a great impact on his writing life was 'Le cœur est un chasseur solitaire' (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter), the first novel published by Carson McCullers in 1940.

(Arabic: باتريك موديانو)

Reviews

[Issa Deerbany · Rating 4 out of 5]

اُسلوب هاديا وراقي، يجعلك تحب ان تتابع الأحداث في القصةًلتصل الى نهايتهاًباسلوب سردي جميل.

باتريك موديانو الفائز بجائزة نوبل للاداب لعام ٢٠١٤. يستعرض لنا في هذه الرواية مجموعة زملاءه ومعلميه في اثناء الدراسة ومقابلته لهم بعد التقدم في العمر وما فعلت بهم الايام.

الشخصيات في القصص بمرحلة الطفولة او المراهقة رائعة تحبها من خلال الوصف الذي يقدمها في مطلع كل قصة. ثم يبدأ في سرد ما وصلت به الحال بعد ان تجاوز الثلاثين وكيف أصبحت شخصيته ويترك لك الحكم في ان تحبه او تكرهه.

[Το Άθχημο γατί του θενιόρ Γκουαναμίρου · Rating 5 out of 5]

Διάβασα το «Ήταν όλοι τους τόσο καλά παιδιά»

Το βιβλίο αποτελείται από 175 σελίδες. Τα περισσότερα έργα του συγγραφέα κυμαίνονται σε αυτό το μέγεθος. Αναφέρεται στους μαθητές ενός σχολείου – οικοτροφείου αρρένων, το Κολέγιο Βαλβέρ που βρίσκεται σε ένα όμορφο προάστιο του Παρισιού. Δέντρα, φύση, ένα ποτάμι, χαλικόστρωτες αλέες.

Οι μαθητές γεννημένοι στα 1945, συνεπώς η εποχή της φοίτησής τους τοποθετείται κάπου στα τέλη της δεκαετίας του 50 με αρχές του 60. Ωστόσο υπάρχουν διάφορα φλας μπακ που μας μεταφέρουν στα χρόνια λίγο πριν και κατά την διάρκεια του Β΄ Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου καθώς και στα χρόνια μετά την αποφοίτηση των αγοριών. Δεν υπάρχει ένας συγκεκριμένος αφηγητής αλλά το κάθε κεφάλαιο αναφέρεται σε ένα συγκεκριμένο μαθητή. Σαν μικρά διηγήματα δηλαδή με έναν κοινό πυρήνα.

Πέρα από το Κολέγιο Βαλβέρ κυρίαρχη θέση στην ζωή των νεαρών παίζει το Παρίσι. Ο συγγραφέας το περιγράφει με μια διάθεση νοσταλγίας, άλλοτε με χρώματα θολά, σκιασμένα από την ομίχλη της λήθης άλλοτε ολοζώντανο όπως διασώζεται μέσα από τις αναμνήσεις που εντυπώνονται ανεξίτηλα στο μυαλό.

Η γραφή του είναι κομψή, ο τρόπος που περιγράφει τις τοποθεσίες, την εμφάνιση των ηρώων του (εστιάζοντας σε μικρές λεπτομέρειες, όπως πχ η μυρωδιά των τσιγάρων, το χρώμα των μαλλιών και των ματιών, τις καιρικές συνθήκες που συνόδευαν ένα συγκεκριμένο περιστατικό) θυμίζει κάτι από την ενδοσκοπική διάθεση του Μαρσέλ Προυστ. Μόνο που ο Προυστ είναι λεπτολόγος που φωτίζει και την παραμικρή πτυχή, ενώ ο Μοντιανό αφήνει να φανούν μονάχα τα κομμάτια ενός ανολοκλήρωτου παζλ, ψηφίδες από περασμένες και τωρινές πραγματικότητες.

Υπάρχου παντού αναπάντητα ερωτηματικά, άλυτα μυστήρια, περιοχές σκοτεινές, κι ο αναγνώστης καλείται να συμπληρώσει τα σημεία που δεν φωτίζονται. Ο αναγνώστης θα μπορούσε να γράψει άλλες 175 σελίδες περιγράφοντας τις δικές του εκδοχές, δίνοντας την δική του συνέχεια εκεί ακριβώς που διακόπτει την αφήγησή του ο συγγραφέας.

Ένα από τα θέματα του έργου καταπιάνεται με το ζήτημα του «Τί απέγινε». Όταν τα χρόνια περνούν και οι άνθρωποι χάνονται, μια τυχαία συνάντηση πυροδοτεί την ανάγκη να γεμίσουμε τα κενά. «Τί έκανες τόσο καιρό, αγαπητέ, χαμένε φίλε;». Ένα άλλο θέμα έχει να κάνει με το «Τί συνέβη πριν γεννηθώ». Πόσο καλά ξέρουμε το παρελθόν της οικογένειάς μας; Πόσοι σκελετοί κρύβονται μέσα στις αραχνιασμένες ντουλάπες της οικογενειακής μας ιστορίας;

Οι περισσότεροι μαθητές στις εξόδους τους επιστρέφουν στις οικογένειές τους που ζουν συνήθως στο 16ο arrondissement του Παρισιού, μια περιοχή που ζουν οι πλούσιοι. Αυτό από μόνο του δηλώνει πολλά. Πως μπορεί κάποιος να βγαίνει πλούσιος μετά από έναν μεγάλο και καταστροφικό πόλεμο; Και τι σημαίνει να μεγαλώνει ένα παιδί σε ένα περιβάλλον νεόπλουτων και συχνά κομπλεξικών ανθρώπων, κάπως αμοράλ και κάπως δήθεν, μπον βιβέρ και υποκριτών; Ανεμομαζώματα διαβολοσκορπίσματα…

Όπως λέει και ο συγγραφέας: «Δυστυχώς όλους εμάς τους παλιούς του Βαλβέρ μας ταλαιπωρούσαν κατά καιρούς ανεξήγητες μελαγχολίες και εκρήξεις θλίψης, που ο καθένας πάσχιζε να αντιμετωπίσει με τον τρόπο του. Όλοι μας είχαμε μια «βίδα» όπως έλεγε συχνά ο καθηγητής μας της χημείας, ο κ. Λαφόρ»

Χαίρομαι που ο Μοντιανό πήρε το Νόμπελ, γιατί φοβάμαι πως διαφορετικά δεν θα μου είχε δοθεί η ευκαιρία να τον διαβάσω. Τα όσα λέει μέσα στα έργα του έχουν αξία και ενδιαφέρον. Αλλά το κλειδί βρίσκεται σε όσα δεν λέει, σε όσα υπαινίσσεται και αποσιωπά, αφήνοντας στον αναγνώστη την ευθύνη να τα ψάξει. Κι όσο για το πώς τα λέει… Απλά υπέροχος.

[Eric Byrd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contrary to the jacket flap summary, this isn’t a boys boarding school novel, thank god. The school is just a convenient mustering point, from which the serial narrators follow each other back to the traumas of Occupied Paris, and to even murkier places. It’s as much about the parents as the boys. Very elegant and spooky. Tragedies just out of frame. Few fathers, and stylish, though benumbed mothers. Grandeur “with a whiff of ruin.” Mood-mates: Ballard’s Empire of the Sun and Maxwell’s The Chateau.

[Maria Bikaki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Σας εχω πει ότι τα καλύτερα διαβάσματα τα κάνω στην τράπεζα; Η ουρά είναι μεγάλη, έχεις πάρει απόφαση ότι θα φας τα νιάτα σου εκεί οπότε αράζεις στην καρεκλίτσα σου, παίρνεις το βιβλιαράκι σου και έχει ο Θεός. Αυτή την τύχη είχε και το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο του Μοντιάνο, το τρίτο κατά σειρά που διαβάζω μέσα σε διάστημα λίγων ημερών.
Λυπηρό και αρκετά ενδιαφέρον ανάγνωσμα που πατάει πάνω στις βασικές συγγραφικές αρχές που συναντάει κανείς στα βιβλία του συγγραφέως πάντα με φόντο ένα καλοστημένο παριζιάνικο σκηνικό και την δύναμη της ανάμνησης σε πρώτο πλάνο. Καλό, χωρίς να καταφέρει ωστόσο να μου δημιουργήσει κάποια έκρηξη συναισθημάτων.

[غيث الحوسني · Rating 3 out of 5]

إذا كنت تجهل موديانو وتجهل أشياء كثيرة عنه، لا عليك، لا يبدو ذلك مخجلاً، خصوصا بعدما أثارت وزيرة الثقافة الفرنسية فلور بيلوران، ضجة عندما عجزت عن تسمية عنوان كتاب واحد له لدى وسائل الإعلام الذي جعلها في موقف محرج وغبي، وكانت فلور بيلوران قالت قبل ذلك إنها تناولت طعام الغداء مع الكاتب.... وزيرة الثقافة الفرنسية اي والله !

هناك ملاحظتين قد تدفعك لقراءة روايات باتريك موديانو الأولى إنه الوريث الأبرز لمارسيل بروست في كتابة الرواية والثانية هي فوزه بجائزة نوبل للآداب عام 2014 واعتقد أنه سيكون الكاتب التقليدي الأخير في قائمة الجائزة بعدما رأينا فوز سفيتلانا وبوب ديلان.

وفي أول لقاء له بعد فوزه بجائزة نوبل قال له المحاور: عند فوزك بالجائزة قلت إن ذلك غريب؟ فأجاب: في الحياة أحداث كثيرة يمكن أن تفاجئ المرء بشكل تجعله كالسائر في المنام. لا يدرك تماما ما حدث، فيواصل السير. ذلك النوع من الغرابة هو الذي حاولت وصفه. ثمة دائما نوع من العتمة أمام مؤلفاتك، لأنك تنظر إليها من مسافة قريبة جدا. هذا الرجل الذي خرج إلى العالم بكتاباته من شوارع باريس الخلفية يقف على طرفي نقيض مع الأدب العربي في الصخب واللغة المزخرفة والجمل الغنية بعكس لغته الهادئة المباشرة التي تعتمد على الأسلوبه الأليف الأمر الذي يجعل من قراءته ضرورة للقارىء العربي .

يبدو على موديانو في هدوئه السردي أن هناك رواية فخمة، كل شيء فيها قصير، فالجملة لديه تقتصر على الجوهر، دون أن يكسيها مظاهر مترفة من الكلمات والصور، ببساطة يتخلى موديانو عن كل ما لا نحتاج إليه ومع ذلك هناك شعريةٌ ما تحافظ على نفسها بشكل أنيق مشحونة بالتذكر والعودة إلى المشاهد القديمة في المخيلة.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Γαλλικής λογοτεχνίας η συνέχεια, με ένα βιβλίο για τις αναμνήσεις του αφηγητή (του συγγραφέα;) από το σχολείο του και τη μοίρα των συμμαθητών του, οι οποίοι ήταν όλοι τους τόσο καλά παιδιά (και σίγουρα αξίζουν μια πάστα!)

Η μοίρα των καλών παιδιών δεν ήταν κοινή για όλους: κάποιοι πέτυχαν, άλλοι τα έκαναν σαλάτα, ο 2ος Παγκόσμιος Πόλεμος που ακολούθησε μπέρδεψε κάπως τα πράγματα - ιδίως για τους Εβραίους - κάποια παιδιά δεν έγιναν άντρες (με την έννοια ότι παρέμειναν μ@λ@κισμέν@ κακομαθημένα 15χρονα, δεν υπάρχει νύξη ομοφυλοφιλίας), άλλοι ανέλαβαν τις ευθύνες τους, άλλοι έζησαν μποέμικα, ενώ κάποια όνειρα δεν πραγματοποιήθηκαν με τον τρόπο που φαντάζονταν!

Ενδιαφέρον βιβλίο, απολαύστε το τρώγοντας μια πάστα!!!

[Nikos Tsentemeidis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Είχα καιρό να διαβάσω Modiano και το απόλαυσα. Νομίζω το καλύτερο του, απ' όσα έχω μέχρι στιγμής διαβάσει.

Όπως σε κάθε βιβλίο του οι περιγραφές από το Παρίσι είναι πανέμορφες. Η διαφορά με τα υπόλοιπα, είναι ότι εστιάζει πιο πολύ στους χαρακτήρες.

Π��όκειται για τις αναμνήσεις που ξυπνάνε στον πρωταγωνιστή όταν τυχαία συναντάει έναν παλιό του καθηγητή από το σχολείο. Όμορφες παιδικές αναμνήσεις από την παιδική - σχολική ηλικία μετά από πολλά χρόνια.

Σαν να μου θύμισε πόσο ωραία και αθώα ήταν η παιδική ηλικία.

Αξίζει πολύ, ιδίως στους μη θαυμαστές του συγγραφέα, ακριβώς επειδή διαφέρει από τα υπόλοιπα του έργα.

[Roger Brunyate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whatever Happened to . . . ?

"Charell, McFowles, Desoto, Newman, Karvé, Moncef el Okbi, Corcueta, Archibald, Firouz, Monterey, Coemtzopoulos, who was half-Greek and half-Ethiopian…". Another list of names, a cosmopolitan mixture of the ordinary and outré. Typical Modiano? No, actually, not quite. For these are some of the pupils at the Valvert School, a boarding prep school that the narrator attends for some years around 1960. Despite being called a novel, this 1982 book is better seen as a collection of a dozen short stories, with a prologue and epilogue. All but two of the stories gives a glimpse into the life of one or other of these school friends, five, ten, or twenty years on. And although Modiano is no more than a narrator or observer in these stories, and only twice identifies himself by name, the implication is that this is his story too. Why should he be any more able to escape the malaise and loss of identity that seems to have afflicted all the young princes of his generation, born in the years immediately after the War?

I said "all but two of these stories"; let’s look first at the two exceptions. One of them (Chapter VIII) is about a former star athlete known as Johnny for his resemblance to Johnny Weissmuller, the original Tarzan; we never know his real name. He refuses his mother’s invitation to accompany her to America, feeling that he is on top of the world in Paris. But that is before the War and the Occupation…. The story seems a tiny sketch for Modiano’s masterpiece Dora Bruder, but it is nonetheless effective in its brevity. The other exception is Chapter IV, narrated by an unnamed older alumnus of Valvert, telling of his time (during the Occupation, I believe) as tutor to a small girl called Little Jewel, who is forced into films by her mother, a mysterious "Countess" who appears to lead a busy social life of her own. As fellow-Nobelist JMG Le Clézio points out in his introduction, much of the story is unusually tender for Modiano, despite the coldness of the mother. The author would take up the girl’s story again in his 2001 novel Little Jewel, now showing her as a young adult cast adrift.

Characters like Jewel’s mother, socialites of uncertain origins who are none too scrupulous about how they make their money, are found elsewhere in Modiano’s work, and there are at least two other examples here. Chapter VII has an even more disturbing example of a beautiful young woman, a childhood playmate of the narrator’s and sister of one of his school friends, who looks as though she might be destined to fall into the same pattern. And Chapter X shows a man and woman caught in the net together. Alain Charell and his wife Suzanne have a nice house in Neuilly, but live a mysterious after-dark life in the seedy area around the Gare du Nord. Charell keeps saying "I’ll explain," but he never does, and the story moves more deeply into the author’s characteristic noir domain than any other in the book. I was not surprised to see that the story was made into a short film.

But for the most part, the stories concern the fates of individual young men whom the narrator know at school. As might be expected of prep-school alumni, most of them come from wealthy families and are able to live lives of luxury after graduation. But these tend to go nowhere. Two of the stories (Chapters III and VI) end in mental illness:

    We, the veterans of Valvert, were prone to inexplicable bouts of melancholy, waves of sadness that we tried to ward off each in our own way. As our chemistry teacher Mr. Lafaure used to say, we all had a touch of it.

But the one I like best, because its ending sneaks up on you unawares, is Chapter V. It is about a young man called Philippe Yotlande who is already a known face on the Champs Elysées by the time he is expelled from school at 18, a reputation that is clinched a year later when he appears in the paper with the [real] Danish film star Annette Stroyberg. But time passes, and before you know it…. I want to quote the last few lines as an example of the relative lightness and clarity of this novel as compared to Modiano’s more usual shadows, but will do so in a spoiler for those who want to find out for themselves.

    A few tables away, a girl of about twenty was sitting with a gray-haired man, who held his head high and looked like a gentleman rider, with an official decoration on his lapel. Her grandfather, thought Yotlande. The man stood up and walked into the café, leaning on a cane.
    The girl remained alone at the table. She was blonde, with bangs and high cheekbones. She was drinking grenadine through a straw.
    Yotlande stared at her. She looked like his Belgian ex-fiancée.
    What if, taking advantage of her grandfather's momentary absence, he went over to introduce himself and make a date, bowing, as if inviting the woman to dance?
    He watched her drink her grenadine. He had turned thirty-eight in June, but still could not entirely reconcile himself to he fact that the world was not an endless party.

So what’s the verdict? It is true that this is a unique work in Modiano’s oeuvre, as Le Clézio suggests, showing many of his themes developing in miniature. It is lighter in texture, and so perhaps attractive to first-time readers. But by the same token, it lacks Modiano’s characteristic ability to plunge the reader into an ever-darkening nightmare, and as such does not quite earn my fifth star.

======

Here, finally, is a set of links to my reviews of all the Modiano novels I have read so far, whether in French or English. In three instances, I have upped my rating from 5 to 6 (or in one case 7) stars, as a guide to people who may be interested, but do not know where to begin. The dates are those of original French publication:

1968 La Place de l'étoile [F, 4*]
1969 The Night Watch [E, 5*]
1972 Ring Roads [E, 5*]
1978 Rue des boutiques obscures [F, 6*]
1982 Such Fine Boys [E, 4*]
1988 Suspended Sentences [E, 4*]
1991 Flowers of Ruin [E, 4*]
1992 After the Circus [E, 3*]
1993 Afterimage [E, 4*]
1997 Dora Bruder [F, 7*]
2003 Paris Nocturne [E, 3*]
2007 Dans le café de la jeunesse perdue [F, 6*]
2012 The Black Notebook [E, 5*]
2014 So You Don't Get Lost in the Neighborhood [E, 4*]
2017 Souvenirs dormants [F, 5*]

It's a lot of books, but he wrote many more. Earlier this morning, I looked through the Modiano shelf in my local bookstore, and wrote down four that I still wanted to read. Much to my surprise, however, when I checked these against my list on Goodreads, I found that two of the four, After the Circus and Paris Nocturne, I actually had read (though not rated especially high). Read, but forgot. It would seem to play into the common idea that, as Modiano is constantly returning to the same obsessions, there is no point in reading multiple titles.

Except that the man is addictive, and even his weaker novels work their spell. Reading Such Fine Boys makes me more, not less, eager to buy the other two books I mentioned (though preferably in French): Une jeunesse (translated as Young Once) of 1981 and Pedigree of 2004. Together, they would seem to form a trilogy with Such Fine Boys in finding three quite different ways—novel, autobiography, and stories—of recapturing the experience of youth. And that, for Modiano, is the well-spring of all his work.

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3,5-4,0*)
"Και γιατί μερικοί άνθρωποι παραμένουν ώς τα γεράματά τους αιχμάλωτοι μιας εποχής, μιας και μόνο φάσης της ζωής τους, και μεταμορφώνονται σιγά σιγά σε μια ξεπεσμένη καρικατούρα αυτού που ήταν στο αποκορύφωμά τους;"

Ιστορίες απλές, ζωές και σκηνές που πλάθονται μέσα από καταστάσεις καθημερινότητας...όλες έχουν ένα κοινό σημείο αναφοράς....το κολλέγιο Βαλβέρ...και η κάθεμια από αυτές έχει και το δικό της ιδιαίτερο στοιχείο. Πολλές φορές νιώθεις πως ο συγγαφέας αφήνει την αφήγηση ανολοκλήρωτη...αναζητάς ένα ακόμη στοιχείο για να ολοκληρώσεις το παζλ του συγκεκριμένου κομματιού της ιστορίας...στοιχείο γοητείας και ιδιαιτερότητας της γραφής του Patrick Modiano. Ένας συγγραφέας και ένας αφηγητής αιώνια ονειροπόλος που βρίσκεται συνεχώς στο επίκεντρο της μάχης της λήθης με τη μνήμη, πάντα μέσα στο μουντό αλλά φιλόξενο και οικείο παριζιάνικο σκηνικό των παιδικών του χρόνων.

[Denis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be one of Modiano’s best novels, and one of his most intricate. Different characters tell stories of their youth at a boarding school – short stories, basically, that meet, and intercross, and echoes each other, stories which create, each in its own way, but also as they blend together, a diffuse, haunting landscape of memories and things lost and people gone by. Delicately crafted, here’s a novel that, quietly, very quietly, without many words, illuminates fragments of life that are like old faded pictures found in a forgotten shoe box: moving, and even sometimes heartbreaking. Modiano proves once again that he is one of the most singular and unique voice of French literature.

[K Alkaabi · Rating 3 out of 5]

قد يكون الخلل فيَّ لا أميل للروايات السردية. أو للروايات الغير مترابطة
هنا البطل أو لنقل القاص يروي لنا عن أصدقاء المدرسة بعد فراق دام ما يقارب عشرين سنة. يلتقيهم فيسرد لنا كيف كانوا في مدرسة فالفير وكيف أصبحوا في مدرسة الحياة.

14 فصل كل فصل يحكي أحد الأصدقاء.
الفصل السادس وفيليب يوتلاند أكثر ما شدني.

الترجمة جميلة في أوقات وأوقات أخرى أجدها غير مترابطة أو مملة أو قد يكون السرد ذاته ممل.
الأجمل والأمتع الهوامش تعرفنا على فرنسا تاريخياً وجغرافياً وحتى بعض العادات.

أول قراءة لموديانو، الانطباع الأول لن يشجعني للعودة إليه مرة أخرى. في النهاية تعرفت على موديانو وعلى فرنسا وعلى تاريخ تلك الفترة.

شكراً نادي أصدقاء نوبل 💙

[Comfortably · Rating 4 out of 5]

Αναμνήσεις από την εφηβική ηλικία υπό το πρίσμα του παρόντος. Το ονειρικό παρελθόν όπως φαίνεται στα μάτια του σήμερα. Το Ήταν όλοι τους τόσο καλά παιδιά.. είναι μια σειρά από ιστορίες ανθρώπων που συνυπήρξαν μαζί στο κολλέγιο Βαλβέρ. 20 χρόνια μετά ο καθένας έχει τραβήξει διαφορετικό δρόμο. Και ο Μοντιάνο, με τεχνάσματα μη γραμμικής αφήγησης, πηδάει από το παρελθόν στο παρόν χαρίζοντας στον αναγνώστη ένα μωσαϊκό αναμνήσεων και ιστοριών. Η γραφή του ρέει. Παρά το γεγονός ότι οι ιστορίες στο σύνολό τους δεν έχουν άλλο κοινό άξονα από το κολλέγιο, το διάχυτο νοσταλγικό τέμπο του Μοντιάνο κατακλύζει το κείμενο.
Ενθουσιάστηκα! Προσπάθησα να αναπαραστήσω στο μυαλό μου στιγμές απο τη δικ�� μου εφηβεία. Τι θυμάμαι? Πώς το θυμάμαι? Όσο για τούτο το βιβλίο θα ήθελα να μην τέλειωνε στις 180 σελίδες.

[George Ilsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Described on the cover as a novel but it is rather a loose collection of related stories, all flowing from shared experiences at "Valvert," an elite boarding school.

Each piece is narrated from the first person, a seemingly different person in each case, but who is mostly undisclosed. In a couple the reader can discern an actor named Edmond, but in another he is named Patrick. In the rest — who is he?? Who knows?

Many of the pieces are infused with a deft ambiguity, and the endings in particular are often perfect. Yet as a whole I felt disappointed— I was promised a novel. Of course no one can say what really is or is not a novel, so maybe I did just read a novel and am too dense, too burdened by preconceptions, to appreciate it.

So much can be attributed to my convenient density, which insulates me from a full awareness off my limitations.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alright, you’ve found me out: it’s difficult for me not to enjoy a Patrick Modiano novel. Such Fine Boys, originally published in French in 1982, is from the early years of Modiano’s almost fifty years-long career. As is typical of Modiano’s fiction, Such Fine Boys intertwines remembrance of youth, nostalgia for lost friends and places, mysteriously shifting and hidden identities, and relationships based upon deceit, all set against the insecure landscape of post-World War Two France. Such Fine Boys also recalls other Modiano novels through featuring multiple narrators recalling overlapping people and events.

Similar as Such Fine Boys is to other Modiano novels, two key differences exist. The first of these differences is that the main characters appear marginally younger than in other Modiano novels that I’ve read, and their memories are those of their mid-ten years. A second difference is that one of Modiano’s racconteurs appears to be a fictionalized version of Modiano himself, a “Patrick” who is a detective. As with Philip Roth’s and other modern novelists use of this device, we’re left to wonder if Patrick is indeed Modiano and whether he’s the real-life Modiano or an entirely fictional Modiano.

Such Fine Boys is largely set against the backdrop of occupied and Vichy France during World War Two, and then cycling forward and back through about twenty post-War years. Modiano introduces us to the eponymous boys of the title while they are teenagers in the Valvert School for Boys, an odd boarding school that serves mostly as an unthreatening holding pen for well-off notional students whose parents either live abroad or display minimal real interest in their sons. The teenagers’ parents or caretakers appear interested in their children solely as curiosities who join them for occasional weekends or holidays or, in the case of the young girl “Little Jewel”, as a potential profit center. The parents are dissolute as are the caretakers, and as the Valvert students age they too become dissolute, with identities as fleeting, as veiled, as mysterious as their parents.

The multiplicity of narrators in Such Fine Boys can confuse, as can the Rashomon-like viewing of the same people and the same situations by different narrators. Is this a feature or a bug? A feature, for the minor confusion does nothing to ruin my pleasure in reading Such Fine Boys and serves to entice me into rereading it sooner rather than later.

Some readers dismiss Modiano novels as being too similar in emotion, plot, and characters to merit Modiano’s entry into the Nobel pantheon. Yes, Modiano returns to and reworks the same themes again and again. But for me, Modiano’s treatments of his themes remind me of Bach or great jazz, with every novel bringing with it new combinations, new pleasures, and new insights. And for me, Modiano’s themes always resonant deeply. On my scale of only Modiano novels—because who else can compare?—Such Fine Boys is 4.5 rounded up to 5.

[إيمان · Rating 3 out of 5]

صعود وهبوط !
هذا ما تشبهه الرواية ببساطة مطلقة. إذا كنت تبحث عن حبكة و دائرة تشويق أو غموض، قصة حب شبقة، أو أحداث مليئة بما يجعلك تتريث لما هو بعد، لن تكون هذه الرواية المناسبة لمزاجك الحالي. هذه المرة الأولى التي أقرأ فيها للكاتب باتريك موديانو. كاتب لغته بسيطة جداً حد الاصغاء الصامت. ستشعر خلال القراءة أنك تستمع لهمس وليس لضجيج وصخب في الأفكار والمصطلحات. الرواية سردية لحدٍ بعيد وإن كان يتخللها الكثير من الحوارات، خصوصاً بين البطل (السارد) ورفقائه.

القصة تحكي بموجز شديد عن منظور متسع لشخص هو السارد، وعن حياته حينما يلتقي برفقائه بعد مرور عشرين عاماً من تجمعه معهم سابقاً في مدرسة فالفير. خلال أقسام الرواية التي تندرج لـ ١٤ فصلاً، ستجد أن كل فصل تقريباً يُسرد فيه حياة أحد الشخوص وحكايا ارتباطه به مع تقديم وصف لهذه الشخصية ، وكيف حصل لقائه المجدد مع هذه الشخصية بعد عشرين عاماً، و معظمها إن لم تكن جميعها حصلت مصادفةً. وهذا بالتحديد ما تصبو إليه الرمزية حيث المصادفات التي تجعلك تعيد فيك زمناً بعيداً كان قد مضى، وتستكمل حياة جديدة دون نسيان.

خلال الرواية ستنتبه ملياً كيف تتغير الشخوص وكيف أن مصائرهم جمعتها صفة تكاد تكون للجميع وهي الخسارة بأشكالها، وكيف أن السارد يظل كما هو عليه منذ عشرين عاماً دون أن تؤول عليه تبديلات ملحوظة. فهو لن يسرد لك ما حصل معه عن حياته الشخصية، وضع قلبه مع الحب والزواج، عائلته أو حتى أموره اليومية، سوى أنه كائن يهيم في أحلامه و أصبح بعد عشرين عاماً ممثلاً مسرحياً ولكن بدور ثانوي وبسيط. السارد يجعلك تشعر وكأنه هو أنت، بسرده المفصل. بسرده الذي يذكر فيه تفاصيل تجعلك تتخيل المواقف دون ملل.

ستجد في الرواية أسماءً عديدة لأماكن، قلاع، محطات، مصممي أزياء، الخ. وبالرغم من كثرتها، إلا أنني لم أصاب بالتعب من قراءة جميع الهوامش والتلذذ بمعرفة أمور جديدة وأحياناً استخدام (غوغل) لتوسيع الدائرة !. الكاتب مطلع على جميع منحيات العالم الباريسي والفرنسي الذي ينتمي إليه، هو مثقف وفكره عميق، الرواية مذكرة حقيقية هذا ماستشعر به لأنه يسرد المسميات الحقيقية للأحياء ولكل تفصيل لشيء محسوس.

ملحوظة: تجاهل مقدمة المراجع (ليس كلمة المترجمة) إن شعرت أنه استرسل فيها دون أن يؤنبك ضميرك. و خصوصاً لأنه كتب مراجعة تفصيلية عن كل فصل، ستجد متعة أكبر لو قرأتها بعد انتهائك من الرواية حتى لا تختلط أفكارك بأفكاره فتصير تحلل وفقاً لما قال.

[Mary Kaimatzoglou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ενώ ο νομπελίστας Πατρικ Μοντιανό έχει καλή πένα και οι ιστορίες του σε μεταφέρουν στον τόπο των γεγονότων και στις ζωές των ηρώων/πρωταγωνιστών,ωστόσο πάντα νιώθω ότι γίνεται φλύαρος χωρίς να καταφέρνει να με συγκινήσει ή να με κάνει να ανυπομονώ να γυρίσω σελίδα..

[Kyle C · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We were such fine boys", the narrator concludes. Sent to an elite Parisian boarding school, the boys in this novel are all the scions of wealthy but eccentric families. At the school, they are subjected to rigorous discipline—lights-out curfews, menial chores, meticulous room inspections, militaristic parades—but when they graduate, their lives are wholly different. One of the graduates spends his days playing tennis and has an attendant psychiatrist managing his life; another flees his family to enlist in the army; one works as the private tutor to a child actor whose mother is a rich countess, more interested in parties than parenting; another has reinvented himself, living under a new name with a single-mother who wants him to kill off her aged grandfather. The boarding school, with its unchanging rhythms and exacting regime, stands in stark opposition to the sinister libertinism of the outside world. Told as a collections of reminiscences and vignettes, the novel is a subtle and poignant showcase of frivolous wealth and delinquent adolescence.

[Lee Foust · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars is a lot for a novel of these fairly humble proportions, but it struck me pretty strongly. Also, I love Modiano's work in general, and of those I've read this was probably the most individually compelling. Formally it's interesting as a novel made up of short first person narratives from a few different voices, each focusing in on different boys from a rather odd boarding school for the rich (or so it seems) set mostly in the post-WWII years but flashing back to the war and sometimes projecting forward to encounters with the boys as adults combined with memories of their school years. All-in-all then I found the tales and character sketches quite compelling and really enjoyed the form, guessing at which character was narrating which (two are named Patrick--how postmodern) and the overall portrait of the woes of these lost boys generally ignored by their parents yet not having to suffer any of the deprivations of the lower or working classes. Thus the themes of the deadly combination of being spoiled rotten on the one hand and being utterly abandoned on the other create a kind of existential hellscape. Quietly and calmly an image of a kind of hell--or at least a purgatory is an eternal arrested melancholy stasis--gets drawn. it's both beautiful and a bit chilling at the same time.

[Candleflame23 · Rating 3 out of 5]

‏


هذه هي المرة الأولى التي التقي فيها بقلم باتريك موديانو ، عبر رواية سردية تحكي ذكريات الصبية الطيبون بعد فراق دام عشرين سنة يعود بنا الكاتب إلى لحظاتهم الأولى وحيواتهم القديمة في مدرسة فالفير ، ثم يخبرنا ماذا حل بكل واحد منهم بأسلوب سردي مختصر جدا ، راق لي كثيراً اهتمامه بنقل الصورة كامله أو المشهد كما يراه وذلك من خلال ذكره لتفاصيل الأزياء والأماكن هذه الدقة هي أكثر ما يلفت نظري بأي رواية أقرأها كما أني أحببت العاطفة هنا ، الصداقة ، أحببت فكرة أن يستعد المرء ذكريات طفولته بأشخاصها وأن طال غيابه عنهم .

رواية لم تكن سيئة . وأتمنى أن أملك الوقت الكافي لأتعرف على باتريك موديانو بشكل أكبر .
#تقيمي 3/5
#أبجدية_فرح
#حي_على_القراءة ~🌸📚
#تصويري

[nhatminh · Rating 4 out of 5]

♡

[Lisa Lieberman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vignettes, some more like character sketches than stories. While it's always intriguing to enter Modiano's world, I wouldn't recommend starting with this book.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each book I read by Patrick Modiano puts me in a rapt frame of mind. The notion that a writer who, as a child, was batted back and forth between uncaring parents (themselves rootless), made of his predicament great art in which rootlessness is a universal fact of life. Such Fine Boys is a real tour de force, as it has multiple narrators, all of them being former students at the Valvert School near Paris, and most of them being similarly alienated from parental love.

This is a technique which could easily backfire, except that Modiano retains perfect control of his boys and their stories. French novelist J M G Le Clézio writes an interesting foreword in which he says:

Over the past three decades, Patrick Modiano has built a body of work on the most consequential of themes: the theme of memory, of the ghosts that circulate through the postwar world and among its survivors.

He does not approach this theme with a polemicist's plume or avenger's sword. Rather, he treats it like a research component or analytical tool, rendering it via allusions, enigmas, measured accents. He does not offer up heroes or advance toward a goal. He proceeds by questions rather than affirmations.

[Cor T · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't a story about attending a small French boarding school for boys, it's a series of vignettes about meeting people with whom the narrator went to boarding school 20 years later. The premise of the stories is that "our school had left us completely unprepared for life." A theme of each vignette is that each wealthy, underparented boy comes of age and reaches their "peak" - such as getting expelled, or during the war, or hanging out at a particular tennis club - this is where they made their mark, thrived, and then got stuck in life, and where the narrator finds them years later, usually married to a wealthy woman after years of casting about. Inevitably there's an exchange like "what a strange slope it's been, old man," and then the vignette ends abruptly. It's not a book about abuse by schoolmasters, it's more like snapshots of a class of children growing from boys to men with school as the only structure in their affluent but dispirited lives.

[Jordan Podealuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow I finished this book last night and was blown away. This was one where I had to put myself on a daily chapter maximum to savour it, otherwise it would have been burned in a day.

Patrick Modiano brilliantly narrates the stories of boys he went to school with - classmates at the exclusive private boarding school on the outskirts of Paris called Valvert. You come to learn that these boys are troubled victims of extreme privilege. Abandoned by wealthy parents and left to navigate their own way through the world.

Each vignette morosely weaves together stories of Valvert boys who have become men that find themselves entirely ill equipped to live in this world.

They emerge into adulthood tragically damaged, still tethered to their adolescent selves, and incapable of escaping the loneliness of their nostalgic self delusion.

This book is a weighty blend of sadness, mystery, wonder, but most of all, and incredible work of fiction.

[Inge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nostalgisch, weemoedig, ongrijpbare hoofdpersonen...Modiano is altijd een klein feestje..

[Daniel Polansky]

A loose collection of reminiscences from the graduates/survivors of an expensive French boarding school, an achingly nostalgic paean to lost youth, broken innocence and the slow rot of dream. Which is to say, basically the same as every other thing I’ve read by Modiano, though here at least it was stripped of some of the narrative conventions which he tends to utilize but not abide by in his other books, resulting in a stiffer draught of pure ennui. I actually quite enjoyed it, but even his biggest fans couldn’t argue that the man paints in monochrome.

[Ali Abbas]

الرواية رائعة في نقل القارئ من مرحلة المراهقة الى مرحلة الشيخوخة مرورا سريعا بمرحلة الشباب

[Bert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was mediocre did enjoy it enough to read it through.

[Apubakr · Rating 5 out of 5]

شكراً باتريك موديانو

[Chóe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ôi cuốn sách nhỏ này làm tôi buồn quá.

***
Cuốn sách là những cuộc gặp gỡ nhiều năm sau khi ra trường. Hiện tại và quá khứ của những cậu trai niên thiếu từng học ở trường trung học Valvert, của những thầy giáo cũ, đan xen thành một bức tranh chỉ một màu xám xịt như bầu trời Paris vậy. Tất cả đều bị cuốn đi theo dòng đời bất định, vô thường và nghiệt ngã.

Patrick (tác giả) trở thành người viết tiểu thuyết.
Claude Emond trở thành diễn viên.
Michel Karvé khai gian tuổi để đăng lính.
Mc Fowles và nỗi ám ảnh về biển, chết quãng tuổi 30 trong một cuộc thi xe đạp lòng máng.
Yotlande lãng quên đời mình trong những tiệc tùng chỉ dành cho những thanh niên mới vào đời. Và chỉ sống mãi trong giây phút đó mà thôi.
Martine, em gái của Yvon, chia tay tuổi thơ ngây bằng một cuộc tình với một lão già lừa đảo.
Johnny - huyền thoại của trường - đã không thoát khỏi cuộc càn quét tàn nhẫn của Phát Xít thời kỳ Chiếm Đóng.
Desoto bị một bọn ma cô ăn bám và lừa bịp trong cuộc đời quá sức giàu có sung túc.
Portier sang Canada định cư.
Charell mập mờ như tay dắt gái và buôn lậu.
Newman đổi tên thành Valvert (chính là tên trường học cũ), chuẩn bị cưới vợ và sẽ sống ở Nantes.

Thầy giáo cũ Pedro, Kovo, Lafaure… giờ đều đã hoà tan vào bóng đêm vĩnh cửu của bóng tối.

***
Mình không ưng lắm tên sách dịch. Có lẽ từ “can đảm” không thật đúng với tên gốc tiếng Pháp và nội dung.

***
Thật lạ là cứ nỗi khi đọc tên một địa điểm của Paris trong sách, tôi lại nhớ lại giọng đọc tên địa điểm ấy từ loa phát tín hiệu trên những chuyến tàu điện Paris. Có điều gì đã làm tôi nuối tiếc đến thế trong cuộc đời này. Đó là những năm tháng rất đẹp đẽ ở Paris chăng?