Intimités

by Laurie Colwin, Anne Berton (Translator)

« Nous étions les filles de gens parfaitement sûrs d’eux qui avaient de l’argent en guise d’imagination. »

Ah, la bonne société américaine, ses conventions, ses habitudes et ses aspirations à plus. Mais peut-on s’ouvrir de nouveaux horizons sans abandonner ses privilèges ? À travers onze nouvelles savamment ciselées, Laurie Colwin scrute des individus lisses dont le vernis craquelle lorsque les certitudes vacillent… puis reprennent leur place. Car le bonheur est une chimère devant laquelle les apparences refusent de plier.

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Laurie Colwin is the author of five novels: Happy All the Time, Family Happiness, Goodbye Without Leaving, Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object, and A Big Storm Knocked It Over; three collections of short stories: Passion and Affect, Another Marvelous Thing, and The Lone Pilgrim; and two collections of essays: Home Cooking and More Home Cooking. She died in 1992.

Reviews

[Moushine Zahr · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book I read from American author Laurie Colwin. The book is composed of short stories published throughout the 1970's related to each other by the same theme .

All these short stories are very similar such as:

- same major theme of relationship between men and women,
- stories are set in the 1970's and in North Eastern of USA,
- characters belong mostly to upper class and sometimes male characters have same job as a lawyer.

These short stories might seem differents, but they all describe the same type of people. Only a niche of readers can relate to these stories, while majority will feel outcast. Furthermore, the nature of relationships between a couple has changed so much between the 1970's and today. Even the definition of a couple has changed. Thus, this book is okay to read once, but readers will forget it with time.

[Marion · Rating 2 out of 5]

Une série de petites nouvelles qui nous laissent un goût d’inachevé… certaines ne sont mêmes pas compréhensibles. On ne retire de la plupart d’entre elles pas grand chose, aucune morale ou leçon. Pas le temps d’accrocher aux personnages. Une lecture fade et sans intérêt.

[Kristel]

Simple et efficace.