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A Long Way Off
‘ Shifting from psychological thriller to absurd road trip tinged with black humor, A Long Way Off is the odyssey of an anti-hero’ France-Amérique ‘Rich and abundant in dark comedy’ Strong Words Magazine 'Masterly' John Banville 'Wonderful . . . properly noir' Ian Rankin Marc dreams of going somewhere far, far away – but he’ll start by taking his cat and his grown-up daughter, Anne, to an out-of-season resort on the Channel. Reluctant to go home, the curious threesome head south for Agen, whose main claim to fame is its prunes. As their impromptu road trip takes ever stranger turns, the trail of destruction – and mysterious disappearances – mounts up in their wake. Shocking, hilarious and poignant, the final dose of French noir from Pascal Garnier, published shortly before his death, is the author on top form.
112 pages, paperback
First published January 1, 2010
5 people are currently reading
184 people want to read
About the author
Pascal Garnier
84 books102 followersPascal Garnier, who died in March 2010, was a talented novelist, short story writer, children’s author and painter. From his home in the mountains of the Ardèche, he wrote fiction in a noir palette with a cast of characters drawn from ordinary provincial life. Though his writing is often very dark in tone, it sparkles with quirkily beautiful imagery and dry witted humour. Garnier’s work has been likened to the great thriller writer, Georges Simenon. Gallic books has now published many of his titles, including - The Panda Theory, How’s the Pain?, The Islanders, Moon in a Dead Eye, and The Front Seat Passenger.
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May 27, 2020
Stinging, bizarre, wacky, nutty – and more than a tad disturbing.
A Long Way Off - Pascal Garnier’s last work published before his death in 2010, a road novel that’s a cross between Albert Camus’ The Stranger and Jean-Patrick Manchette’s The Mad and the Bad, an intense, absorbing tale equal parts existential, absurdist and violent, all compressed into little more than 100 pages of large print that can be read in one sitting.
We encounter the sixty-year-old protagonist's erratic behavior right from page one. The chap's name is Marc Lecas and Marc remains silent throughout the entire evening, listening to dinner conversation of his host and others. But then, as if firing off both barrels of a double-barreled shotgun, Marc blurts out in his loudest voice, "I know Agen, too!" The table falls into an uneasy silence but that's it - Marc doesn't utter another word.
During their ride home, wife Chloé asks why on earth he shouted out "I know Agen, too!" Marc replies he doesn't know; he was only trying to be friendly.
Marc’s erratic behavior continues. The next day, leaning over the railing of a bridge, looking down at a freeway where cars speed into view then zoom through a tunnel, Marc reflects he isn’t the one distancing himself from everybody else; rather, everybody else is distancing themselves from him. Damn, if it didn’t start raining, he could continue watching those cars for hours.
Once at home, Marc begins peering through a magnifying glass and thus discovers entire universes in his palm, the rug, the stripes of his pajama bottoms. Can he share his remarkable findings with Chloé or anybody else? Absolutely not! Similar to when he was back in school, Marc recognizes “he would have two lives, his outward existence and the inner one he could never share." When Chloé returns, Marc is crying.
Pascal Garnier weaves in Marc’s backstory. Marc’s first wife, Édith, left him when daughter Anne was a baby but Marc “approached his fatherly responsibilities in much the same way as his nine-to-five, ploughing on like an ox without complaint.”
Reading about Marc’s lifelong passivity brings to mind Carl Jung’s observations on what the Swiss psychiatrist termed “Enlargement of Personality” with one critically important component of such enlargement occurring around age forty, what we term “the midlife crisis.” According to Carl Jung, if one fails to heed the call to expand and transform oneself in midlife, the consequences can be dire.
My sense is Marc, now age sixty, is a prime example. Marc can barely articulate the reason for leaving Chloé, his home, his current life and driving off with plump, ugly daughter Anne, now an adult who has spent years in a mental hospital, driving off to . . . an adventure, a new life, the great unknown – who knows?
Are there risks? Of course. The head doctor at the hospital speaks of the risks and has Marc sign a discharge form. “He felt the need to fill a void that had opened inside him unnoticed, a void into which he seemed to have fallen when he set off with Anne.”
What happens next and next and next and next along the road is best left for a reader to discover. Thus, I'll shift to several road trip flashes:
Marc also brings along a complacent, fat cat he recently picked up from the pet shop, a cat Chloé named Boudu. At one hotel along the road, Boudu goes missing. Anne says she simply left their door open and Boudu must have escaped. However, when Marc alerts the hotel to be on the lookout for his missing cat, Boudu is found down in a laundry room washing machine, having been stuffed, or so it appears, in a pillow case. Marc checks to see if a pillow case is missing in their hotel room. Gulp – there is a missing pillow case! Should he confront Anne? All those years of passivity might have established a pattern nearly impossible to reverse. Poor Marc! “He felt like a trapeze artist bouncing into the net after a failed trick, caught in a spider’s web he could no longer escape from, lumbering, ashamed, in a trap of his own making.”
How will Marc deal with a voodoo doll Anne hands him? Oh, well, our main man reckons, what harm can there be in a piece of wood with a bunch of nails stuck in? Come on, Marc my man. Wake up!
Pascal Garnier shares much in common with Jean-Patrick Manchette regarding the human body, especially the aging human body, as mostly a sack of assorted puss and shit. Here’s a snippet of Marc mentally undressing a gaggle of oldsters at a café. “Peeling off their outer skins one by one, stripping them from head to foot, revealing them as God made them with their crooked, hairy legs and varicose veins, impressive rolls of pale flesh amassed around their guts, wormy blue veins wiggling up their arms, calves covered in shriveled flesh, or taut enough to snap, flab, bones, fat, spots, vaccination scars, war wounds, moles, warts."
Lastly, Marc goes existential when, in solitude, he recognizes, even with all his faults and shortcomings, what makes him different from other people: “Precisely the fact that they were other people and he was himself, the one and only Marc Lecas, and if he was no more, then other people – each and every one of them – would disappear with him, because their existence depended wholly on him.”
A Long Way Off will take you on a unforgettable journey. Just the ticket if nowadays you can’t go out – go within via your imagination and Pascal Garnier.
On his hands and knees, head inches from the Persian carpet in his living room, Marc has an aesthetic revelation. "It would take days on end to cover the pseudo-Persian expanse depicting everything from turbulent rivers to tropical forest and arid deserts. As he crawled over the carpet, he began to feel as if he were returning from a very long journey. It was his childhood he was tracing, hidden in the intricate swirls of the carpet."
French novelist Pascal Garnier, 1949-2010
August 30, 2020
I was not particularly fond of this novel by Pascal Garnier. This was the fifth one I have read by him, and I definitely liked three of the first four (The Panda Theory [4 stars]; How’s the Pain [4 stars]; Moon in a Dead Eye [4 stars]; The Front Seat Passenger [2 stars]). This one had the hallmarks of Garnier in that not a whole lot happens at the beginning of his novels, and so it was with this story. And it seems to me with the others that as one reads along one is slowly slowly beginning to understand some things, and things coalesce, and one feels increasingly uncomfortable wondering what is going to happen to the characters that are still alive near the end of the story (do they make it or do they end up dead). But with this one…
This was Garnier’s last novel. It was published in France the same year he died, 2010. It was published by Gallic Books this year, 2020. I think I have about 6 more to go of his, and I intend to read all of them that are translated in English. He has me hooked as a writer worth reading, even though I was not jazzed about this one.
I am sure others will write a synopsis/summary of the novel. Briefly, Marc who is 60 years of age appears to want to take a road trip somewhere far away without telling his second wife, Chloe, and so he meets up with his daughter, Anne, from his first marriage who is in a long-term psychiatric facility that he meets once a year and off they go to a destination in southwest France that he blurts out at a dinner party at the beginning of the novel, Agen. (Yes, what I just wrote is a run-on sentence.) His daughter is probably in her late 30s or 40s, I reckon. And he gets a cat for the road trip for a pet shop that nobody wants, and he names it Boudu. So there.
There are two pages at the beginning of the slim book with short snippets of praise for this particular novel from such entities as John Banville, Ian Rankin, A.L. Kennedy, Financial Times, NY Times, Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, National Public Radio, The Literary Review, Irish Times, and The Spectator. Ergo, I am no doubt an outlier on this, again!
Reviews:
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-...
https://nbmagazine.co.uk/a-long-way-o...
http://www.complete-review.com/review...
from a blog site: https://winstonsdad.wordpress.com/202...
This was Garnier’s last novel. It was published in France the same year he died, 2010. It was published by Gallic Books this year, 2020. I think I have about 6 more to go of his, and I intend to read all of them that are translated in English. He has me hooked as a writer worth reading, even though I was not jazzed about this one.
I am sure others will write a synopsis/summary of the novel. Briefly, Marc who is 60 years of age appears to want to take a road trip somewhere far away without telling his second wife, Chloe, and so he meets up with his daughter, Anne, from his first marriage who is in a long-term psychiatric facility that he meets once a year and off they go to a destination in southwest France that he blurts out at a dinner party at the beginning of the novel, Agen. (Yes, what I just wrote is a run-on sentence.) His daughter is probably in her late 30s or 40s, I reckon. And he gets a cat for the road trip for a pet shop that nobody wants, and he names it Boudu. So there.
There are two pages at the beginning of the slim book with short snippets of praise for this particular novel from such entities as John Banville, Ian Rankin, A.L. Kennedy, Financial Times, NY Times, Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, National Public Radio, The Literary Review, Irish Times, and The Spectator. Ergo, I am no doubt an outlier on this, again!
Reviews:
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-...
https://nbmagazine.co.uk/a-long-way-o...
http://www.complete-review.com/review...
from a blog site: https://winstonsdad.wordpress.com/202...
May 11, 2021
Pisz do mnie jeszcze.
January 6, 2020
Ho. Ly. Shit.
Even by Garnier's standards, this goes to some places I never dreamed it would. Hilarious, horrifying, depraved and brilliant.
Even by Garnier's standards, this goes to some places I never dreamed it would. Hilarious, horrifying, depraved and brilliant.
April 14, 2020
LibraryThing Early Review
French Literature
A page turner, A Long Way Off is a quirky novella of the noir genre. Pascal takes his reader on a dark, yet funny, unusual ride. One disappears for a short time with an odd, aging father and his mentally unique adult daughter, only to experience a sudden turn of events which transforms the comic into sinister. This is my first book by Pascal and I am hooked.
French Literature
A page turner, A Long Way Off is a quirky novella of the noir genre. Pascal takes his reader on a dark, yet funny, unusual ride. One disappears for a short time with an odd, aging father and his mentally unique adult daughter, only to experience a sudden turn of events which transforms the comic into sinister. This is my first book by Pascal and I am hooked.
April 11, 2020
(3.5) As with most Garnier's, this one was at first entertaining and a bit comical, and then towards the end it becomes crazy and unexpected.
May 24, 2020
Grim.
April 1, 2020
There's a common theme in a number of Garnier's books, that of a 'late life crisis', a person, usually a male, taking a wildly different path, often through boredom. I am thinking of Low Heights, Too Close To The Edge, Moon In A Dead Eye, The A26 and How's The Pain. Of course, never, does this end well.
In this case, 60 year old Marc, packs up his cat, collects his daughter, and heads off on an adventure. They head for Agen, and as the story proceeds things get stranger, though there is some uncertainty about whose mental health problems are the worst.
Enough of the precis. If you intend reading this don't seek to know any more of the plot.
It was Garnier's final novel published before his death in 2010, and certainly one of his darker ones, swerving at times from noir to horror; needless to say, one of his most memorable ones as well (not least for its cover), he makes the apparently incomprehensible make perfect sense. Appropriately for his last novel, the great man signs off with a hammer blow of an ending.
Emily Boyce has done a tremendous job in translating it.
In this case, 60 year old Marc, packs up his cat, collects his daughter, and heads off on an adventure. They head for Agen, and as the story proceeds things get stranger, though there is some uncertainty about whose mental health problems are the worst.
Enough of the precis. If you intend reading this don't seek to know any more of the plot.
It was Garnier's final novel published before his death in 2010, and certainly one of his darker ones, swerving at times from noir to horror; needless to say, one of his most memorable ones as well (not least for its cover), he makes the apparently incomprehensible make perfect sense. Appropriately for his last novel, the great man signs off with a hammer blow of an ending.
Emily Boyce has done a tremendous job in translating it.
May 24, 2021
Marc i Anne. Ojciec i córka. I ich relacja. Niby zwyczajna a niezwyczajna. Poznajemy ich podczas odwiedzin Marca u Anne w szpitalu psychiatrycznym. Ich więzi i wzajemne stosunki odkrywamy podróżując z nimi nad morze. W trasie nie brakuje sytuacji dziwnych, wręcz nietuzinkowych. Przywołujących uśmiech na twarzy. Taki radosny, taki ze zdziwienia i z niedowierzania. Emocji tu z pewnością nie brakuje. Ta krótka powieść gwarantuje szeroki zakres doznań. Najlepiej zabrać się za czytanie nie znając opisu. Wówczas odkrywanie tej historii i poznawanie tej niezwykle osobliwej relacji ojca z córką będzie pełniejsze i bardziej wyraziste.
DALEKO, DALEJ to świetna proza. Idealna lektura z tych cienkich, choć grubych. Jest to jedna z tych „nieodkładalnych” historii. Okładka jest piękna i zwiastuje pozytywnie spędzony czas z książką. Ja polecam. Wy czytajcie. I koniecznie dajcie znać czy Wam również przypadła do gustu.
DALEKO, DALEJ to świetna proza. Idealna lektura z tych cienkich, choć grubych. Jest to jedna z tych „nieodkładalnych” historii. Okładka jest piękna i zwiastuje pozytywnie spędzony czas z książką. Ja polecam. Wy czytajcie. I koniecznie dajcie znać czy Wam również przypadła do gustu.
March 12, 2020
Bored and unsure of what to do with his life, Marc finds himself yearning for a distance place. Not sure where, but somewhere far away from the world and the tedious life he knows. And, on a whim, he decides to make that wish come true. In the company of his daughter and his cat, Marc starts his journey towards an unknown destination. But Anne is an unusual woman and, wherever they pass, some sort of mystery follows. People are disappearing, dying. And, though Marc doesn’t want to see it, he is closer to these events than he thinks.
It is quite impressive how a book that, overall, is relatively short can contain such depths of surprise and consideration. Marc is the perfect image of what one could call a middle-life crisis, bored with life and unsure of what he wants. And it is remarkable that such a short and concisely written tale can reflect so much about its character’s depths. Not only Marc and his personal frustrations, but also Anne, whose circumstances are never fully explained, but whose role in the story is vital. And even Boudu, that little fat cat, so quiet and discreet, but so present.
There is a sort of ambivalence that seems to permeate the whole book. Many things are left unsaid, or merely hinted at. However, it all seems to make perfect sense. Anne’s past – and Marc’s past too – aren’t the most important element in this book. It is the journey that matters, so simple and apparently made of small things, but so intense and full of surprises. The inexplicable remains unexplained. The rest is a somber and intriguing road trip that culminates in a quite outstanding finale.
It’s like a different kind of darkness, quiet, almost intangible, but very, very present. And, by mixing this measure of mystery and risk with the main character’s very personal dilemmas, it all becomes vaster and more intriguing – even with all the things that remain unsaid.
A perfect balance between concision and depth: that’s what this book represents. And also a strangely fascinating tale about a family road trip turned dark – and intense.
** I received this book from Gallic in exchange for an honest review.
It is quite impressive how a book that, overall, is relatively short can contain such depths of surprise and consideration. Marc is the perfect image of what one could call a middle-life crisis, bored with life and unsure of what he wants. And it is remarkable that such a short and concisely written tale can reflect so much about its character’s depths. Not only Marc and his personal frustrations, but also Anne, whose circumstances are never fully explained, but whose role in the story is vital. And even Boudu, that little fat cat, so quiet and discreet, but so present.
There is a sort of ambivalence that seems to permeate the whole book. Many things are left unsaid, or merely hinted at. However, it all seems to make perfect sense. Anne’s past – and Marc’s past too – aren’t the most important element in this book. It is the journey that matters, so simple and apparently made of small things, but so intense and full of surprises. The inexplicable remains unexplained. The rest is a somber and intriguing road trip that culminates in a quite outstanding finale.
It’s like a different kind of darkness, quiet, almost intangible, but very, very present. And, by mixing this measure of mystery and risk with the main character’s very personal dilemmas, it all becomes vaster and more intriguing – even with all the things that remain unsaid.
A perfect balance between concision and depth: that’s what this book represents. And also a strangely fascinating tale about a family road trip turned dark – and intense.
** I received this book from Gallic in exchange for an honest review.
March 22, 2020
A Long Way Off is a short noir picaresque of sorts from French writer Pascal Garnier. It tells the story of Marc who is married happily enough to Chloe, his second wife. He’s feeling a bit out of sorts with the world and get a cat without really knowing why. Then, he goes to visit his daughter, Anne, who is in an in-patient institution though we don’t know why. She seems smart enough.
In what seems like a mix of mid-life crisis and a belated desire to make up to Anne for his detached and neglectful parenting, he springs her from the institution for a day trip to the shore. This begins their journey through France and the misadventures along with the way.
A Long Way Off is humorous and bizarre. There is quite a bit of violence, but it is inferred, not witnessed by March so not witnessed by the reader. There is something tragically comic in Anne’s blatant contempt for her father and his witless desire to please her even as he’s coming to realize she is doing more than touring France with him. It’s a short book, a mere 124 pages, and Garnier effectively draws us in. However, while it does seem as though Garnier is being delicate by having all the violence out of our sight, he more than makes up for it in a truly disturbing scene near the end. It is disturbing enough I cannot freely recommend this book to anyone. Yes, it’s really good for most of the book, it’s sly, it’s humorous; it sucks you in. But honestly, in the end, I was disappointed.
A Long Way Off will be released on March 26th. I received an ARC of A Long Way Off from the publisher through LibraryThing.
A Long Way Off at Gallic Books | Belgravia Books
Pascal Garnier author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
In what seems like a mix of mid-life crisis and a belated desire to make up to Anne for his detached and neglectful parenting, he springs her from the institution for a day trip to the shore. This begins their journey through France and the misadventures along with the way.
A Long Way Off is humorous and bizarre. There is quite a bit of violence, but it is inferred, not witnessed by March so not witnessed by the reader. There is something tragically comic in Anne’s blatant contempt for her father and his witless desire to please her even as he’s coming to realize she is doing more than touring France with him. It’s a short book, a mere 124 pages, and Garnier effectively draws us in. However, while it does seem as though Garnier is being delicate by having all the violence out of our sight, he more than makes up for it in a truly disturbing scene near the end. It is disturbing enough I cannot freely recommend this book to anyone. Yes, it’s really good for most of the book, it’s sly, it’s humorous; it sucks you in. But honestly, in the end, I was disappointed.
A Long Way Off will be released on March 26th. I received an ARC of A Long Way Off from the publisher through LibraryThing.
A Long Way Off at Gallic Books | Belgravia Books
Pascal Garnier author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
February 11, 2020
Marc feels like he needs to get away. He doesn't feel connected to his wife and the people around him anymore. While visiting his daughter Anne in hospital, he decides to take a trip. He convinces Anne to come along with him and his cat Boudu to the French coastal town of Le Touquet. The journey turns into a more extended road trip that finds them headed towards the town of Agen in a camper van. What transpires is a trail of disaster that leaves them so far from home, there may be no way back.
The title of this book might be A Long Way Off, but as far as I'm concerned, this one was spot on. It was just what I've come to expect from Garnier's work, a bit of darkness shot through with humor at the oddest moments. Like his other works, this one gets under the skin. I think Garnier fans and fans of the noir genre, in general, will find this short book highly entertaining.
Thanks to Gallic Books for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
More reviews at: www.susannesbooklist.blogspot.com
The title of this book might be A Long Way Off, but as far as I'm concerned, this one was spot on. It was just what I've come to expect from Garnier's work, a bit of darkness shot through with humor at the oddest moments. Like his other works, this one gets under the skin. I think Garnier fans and fans of the noir genre, in general, will find this short book highly entertaining.
Thanks to Gallic Books for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
More reviews at: www.susannesbooklist.blogspot.com
February 26, 2017
Another sad and quirky tale by Pascal Garnier. By now (this is my third book by him in a short space of time), the magic doesn't work quite as well, and there are far fewer laugh-out-loud scenes in this one. Garnier's protagonists tend to be people who've barely managed to hold themselves together over the decades, and suddenly collapse, either after a tragedy, or simply because they just lose it. In this story, a man has the unfortunate idea of taking his mentally unstable daughter out of the institution where she lives, supposedly just for the weekend. Of course, they end up on the run. Although this isn't as convincing as the other books by him I've read, "Le Grand Loin" is compulsively readable, with a sinister African statue playing a big role in the plot.
September 17, 2021
Zupełnie nie po drodze mi z tym Garnierem. Wymyka mi się. Niektore fragmenty do mnie trafiały, ale jako całość - nie. Literacko (tłumaczenie) za to wyśmienite.
April 24, 2022
Weird — definitely the best of the batch — but Garnier had trouble figuring out a plausible ending.
May 4, 2025
nie wiem czy dobrze zrozumiałam zakończenie, trudno pojąć to co się dzieje na ostatnich 3 stronach
to była dziwna i ciekawa przygoda
to była dziwna i ciekawa przygoda
February 18, 2020
thanks so much @gallic for sending me an advance translation of this unnerving noir:
A LONG WAY OFF by pascal garnier (fiction) a strange father-daughter (and cat) road trip veers emphatically off the rails, and then still takes an even darker depraved turn + crafty, grisly, mordant, and straight-up shocking
•
“Now new lines had begun to form, ties that bound him slowly but surely to a future that was no longer in his hands. He felt like a trapeze artist bouncing into the net after a failed trick, caught in a spider’s web he could no longer escape from, lumbering, ashamed, in a trap of his own making. Perhaps there was still time...He could leave...but already he knew he would not. He was lacking the one small thing that saves a man from drowning, the kick of rage that lifts you up from the bottom and propels you to the surface. It was still a long, long way off. He was not there yet.”
•
**available in paperback march 24, 2020
•
instagram book reviews @brettlikesbooks
A LONG WAY OFF by pascal garnier (fiction) a strange father-daughter (and cat) road trip veers emphatically off the rails, and then still takes an even darker depraved turn + crafty, grisly, mordant, and straight-up shocking
•
“Now new lines had begun to form, ties that bound him slowly but surely to a future that was no longer in his hands. He felt like a trapeze artist bouncing into the net after a failed trick, caught in a spider’s web he could no longer escape from, lumbering, ashamed, in a trap of his own making. Perhaps there was still time...He could leave...but already he knew he would not. He was lacking the one small thing that saves a man from drowning, the kick of rage that lifts you up from the bottom and propels you to the surface. It was still a long, long way off. He was not there yet.”
•
**available in paperback march 24, 2020
•
instagram book reviews @brettlikesbooks
March 8, 2020
The early chapters are simple enough, revealing Marc's day to day routine, personal ponderings and rough plan to go on an adventure. As he travels south and gets to know his daughter better, things start to get a little strange. After the pair come into possession of an African voodoo statue, Marc's physical health starts to suffer. Does his mental health start to deteriorate too, or do the final shocking events with his daughter really happen as they are told ? I was left with a feeling of "what happened there then ?" at the end of the book, as the ending was not at all what I expected. I can see this being a big hit at reading groups, as I'm sure everyone will have a different interpretation of what really happened.
Full review on my blog : https://madhousefamilyreviews.blogspo...
Full review on my blog : https://madhousefamilyreviews.blogspo...
March 19, 2020
I love Pascal Garnier's dark yet funny stories. This is the last one to be translated since his death, and I'm saddened that there will be no more. This tale is about a road trip with father, daughter, and cat, and it's difficult to determine which character is the most and least sane. No thoughts or actions are out of bounds for this writer and, while there were a few times that even I was shocked, I couldn't put it down. It's short, a novella really, full of unexpected twists, and easy to read in one sitting.
March 24, 2020
A very odd atmospheric road trip. I've only read one other book by Garnier and I had a very similar reaction to that book, "what an odd story." The strength of the story is Marc's sense that he wants to escape the life he feels trapped in but that he lacks the courage to really cut loose from social bonds and be free and his daughter's nonchalant but psychopathic approach. I'm not sure if it is noir so much as black humor. If you like quirky, dark humor you will probably like this.
July 13, 2020
A roadtrip like no other, a dreary France you never see in fiction, a descent into hell comparable to that of Dante. This story of three lives unraveling, one of them a cat’s, under the baleful eye of a poisonous Togolese fetish, is as hard as the hardest of Simenon’s romans durs, and remarkably, just as good.
Pascal Garnier is an outrageous, essential discovery. Where have you been hiding, man? More please!
Pascal Garnier is an outrageous, essential discovery. Where have you been hiding, man? More please!
April 22, 2020
This book was surprisingly good. I was a tad leery that the story would be simplified because it was translated, but it wasn't. The writing was really good; the story shocking. Quick read and totally worth it.
Thanks to LibraryThing for this free book through the Early Reviewers Giveaway and the opportunity to read and review this book.
Thanks to LibraryThing for this free book through the Early Reviewers Giveaway and the opportunity to read and review this book.
May 22, 2020
really bad. did not have the snappy writing to help hold the attention. story was terrible.
March 9, 2023
2,5/5. L’écriture d’une vie banale dans toute la simplicité du quotidien, puis tranquillement les choses deviennent plus étrange. L’écriture avait un petit quelque chose d’intéressant, ce qui soutenait le récit, mais j’ai eu beaucoup de mal à me faire aux personnages. Pas un mauvais livre, mais je n’ai pas tellement apprécié non plus. Pas pour moi!
February 20, 2022
This was interesting- very short, but covered a lot of ground. It's hard to review it without giving away spoilers, but I will say that it was short, entertaining, and made me interested in reading other works by the author. I wouldn't say it was fantastic, but it worked well given it's short length.
May 12, 2024
Mam kilka pytań
August 20, 2020
Well my oh my, what a story! This reminds me of a Quentin Tarentino movie. Strange, funny, crazy and dark. I was kind of blown away. The writing is incredible and the story so odd I'm surprised I enjoyed it so much. If you like off kilter stories this book is for you!
May 13, 2024
da się może dać 0 gwiazdek?
June 1, 2020
I was very intrigued by the synopsis of A Long Way Off; it sounds so quirky and original but as it turns out, that doesn't even come close to describing the book. At 124 pages long, it only takes around an hour to read it but there is so much crammed into the story that it doesn't feel like a novella. Originally written in French, absolutely nothing has been lost in the amazing translation by Emily Boyce.
Marc is the main character and when we are first introduced to him he come across as a bit socially inept. It's no surprise then when he decides to buy a cat and chooses the oldest, fattest and most lethargic cat in the pet shop. Boudu the cat goes on a road trip along with Marc and his daughter, Anne, who is usually resident in a psychiatric hospital. This is where the story really takes off as strange things start to happen wherever the trio stop for the night.
As Marc isn't exactly a very colourful character, it took me a little while to get into the book but once Boudu and Anne joined the story it became a book that I easily read in one sitting. I'm not easily shocked but my jaw did hit the floor and I gasped in horror as the story reached its very very dark conclusion. This is Noir with a capital 'N' as Pascal Garnier shows how it should be done.
A Long Way Off is a little book with a big storyline; it's short, sharp and shocking. I'd definitely read more Pascal Garnier books as his dark humour and ability to shock his readers is second to none.
I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
Marc is the main character and when we are first introduced to him he come across as a bit socially inept. It's no surprise then when he decides to buy a cat and chooses the oldest, fattest and most lethargic cat in the pet shop. Boudu the cat goes on a road trip along with Marc and his daughter, Anne, who is usually resident in a psychiatric hospital. This is where the story really takes off as strange things start to happen wherever the trio stop for the night.
As Marc isn't exactly a very colourful character, it took me a little while to get into the book but once Boudu and Anne joined the story it became a book that I easily read in one sitting. I'm not easily shocked but my jaw did hit the floor and I gasped in horror as the story reached its very very dark conclusion. This is Noir with a capital 'N' as Pascal Garnier shows how it should be done.
A Long Way Off is a little book with a big storyline; it's short, sharp and shocking. I'd definitely read more Pascal Garnier books as his dark humour and ability to shock his readers is second to none.
I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
March 25, 2020
Thanks Gallic for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review. This book was great, until a very disturbing ending. Had it not been for that, it would have been higher! I think the author may have tried to be outrageous to shock people, which of course some people like. Just not my cup of tea.
Synopsis:
Marc dreams of going somewhere far, far away – but he’ll start by taking his cat and his grown-up daughter, Anne, to an out-of-season resort on the Channel.
Reluctant to go home, the curious threesome head south for Agen, whose main claim to fame is its prunes. As their impromptu road trip takes ever stranger turns, the trail of destruction – and mysterious disappearances – mounts up in their wake.
Shocking, hilarious and poignant, the final dose of French noir from Pascal Garnier, published shortly before his death, is the author on top form.
Thoughts; This book really did cheer me up during this pandemic we have going on at the moment. It is a very funny, outrageous book that will make you feel better. At parts I even laughed out loud. Shame about the ending! I loved it bar the last few pages or so!
Synopsis:
Marc dreams of going somewhere far, far away – but he’ll start by taking his cat and his grown-up daughter, Anne, to an out-of-season resort on the Channel.
Reluctant to go home, the curious threesome head south for Agen, whose main claim to fame is its prunes. As their impromptu road trip takes ever stranger turns, the trail of destruction – and mysterious disappearances – mounts up in their wake.
Shocking, hilarious and poignant, the final dose of French noir from Pascal Garnier, published shortly before his death, is the author on top form.
Thoughts; This book really did cheer me up during this pandemic we have going on at the moment. It is a very funny, outrageous book that will make you feel better. At parts I even laughed out loud. Shame about the ending! I loved it bar the last few pages or so!
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