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Une Forme de vie
Quotidiennement sollicitée par du courrier de ses lecteurs, Amélie va un jour tomber sur une lettre inattendue... Un G.I coincé en Irak l'appelle au secours pour tenter de survivre dans cette drôle de guerre. Pour se rebeller, ce white trash se goinfre de junk-food, arborant sa graisse comme une amoureuse enveloppante. Mue par son instinct de Saint-Bernard, l'écrivain lui répond en lui parlant de body-art. S'ensuit une relation épistolaire étrange...
169 pages, Paperback
First published August 18, 2010
41 people are currently reading
1425 people want to read
About the author
Amélie Nothomb
102 books5,912 followersAmélie Nothomb, born Fabienne Claire Nothomb, was born in Etterbeek, Belgium on 9 July 1966, to Belgian diplomats. Although Nothomb claims to have been born in Japan, she actually began living in Japan at the age of two until she was five years old. Subsequently, she lived in China, New York, Bangladesh, Burma, the United Kingdom (Coventry) and Laos.
She is from a distinguished Belgian political family; she is notably the grand-niece of Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb, a Belgian foreign minister (1980-1981). Her first novel, Hygiène de l'assassin, was published in 1992. Since then, she has published approximately one novel per year with a.o. Les Catilinaires (1995), Stupeur Et Tremblements (1999) and Métaphysique des tubes (2000).
She has been awarded numerous prizes, including the 1999 Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française; the Prix René-Fallet; and twice the Prix Alain-Fournier.
While in Japan, she attended a local school and learned Japanese. When she was five the family moved to China. "Quitter le Japon fut pour moi un arrachement" ("Leaving Japan was a wrenching separation for me") she writes in Fear and Trembling. Nothomb moved often, and did not live in Europe until she was 17, when she moved to Brussels. There, she reportedly felt as much a stranger as everywhere else. She studied philology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. After some family tensions, she returned to Japan to work in a big Japanese company in Tokyo. Her experience of this time is told in Fear and Trembling. She has written a romanticized biography (Robert des noms propres) for the French female singer RoBERT in 2002 and during the period 2000-2002 she wrote the lyrics for nine tracks of the same artist. Many ideas inserted in her books come from the conversations she had with an Italian man, from late eighties and during the nineties. She used the French Minitel, while he used the Italian Videotel system, connected with the French one. They never met personally.
Source: Wikipedia
She is from a distinguished Belgian political family; she is notably the grand-niece of Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb, a Belgian foreign minister (1980-1981). Her first novel, Hygiène de l'assassin, was published in 1992. Since then, she has published approximately one novel per year with a.o. Les Catilinaires (1995), Stupeur Et Tremblements (1999) and Métaphysique des tubes (2000).
She has been awarded numerous prizes, including the 1999 Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française; the Prix René-Fallet; and twice the Prix Alain-Fournier.
While in Japan, she attended a local school and learned Japanese. When she was five the family moved to China. "Quitter le Japon fut pour moi un arrachement" ("Leaving Japan was a wrenching separation for me") she writes in Fear and Trembling. Nothomb moved often, and did not live in Europe until she was 17, when she moved to Brussels. There, she reportedly felt as much a stranger as everywhere else. She studied philology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. After some family tensions, she returned to Japan to work in a big Japanese company in Tokyo. Her experience of this time is told in Fear and Trembling. She has written a romanticized biography (Robert des noms propres) for the French female singer RoBERT in 2002 and during the period 2000-2002 she wrote the lyrics for nine tracks of the same artist. Many ideas inserted in her books come from the conversations she had with an Italian man, from late eighties and during the nineties. She used the French Minitel, while he used the Italian Videotel system, connected with the French one. They never met personally.
Source: Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 370 reviews
April 15, 2017
Y con el giro de la última página solamente me queda una única duda ¿cuál de los dos está más loco?
Una forma de vida es una novela epistolar de autoria belga que cuenta la historia de un militar norteamericano que después de leer la obra completa hasta la fecha de la escritora Amélie Nothomb decide aventurarse y tomar contacto con ella a través de misivas...
Una forma de vida es una novela epistolar de autoria belga que cuenta la historia de un militar norteamericano que después de leer la obra completa hasta la fecha de la escritora Amélie Nothomb decide aventurarse y tomar contacto con ella a través de misivas...
May 17, 2022
Danas je 17.05. a ja imam 77,7 kg koliko sam imala i prije 11 godina kada sam otišla da se porodim sa prvim djetetom. Samo što sad ne nosim bebu u stomaku. Sad, poput Melvina koji je uza se nosio svoju Šeherzadu, ja svakodnevno svuda sa sobom nosim jedno dijete predškolskog uzrasta, pa i školarca nižeg razreda.
Zbog toga, sad ovdje, javno priznajem da više neću tražiti opravdanje za ovoliki višak (govorimo o 22 kg) usljed tri trudnoće, pa zbog ružne povrede i ograničene fizičke aktivnosti, pa zbog korone i karantina i nedostatka kretanja prouzrokovanog time, pa zbog stresa usljed promjene posla, dugog sjedenja što na poslu što tokom vremena provedenog u vožnji na posao i sa posla, pa zbog problema sa štitnom žlijezdom (da ne kažem baš ljubavi s poznatim Japancem Hašimotom) i intolerancije na mnoge namirnice, te konačno zbog gubitka majke,.. Debela sam jer se prežderavam. Tačka. I stid me je zbog toga. Zato izbjegavam ljude. I treba mi podrška i pomoć. Neću da postanem Melvin iz Oblika života.
Je li realno do kraja juna izgubiti 7 kg? Vidjećemo. To je prvi konkretni ogroman korak. Ova mangulica se mora pod hitno ponovo samodisciplinovati i istrajati!
Ne zamjerite mi na ovoj ispovijesti. Ne tražim sažaljenje niti razumijevanje, niti ću da se upuštam u dublju analizu uzroka koji su doveli do ovakve zapuštenosti. Bijesna sam na sebe! Nije mi ovo trebalo. I to je ono što je Notomb isprovocirala kod mene. Osvijestila me jednom dobrom šamarčinom. Sad se moram izboriti sa sopstvenim demonima i rješavati posljedice dok nisu postale još gore. Želim što duže da potrajem ovim svojim pilićima i da me se ne sramote sutra kad ih odvedem na trening ili odem na roditeljski.
Zbog toga, sad ovdje, javno priznajem da više neću tražiti opravdanje za ovoliki višak (govorimo o 22 kg) usljed tri trudnoće, pa zbog ružne povrede i ograničene fizičke aktivnosti, pa zbog korone i karantina i nedostatka kretanja prouzrokovanog time, pa zbog stresa usljed promjene posla, dugog sjedenja što na poslu što tokom vremena provedenog u vožnji na posao i sa posla, pa zbog problema sa štitnom žlijezdom (da ne kažem baš ljubavi s poznatim Japancem Hašimotom) i intolerancije na mnoge namirnice, te konačno zbog gubitka majke,.. Debela sam jer se prežderavam. Tačka. I stid me je zbog toga. Zato izbjegavam ljude. I treba mi podrška i pomoć. Neću da postanem Melvin iz Oblika života.
Je li realno do kraja juna izgubiti 7 kg? Vidjećemo. To je prvi konkretni ogroman korak. Ova mangulica se mora pod hitno ponovo samodisciplinovati i istrajati!
Ne zamjerite mi na ovoj ispovijesti. Ne tražim sažaljenje niti razumijevanje, niti ću da se upuštam u dublju analizu uzroka koji su doveli do ovakve zapuštenosti. Bijesna sam na sebe! Nije mi ovo trebalo. I to je ono što je Notomb isprovocirala kod mene. Osvijestila me jednom dobrom šamarčinom. Sad se moram izboriti sa sopstvenim demonima i rješavati posljedice dok nisu postale još gore. Želim što duže da potrajem ovim svojim pilićima i da me se ne sramote sutra kad ih odvedem na trening ili odem na roditeljski.
January 5, 2020
uvijek originalna u izričaju i vjerna svojoj kratkoj formi (svaka njena knjiga -koje objavljuje jednu na godinu- pročita se tijekom jednog dana) i nekim temama kojih se svaki put dotiče, u "obliku života" primila se bulimije (koja je prisutna gotovo u svakom njenom djelu) i do kraja ju razgranala.
iako mislim da ima uporište u stvarnosti (američki vojnik u iraku piše joj pismo, ona odgovora i tako kreće prepiska, knjiga je u epistolarnoj formi), vjerojatnije mi je da je samo okosnica stvarna i dobro iskorištena, a ostalo plod mašte.. ali tako je u svim njenim djelima - tanka linija između zbilje i fikcije.
duhovita, izravna, ne obazirući se na konvencije, kroz ovo tragikomično djelo uspjela je provući duboke i opasne misli o odnosu prema tijelu, o odnosu prema hrani, o američkom društvu, o slavi i anonimnosti, o pisanju pisama općenito. volim njen humoristični, cinični odnos prema... pa, prema svemu.. kao da unutar najvećih životnih tragedija ima moć vidjeti životnu grotesku koju onda do kraja izvrgava ruglu-ne štedeći pritom ni samu sebe.
i dalje smatram da se a. nothomb ne može suditi prema jednom pročitanom djelu. ona je jedan od onih pisaca koje treba skužiti, a jednom kad ih skužiš, ili ćeš ih obožavati ili prezirati. cijeli njen opus ujednačen je, bez oscilacija u pristupu tekstu i čitatelju, ne donosi iznenađenja u smislu otkrivanja sebe na neki novi način - a utješan je i fin osjećaj unaprijed znati što me čeka kad okrenem prvu stranicu knjige. svakih toliko počastim se nekom njenom knjigom znajući da me čeka vrtuljak bizarnosti i odterećen pogled na svijet.
iako mislim da ima uporište u stvarnosti (američki vojnik u iraku piše joj pismo, ona odgovora i tako kreće prepiska, knjiga je u epistolarnoj formi), vjerojatnije mi je da je samo okosnica stvarna i dobro iskorištena, a ostalo plod mašte.. ali tako je u svim njenim djelima - tanka linija između zbilje i fikcije.
duhovita, izravna, ne obazirući se na konvencije, kroz ovo tragikomično djelo uspjela je provući duboke i opasne misli o odnosu prema tijelu, o odnosu prema hrani, o američkom društvu, o slavi i anonimnosti, o pisanju pisama općenito. volim njen humoristični, cinični odnos prema... pa, prema svemu.. kao da unutar najvećih životnih tragedija ima moć vidjeti životnu grotesku koju onda do kraja izvrgava ruglu-ne štedeći pritom ni samu sebe.
i dalje smatram da se a. nothomb ne može suditi prema jednom pročitanom djelu. ona je jedan od onih pisaca koje treba skužiti, a jednom kad ih skužiš, ili ćeš ih obožavati ili prezirati. cijeli njen opus ujednačen je, bez oscilacija u pristupu tekstu i čitatelju, ne donosi iznenađenja u smislu otkrivanja sebe na neki novi način - a utješan je i fin osjećaj unaprijed znati što me čeka kad okrenem prvu stranicu knjige. svakih toliko počastim se nekom njenom knjigom znajući da me čeka vrtuljak bizarnosti i odterećen pogled na svijet.
April 14, 2023
Vor neuen Büchern wird erst einmal der SUB abgebaut. Zielmarke <= 90 😄
November 21, 2019
Parecía que ya nada podría sorprenderme de Nothomb. Estuvimos juntos durante mucho tiempo. Se apagó la magia y cada uno siguió por su lado. Así que las esperanzas de esta nueva incursión nothombiana era más una obligación por deudas pendientes que por puro interés.
Sorpresa, claro. Cuando no esperas nada cualquier cosa es bienvenida. Y en esta breve novela, son muchas las cosas que llegan para quedarse, para lavar la imagen desprestigiada de la Helena Bonham Carter de las letras.
En esta ocasión, la escritora belga aprovecha el intercambio de misivas con un soldado americano destinado a Irak, para hablar de los tipos de aislamiento que uno va encontrando en su camino: el encierro físico, el desapego a través de la cordialidad y la diplomacia, la automejora ficcionada de las mentiras y, por supuesto, la válvula de escape que supone para muchos escribir.
Nothomb usa hasta su propio ego hinchado para insuflar autenticidad a un relato a caballo entre el ensayo libre y la autobiografía ficcionada. Y lo consigue. Las reflexiones brillan por su calidad. El giro final también funciona. Y el resultado en conjunto, rompe un poco con la tónica de sus últimas novelitas. ¡Gracias a Dios!
"Una forma de vida" es un ladrillo bastante sólido en ese eclecticismo literario que es el proyecto profesional de Amélie Nothomb.
Sorpresa, claro. Cuando no esperas nada cualquier cosa es bienvenida. Y en esta breve novela, son muchas las cosas que llegan para quedarse, para lavar la imagen desprestigiada de la Helena Bonham Carter de las letras.
En esta ocasión, la escritora belga aprovecha el intercambio de misivas con un soldado americano destinado a Irak, para hablar de los tipos de aislamiento que uno va encontrando en su camino: el encierro físico, el desapego a través de la cordialidad y la diplomacia, la automejora ficcionada de las mentiras y, por supuesto, la válvula de escape que supone para muchos escribir.
Nothomb usa hasta su propio ego hinchado para insuflar autenticidad a un relato a caballo entre el ensayo libre y la autobiografía ficcionada. Y lo consigue. Las reflexiones brillan por su calidad. El giro final también funciona. Y el resultado en conjunto, rompe un poco con la tónica de sus últimas novelitas. ¡Gracias a Dios!
"Una forma de vida" es un ladrillo bastante sólido en ese eclecticismo literario que es el proyecto profesional de Amélie Nothomb.
September 28, 2020
Nothomb es una mujer inteligente, talentosa y un poco auto-referencial que escribe una novela sobre la banalidad. Interesante reivindicación del género epistolar, y la persona detrás del escritor; y como titula Levi, los salvados y los hundidos: “El drama de los náufragos de la existencia es que, en lugar de abrirse a los demás, se repliegan sobre su sufrimiento y ya no salen de él”.
Como Cosmética del enemigo, merecería un mejor final.
Como Cosmética del enemigo, merecería un mejor final.
May 31, 2016
Me gustó mucho, mucho el libro. Es una historia presentada de forma muy clásica —con su inicio, desarrollo, anagnórisis y cierre— pero con una idea que me parece original: un soldado en Irak le escribe a Nothomb, contándole que la nueva secuela patológica de esta guerra gringa no será el estrés postraumático —como el que sufría Rambo—, sino la obesidad. Hay soldados en el frente que comen hasta superar los doscientos kilos, porque no queda más que hacer, porque ésa es una forma de subvertir al régimen. Me gustó esa idea, una metáfora de la cultura gringa, desechable y dañina. Nothomb llega a esa información a través de cartas, que un soldado obeso de Irak le escribe. La novela se cuenta así, en un carteo entre la escritora y el soldado Melvin Maple. Él, un obeso con aspiraciones literarias, cuyas cartas —si no fueron editadas en el universo del libro— están muy bien escritas. En ese intercambio frenético y adolescente, como chateo pausado, emerge la belleza en el horror, cuando Maple describe su cuerpo mórbido “De noche, cuando el peso oprime mi pecho, pienso que no soy yo sino una hermosa mujer tumbada sobre mi cuerpo”. “La obesidad es una enfermedad. Cuando alguien tiene cáncer, nadie es lo bastante desaprensivo para sugerirle que lo supere por sí mismo. Sí, lo sé, no se puede comparar. Si pesamos 180 kilos es culpa nuestra. No haber comido como cerdos. El canceroso es una víctima, nosotros no. Nos lo hemos buscado, por haber pecado. Entonces uno debe redimirse con un acto de santidad, a ver si de ese modo alcanza la expiación”. "¿Para cuándo un presidente obeso?". Y ella, Nothomb, reflexiona como voz en off sobre el arte del carteo, de la escritura y de las relaciones humanas. “Ya lo dijo Madame de Sévigné: Perdonadme, no tengo tiempo para ser breve”. “Con las cartas ocurre lo mismo que con todo: el exceso resulta tan insoportable como la carencia”. “Escribir sigue siendo primero un placer. Lo que hace sufrir es la angustia que lo acompaña”. En fin, muchas reflexiones más, sobre el imperativo de conocer a los escritores o la dificultad de equilibrar la proximidad humana. Me gustó su prosa, aunque sé que es la prosa de quien la tradujo, me pareció sencilla y enfocada más a pensar que ostentar. Ésa es la prosa que me gusta. La estructura de la historia me mantuvo ansiosa hasta el final. Pero ahí, siento, guateó un poco. Me gustan los finales de escena, con actos y verbos, y no tanto los reflexivos. En este libro hay un final abierto, que dan ganas de cerrar, sí, pero con una escena y no una frase hubiese quedado mejor. Como sea, buenísimo libro, feliz de haber leído a Nothomb.
April 2, 2019
En esta novela como en alguna otra Amelie Nothomb aparece como protagonista de su novela. Una forma de vida relata la correspondecia entre la escritora y un soldado norteamericano destinado en Irak llamado Melvin Mapple, que le narra de manera fascinante la enfermedad que tiene.
Melvin, como protesta contra la guerra ha desarrollado bulimia, la cual, le ha hecho engordar más de 100 kilos. A este exceso de peso Melvin lo llama Schrezade y le da una identidad como si se tratase de una pareja sentimental.
Al final Melvin interrumpe la correspondencia y Amelie decide averiguar lo que ha podido pasar.
Me ha encantado, como siempre Amelie te engancha con su narrativa que al estar escrita a modo de cartas entre la escritora y el soldado se hace muy llevadera, en sus cartas tratan diversos temas como la apariencia, la soledad, la fama, los trastornos alimentarios, ….
La prosa de Nothomb es maravillosa, rápida, irónica, perpicaz y directa. Es sencilla pero no carente de profundidad y trata temas de actualidad, en los que te deja pensando.
Y a todo esto, le sumamos un final sorprendente muy a lo Amelie Nothomb.
Melvin, como protesta contra la guerra ha desarrollado bulimia, la cual, le ha hecho engordar más de 100 kilos. A este exceso de peso Melvin lo llama Schrezade y le da una identidad como si se tratase de una pareja sentimental.
Al final Melvin interrumpe la correspondencia y Amelie decide averiguar lo que ha podido pasar.
Me ha encantado, como siempre Amelie te engancha con su narrativa que al estar escrita a modo de cartas entre la escritora y el soldado se hace muy llevadera, en sus cartas tratan diversos temas como la apariencia, la soledad, la fama, los trastornos alimentarios, ….
La prosa de Nothomb es maravillosa, rápida, irónica, perpicaz y directa. Es sencilla pero no carente de profundidad y trata temas de actualidad, en los que te deja pensando.
Y a todo esto, le sumamos un final sorprendente muy a lo Amelie Nothomb.
April 11, 2018
I wasn’t in the mood for such clunking metaphor. Life Form is an epistolary novel, linking an European author with an obese American solider in Baghdad.
We could stop there. I’m sure no one has ever considered acquisitive American mania with over-eating and imperialism. I would recommend Solar instead.
Apparently the author is rather prolific and I thus extend her a pass, while I accept this was an idea that didn’t bear fruit I am likewise hesitant to open any more of her work in the near future.
We could stop there. I’m sure no one has ever considered acquisitive American mania with over-eating and imperialism. I would recommend Solar instead.
Apparently the author is rather prolific and I thus extend her a pass, while I accept this was an idea that didn’t bear fruit I am likewise hesitant to open any more of her work in the near future.
August 10, 2025
Unique? Different? Definitely so, imo.
This book is from about 15 years ago & deals (at least partially) with obesity -- I'm not sure how it fares today vs. when originally written, though I think it would mostly be fine. It's perhaps a bit of auto-fiction with some meta-fiction in the mix told in a mostly epistolary format.
The main character is Amélie Nothomb herself. I don't know much about her as an author so I don't know how true or false the Amélie Nothomb of the fiction book is vs. the Amélie Nothomb of the real world. The letters are between Amélie Nothomb as an author & a fan named Melvin, an American soldier serving in Iraq near the end of the Iraq war. It seems like his trauma response to being in war is to eat -- to the point that he has become obese. This is what Melvin & Amélie begin writing each other about & it evolves from there. Is his obesity protection? Protest? A buffer against loneliness? Does it engender shame? Pride? Artistic freedom? I feel like this book is about a human response to the world & its horrors/traumas, the importance of connection, the stories we tell ourselves & others, & our inner vs. outer selves. It definitely kept me reading (while also feeling slightly like I was rubbernecking).
This quote from the book sums up how I felt: "How should I react? I had no idea. Should I even react?"
3.5 stars. (WiT 2025.)
This book is from about 15 years ago & deals (at least partially) with obesity -- I'm not sure how it fares today vs. when originally written, though I think it would mostly be fine. It's perhaps a bit of auto-fiction with some meta-fiction in the mix told in a mostly epistolary format.
The main character is Amélie Nothomb herself. I don't know much about her as an author so I don't know how true or false the Amélie Nothomb of the fiction book is vs. the Amélie Nothomb of the real world. The letters are between Amélie Nothomb as an author & a fan named Melvin, an American soldier serving in Iraq near the end of the Iraq war. It seems like his trauma response to being in war is to eat -- to the point that he has become obese. This is what Melvin & Amélie begin writing each other about & it evolves from there. Is his obesity protection? Protest? A buffer against loneliness? Does it engender shame? Pride? Artistic freedom? I feel like this book is about a human response to the world & its horrors/traumas, the importance of connection, the stories we tell ourselves & others, & our inner vs. outer selves. It definitely kept me reading (while also feeling slightly like I was rubbernecking).
This quote from the book sums up how I felt: "How should I react? I had no idea. Should I even react?"
3.5 stars. (WiT 2025.)
January 18, 2012
Nothomb's books are often unconventional, yet this one still surprised me with its mixture of reality and fiction, the subject matter, the format, and the plot twists towards the end. In the space of 170 pages, as well as telling an involving and moving story she manages to touch on issues of body image, written vs. verbal communication, fame, writing itself, and much more besides. Impressive stuff.
April 14, 2019
Una novela de estilo epistolar, bastante surrealista a la vez que desconcertante. No puedo decir si me gustó o no; es como esos vídeos de golpes, que no te gustan, pero que no puedes dejar de ver. Es lo que me ha pasado con este libro: era incapaz de dejar de leer.
March 27, 2013
Two hundred pounds is already a huge person. I’m richer by one whole huge person now. Since she came and joined me here, I’ve been calling her Scheherazade. It’s not very kind to the real Scheherazade, who must have been a slender creature. But I’d rather identify her with one person and not two, and with a woman rather than a man, probably because I’m heterosexual. Besides, I like the idea of Scheherazade. She speaks to me all night long. She knows I can’t make love anymore, so instead of doing it with me she charms me with her beautiful stories. I’ll let you in on my secret: it’s thanks to Scheherazade’s storytelling that I can live with my obesity. I don’t need to make you a drawing to show you what would happen to me if the guys found out I gave the name of a woman to my fat. But I know that you won’t judge me. You have a few obese characters in your books, and the way you portray them they never lack dignity. And in your books they make up strange legends, like Scheherazade, to be able to go on living.
It’s as if she were the one writing this letter. I can’t get her to stop. I’ve never written such a long message in my life, which proves it’s not me. I hate my obesity, but I love Scheherazade. At night when my weight presses down my chest, I imagine it’s not me but a beautiful young woman lying on my body. I immerse myself in the story and I can hear her sweet feminine voice murmuring indescribable things in my ear. Then my fat arms squeeze her flesh and it’s so convincing that instead of feeling my own flab, I am touching a lover’s smooth skin. At times like that, believe me, I am happy. Better still: we are happy, she and I, the way only lovers can be.
***
Since discovering an English translation of Amélie Nothomb’s first novella Hygiene and the Assassin a couple of years ago, I’ve devoured, in very short order, what little of her work I’ve been able to find. This is fitting, given the themes of consumption—both of the artist and their art—at the heart of Life Form.
Employing a predominantly epistolary format, Life Form tells the story of the world famous writer Amélie Nothomb and her was-it-real-or-wasn’t-it correspondence with a man named Melvin Mapple, a dangerously obese and downtrodden American soldier stationed in Iraq in 2008. Mapple is a fan of Nothomb’s writing. He reaches out to her first for understanding, then for inspiration as he pours his woes out to an intrigued if not entirely confident ear. Mapple’s body is at once his worst enemy and closest confidante; he is a compulsive eater, using food to deal with the horrors he’s experienced as a soldier in Iraq. Over time, he has developed an attachment to the extra weight he carries around, seeing it as a lover, a family, an act of sabotage, and in the end, a work of art.
Through their correspondence, Nothomb addresses not only her own misgivings about Mapple’s attitude towards his self, but her reluctance to emotionally involve herself with a fan—someone she’s never met who, like so many who write to her every week, is in some way devouring a part of her as he slowly devours his own will to exist.
I won’t say much more about the plot because, like all of Nothomb’s books, Life Form is a trim, fast read that is best experienced in only one or two sittings. This novella, while embracing its uniquely epistolary format, does tread on some familiar ground for the author; weight, size, obesity, and the control or lack thereof such things symbolize are a continuing source of antagonism in her work—never a thing for belittling or condemning, but something to be at first acknowledged, then confronted, pulled into the here and now in order to be better understood.
From the beginning of her career, via the embittered, misogynistic Prétextat Tach of Hygiene and the Assassin, obesity and size have been prominent components of Nothomb’s literature. In Life Form, she’s able to muster an appreciation for Mapple as long as he remains on the other end of their correspondence, invisible and out of sight; she can dispense sympathy and support with greater ease than if her were in front of her, confronting her with his size. This point is made clear when two thirds of the way through the novella she receives a photograph of Mapple in all his corpulence. In that instant, the pondering over his girth and what it means for his health and mental state is replaced by an overwhelming parade of visual notes:
It hit me right in the face: a naked, hairless thing, so enormous that it spilled over the edge. A blister in full expansion: you could sense the flesh constantly searching for new opportunities to spread and swell, to conquer new terrain. The fresh flab must have to cross continents of fatty tissue to blossom on the surface, before crusting over like bacon draped over a roast to become the support for even newer fat. Thus is the void conquered by obesity: to add weight, the body annexes the empty space.
Not terribly warm-hearted of her, but striking and sense-igniting all the same. This passage, for all its negativity, is the author once more stripping her skin for the reader, revealing her… not her hatred of fat, but her fear of it, her struggle for control projected outward. Before seeing Mapple, his fat is simply an idea, not yet a reality—a mirror into which she sees something still worth raising one’s hackles over.
As the narrative progresses and, following certain revelations, plans to meet are made, the correspondence as a hunger in and of its self is made clear. Nothomb discusses the trouble with correspondence—the public feeding off the artist, always begging, always asking for more of her mind, her time, and her ideas. What become more obvious over time are the direct parallels between Mapple’s at times bi-polar reaction to his own physique and Nothomb’s semi-transparent social anxiety, each of which has roots in the other. Both, when all is said and done, tread a delicate balance between acknowledging their own fears and psychological limitations and self-victimizing in order to better avoid life and the world outside their tiny, protective-yet-destructive bubbles. Life Form is a missive about devouring and being devoured in every sense of the word, and where control rests in such situations.
There’s a certain amount of curiosity and innocence to Nothomb’s writing and how she sees and interacts with the world—in a perfunctory and highly visual manner, but not at all outwardly combative or dismissive. By often placing herself—or, at the very least, a heightened, possibly slightly fictionalized version of herself—at the forefront of the stories she tells, Nothomb crafts an unusually strong relationship with the reader in which she largely avoids social criticism and points her knives instead at her own chest. Life Form, like all her novellas, is a clean glass of ice water embracing an absolute brevity of language to maximum effect. Whether the correspondence between the author and Mapple actually happened is irrelevant, and surprisingly enough I have no desire to look further into the matter. What is important in the case of this narrative is the author’s willingness and ability to, without reservation, sheer away any and all pretension she might have had in favour of an honest appraisal of both Mapple and herself. What is revealed by the narrative’s end is equal parts sad, unsettling, and touching.
It’s as if she were the one writing this letter. I can’t get her to stop. I’ve never written such a long message in my life, which proves it’s not me. I hate my obesity, but I love Scheherazade. At night when my weight presses down my chest, I imagine it’s not me but a beautiful young woman lying on my body. I immerse myself in the story and I can hear her sweet feminine voice murmuring indescribable things in my ear. Then my fat arms squeeze her flesh and it’s so convincing that instead of feeling my own flab, I am touching a lover’s smooth skin. At times like that, believe me, I am happy. Better still: we are happy, she and I, the way only lovers can be.
***
Since discovering an English translation of Amélie Nothomb’s first novella Hygiene and the Assassin a couple of years ago, I’ve devoured, in very short order, what little of her work I’ve been able to find. This is fitting, given the themes of consumption—both of the artist and their art—at the heart of Life Form.
Employing a predominantly epistolary format, Life Form tells the story of the world famous writer Amélie Nothomb and her was-it-real-or-wasn’t-it correspondence with a man named Melvin Mapple, a dangerously obese and downtrodden American soldier stationed in Iraq in 2008. Mapple is a fan of Nothomb’s writing. He reaches out to her first for understanding, then for inspiration as he pours his woes out to an intrigued if not entirely confident ear. Mapple’s body is at once his worst enemy and closest confidante; he is a compulsive eater, using food to deal with the horrors he’s experienced as a soldier in Iraq. Over time, he has developed an attachment to the extra weight he carries around, seeing it as a lover, a family, an act of sabotage, and in the end, a work of art.
Through their correspondence, Nothomb addresses not only her own misgivings about Mapple’s attitude towards his self, but her reluctance to emotionally involve herself with a fan—someone she’s never met who, like so many who write to her every week, is in some way devouring a part of her as he slowly devours his own will to exist.
I won’t say much more about the plot because, like all of Nothomb’s books, Life Form is a trim, fast read that is best experienced in only one or two sittings. This novella, while embracing its uniquely epistolary format, does tread on some familiar ground for the author; weight, size, obesity, and the control or lack thereof such things symbolize are a continuing source of antagonism in her work—never a thing for belittling or condemning, but something to be at first acknowledged, then confronted, pulled into the here and now in order to be better understood.
From the beginning of her career, via the embittered, misogynistic Prétextat Tach of Hygiene and the Assassin, obesity and size have been prominent components of Nothomb’s literature. In Life Form, she’s able to muster an appreciation for Mapple as long as he remains on the other end of their correspondence, invisible and out of sight; she can dispense sympathy and support with greater ease than if her were in front of her, confronting her with his size. This point is made clear when two thirds of the way through the novella she receives a photograph of Mapple in all his corpulence. In that instant, the pondering over his girth and what it means for his health and mental state is replaced by an overwhelming parade of visual notes:
It hit me right in the face: a naked, hairless thing, so enormous that it spilled over the edge. A blister in full expansion: you could sense the flesh constantly searching for new opportunities to spread and swell, to conquer new terrain. The fresh flab must have to cross continents of fatty tissue to blossom on the surface, before crusting over like bacon draped over a roast to become the support for even newer fat. Thus is the void conquered by obesity: to add weight, the body annexes the empty space.
Not terribly warm-hearted of her, but striking and sense-igniting all the same. This passage, for all its negativity, is the author once more stripping her skin for the reader, revealing her… not her hatred of fat, but her fear of it, her struggle for control projected outward. Before seeing Mapple, his fat is simply an idea, not yet a reality—a mirror into which she sees something still worth raising one’s hackles over.
As the narrative progresses and, following certain revelations, plans to meet are made, the correspondence as a hunger in and of its self is made clear. Nothomb discusses the trouble with correspondence—the public feeding off the artist, always begging, always asking for more of her mind, her time, and her ideas. What become more obvious over time are the direct parallels between Mapple’s at times bi-polar reaction to his own physique and Nothomb’s semi-transparent social anxiety, each of which has roots in the other. Both, when all is said and done, tread a delicate balance between acknowledging their own fears and psychological limitations and self-victimizing in order to better avoid life and the world outside their tiny, protective-yet-destructive bubbles. Life Form is a missive about devouring and being devoured in every sense of the word, and where control rests in such situations.
There’s a certain amount of curiosity and innocence to Nothomb’s writing and how she sees and interacts with the world—in a perfunctory and highly visual manner, but not at all outwardly combative or dismissive. By often placing herself—or, at the very least, a heightened, possibly slightly fictionalized version of herself—at the forefront of the stories she tells, Nothomb crafts an unusually strong relationship with the reader in which she largely avoids social criticism and points her knives instead at her own chest. Life Form, like all her novellas, is a clean glass of ice water embracing an absolute brevity of language to maximum effect. Whether the correspondence between the author and Mapple actually happened is irrelevant, and surprisingly enough I have no desire to look further into the matter. What is important in the case of this narrative is the author’s willingness and ability to, without reservation, sheer away any and all pretension she might have had in favour of an honest appraisal of both Mapple and herself. What is revealed by the narrative’s end is equal parts sad, unsettling, and touching.
April 24, 2016
Life Form is a compelling and original book. For a start, Nothomb herself is the narrator, a Belgium writer living in France who receives a fan letter from an American soldier stationed in Iraq. At first, she gives a rote reply and is not too interested, but as the letters continue to come she gets caught up in the young man's story. Melvin Mapple is grotesquely obese, and his over-eating is a side-effect of the shock and horror of war, and a protest against it.
Mapple has put on two hundred pounds since going to Iraq, he tells Nothomb, and has even named his fat Scheherazade. 'She' gives him a sense of happiness, and protection. Amélie is increasingly riveted by Mapple's story, and encourages him to make a statement with his girth. As their epistolary friendship grows, she reveals things about her own public and private self and develops a kind of fondness for this obese soldier and his sad story. But this friendship built on shared words on paper is a fragile thing, and not entirely what it seems.
This is such a great book - I loved the premise, and the idea of using fat to protest the war, fantastic! But also tragic, because I can completely relate, or empathise with the idea of eating to deal with trauma; seems surprising it hasn't actually happened already (I think army rations has something to do with it - and once they've returned to their home lands, no one pays any attention to veterans, do they?). It is an odd feeling, reading a fictional story in which the writer has made themselves the main character - you don't know whether they're wearing a persona or not. Why do that? Why not simply make someone up, like usual? Or maybe this is Nothomb's style, I don't know - she might be prolific in Europe but she's not so well-known in English. I'm just curious, really, but I get the sense that all the details about her letter-writing and attitude are autobiographical. That reminds me: another aspect that is enjoyable about this book are her discussions around writing, letters and the blurred boundaries between public and private spheres for a writer.
I saw my first combat, with rocket fire, tanks, bodies exploding next to me and the men I killed myself. I discovered the meaning of terror. There may be some brave people who can stand it, but I'm not one of them. Some people lose their appetite, but most of them, including me, have just the opposite reaction. You come back from battle in a state of shock, terrified, amazed that you're alive, and the first thing you do after you change your pants (you'll have soiled them for sure) is make a beeline for the food. [...] You go crazy. There's something broken in us. It's not exactly that we like eating in this way, we just can't help it, we could kill ourselves eating, and maybe that's what we want.. [pp.24-5]
Mapple has put on two hundred pounds since going to Iraq, he tells Nothomb, and has even named his fat Scheherazade. 'She' gives him a sense of happiness, and protection. Amélie is increasingly riveted by Mapple's story, and encourages him to make a statement with his girth. As their epistolary friendship grows, she reveals things about her own public and private self and develops a kind of fondness for this obese soldier and his sad story. But this friendship built on shared words on paper is a fragile thing, and not entirely what it seems.
This is such a great book - I loved the premise, and the idea of using fat to protest the war, fantastic! But also tragic, because I can completely relate, or empathise with the idea of eating to deal with trauma; seems surprising it hasn't actually happened already (I think army rations has something to do with it - and once they've returned to their home lands, no one pays any attention to veterans, do they?). It is an odd feeling, reading a fictional story in which the writer has made themselves the main character - you don't know whether they're wearing a persona or not. Why do that? Why not simply make someone up, like usual? Or maybe this is Nothomb's style, I don't know - she might be prolific in Europe but she's not so well-known in English. I'm just curious, really, but I get the sense that all the details about her letter-writing and attitude are autobiographical. That reminds me: another aspect that is enjoyable about this book are her discussions around writing, letters and the blurred boundaries between public and private spheres for a writer.
August 5, 2024
Amelie Nothomb bütün kitaplarını okumaya ahdettiğim yazarlardan biri. Kendi kendime verdiğim bu sözü yerine getirmek kolay değil; yazar çok üretken biri, ilk kitabını 26 yaşında yazdıktan sonra hem büyük bir üne kavuşmuş hem de her yıl bir kitap yayınlamaya devam etmiş. Türkçe'de çok sayıda çevirisi mevcut ama çoğunun da baskısı yok.
Hiçbirine başyapıt denemez ancak garip bir büyüsü var kitaplarının. Bir Yaşam Biçimi'nde Nothomb Irak'ta savaşan Amerikalı bir askerle mektuplaşmasını anlatıyor.
Melvin isimli asker Nothomb'un kitaplarını okuyup çok beğeniyor ve beni anlasa anlasa bu kadın anlar diyerek yazara mektup gönderiyor. Nothomb'un ilginç bir özelliği kendisine mektup yazanlara mutlaka cevap vermesiymiş. Bu şekilde yıllardır mektuplaştığı okurları varmış.
Nothomb askerin mektubunu yanıtlayıp bana kendinden bahset deyince Melvin de uzun uzun anlatıyor. Amerika'da bir baltaya sap olamayınca son çare olarak orduya katılmış. Irak'ta yaşadıklarını, asker sivil fark etmez öldürdüğü insanlar onda büyük bir vicdan azabına yol açmış. Bunun sonucunda aşırı yemeye başlamış. Ordunun imkanları da geniş olunca kısa sürede geri dönüşü olmayacak şekilde kilo almaya başlamış. Şöyle diyor mektubunda:
"Bilindiği gibi insan yaşamak için yemeli. Ama biz ölmek için yiyoruz. Becerebileceğimiz tek intihar yöntemi bu. O kadar korkunç, o kadar dev gibiyiz ki, insana benzemiyoruz bile, oysa en insan olanlarımız yakalandı oburluk hastalığına. Hiçbir hastalığa yakalanmadan bu savaşın canavarlığını kaldıran adamlar var. Onlara hayranlık duymuyorum. Bu cesaret değil, duygu yoksunluğu."
Melvin Amerikan ordusundaki obez askerler hakkında hayal etmekte zorlanacağımız bilgiler ve şahitlikler anlatıyor. Bunlar o kadar sahici ki yazar da okuduklarına bigane kalamayıp devam ediyor yazışmaya.
Sonundaki sürpriz nedeniyle kurmaca mı gerçek mi yoksa ikisinden de biraz biraz mı diye tereddüde düştüğüm kitabı keyifle okudum. Farklı bir şeyler arayanlara tavsiye ederim.
Hiçbirine başyapıt denemez ancak garip bir büyüsü var kitaplarının. Bir Yaşam Biçimi'nde Nothomb Irak'ta savaşan Amerikalı bir askerle mektuplaşmasını anlatıyor.
Melvin isimli asker Nothomb'un kitaplarını okuyup çok beğeniyor ve beni anlasa anlasa bu kadın anlar diyerek yazara mektup gönderiyor. Nothomb'un ilginç bir özelliği kendisine mektup yazanlara mutlaka cevap vermesiymiş. Bu şekilde yıllardır mektuplaştığı okurları varmış.
Nothomb askerin mektubunu yanıtlayıp bana kendinden bahset deyince Melvin de uzun uzun anlatıyor. Amerika'da bir baltaya sap olamayınca son çare olarak orduya katılmış. Irak'ta yaşadıklarını, asker sivil fark etmez öldürdüğü insanlar onda büyük bir vicdan azabına yol açmış. Bunun sonucunda aşırı yemeye başlamış. Ordunun imkanları da geniş olunca kısa sürede geri dönüşü olmayacak şekilde kilo almaya başlamış. Şöyle diyor mektubunda:
"Bilindiği gibi insan yaşamak için yemeli. Ama biz ölmek için yiyoruz. Becerebileceğimiz tek intihar yöntemi bu. O kadar korkunç, o kadar dev gibiyiz ki, insana benzemiyoruz bile, oysa en insan olanlarımız yakalandı oburluk hastalığına. Hiçbir hastalığa yakalanmadan bu savaşın canavarlığını kaldıran adamlar var. Onlara hayranlık duymuyorum. Bu cesaret değil, duygu yoksunluğu."
Melvin Amerikan ordusundaki obez askerler hakkında hayal etmekte zorlanacağımız bilgiler ve şahitlikler anlatıyor. Bunlar o kadar sahici ki yazar da okuduklarına bigane kalamayıp devam ediyor yazışmaya.
Sonundaki sürpriz nedeniyle kurmaca mı gerçek mi yoksa ikisinden de biraz biraz mı diye tereddüde düştüğüm kitabı keyifle okudum. Farklı bir şeyler arayanlara tavsiye ederim.
November 17, 2012
Mi sono imbattuta in questo romanzo per caso.
Era un poì' che avevo voglia di leggere un romanzo della Nothomb e ne ho scelto uno, così, senza neanche leggere la trama.
Avevo sentito dire che la Nothomb o la ami o la odi.. Sono sincera, io non l'ho ancora capito.
Certamente questo romanzo parla di una forma di vita che non è sana, non è attiva, ma è quella di un obeso..
Un uomo che arriva ad un punto dove è impossibile tornare indietro, perchè il cibo è la peggior droga che si può trovare in commercio e oltretutto a buon mercato.
Un uomo che è anche un soldato..
Questa è la parte che mi ha stupito di più. Io i soldati me li immaginavo cotti dal sole, con sguardi tristi, ma determinati, ma soprattutto magri.
Non facce rubiconde dove non si capisce dove inizia il collo (perchè il collo scompare, su questo punto è stato molto esplicita la Nothomb), non pantaloni taglia XXXL, se non XXXXL...
Eppure non sono riuscita a staccare gli occhi da quelle pagine che mi raccontavano di una malattia inconsapevole, e descritta dalla Nothomb, ha preso sembianze ancora più agghiacianti, come di una persona che vive dentro di te e si nutre tramite te...
Pazzesco..
Non so nemmeno con descrivere lo stile della Nothomb, che in questo romanzo riporta le lettere del soldato e le commenta con un misto di ironia, cinismo e orrore indescrivibile..
Sono arrivata ad una conclusione: per essere una brava artista devi avere un modo particolare di vedere la realtà e la Nothomb ce l'ha.
Alcuni la definirebbero pazzia, molti altri genio.
Io propendo per la seconda.
Era un poì' che avevo voglia di leggere un romanzo della Nothomb e ne ho scelto uno, così, senza neanche leggere la trama.
Avevo sentito dire che la Nothomb o la ami o la odi.. Sono sincera, io non l'ho ancora capito.
Certamente questo romanzo parla di una forma di vita che non è sana, non è attiva, ma è quella di un obeso..
Un uomo che arriva ad un punto dove è impossibile tornare indietro, perchè il cibo è la peggior droga che si può trovare in commercio e oltretutto a buon mercato.
Un uomo che è anche un soldato..
Questa è la parte che mi ha stupito di più. Io i soldati me li immaginavo cotti dal sole, con sguardi tristi, ma determinati, ma soprattutto magri.
Non facce rubiconde dove non si capisce dove inizia il collo (perchè il collo scompare, su questo punto è stato molto esplicita la Nothomb), non pantaloni taglia XXXL, se non XXXXL...
Eppure non sono riuscita a staccare gli occhi da quelle pagine che mi raccontavano di una malattia inconsapevole, e descritta dalla Nothomb, ha preso sembianze ancora più agghiacianti, come di una persona che vive dentro di te e si nutre tramite te...
Pazzesco..
Non so nemmeno con descrivere lo stile della Nothomb, che in questo romanzo riporta le lettere del soldato e le commenta con un misto di ironia, cinismo e orrore indescrivibile..
Sono arrivata ad una conclusione: per essere una brava artista devi avere un modo particolare di vedere la realtà e la Nothomb ce l'ha.
Alcuni la definirebbero pazzia, molti altri genio.
Io propendo per la seconda.
March 9, 2011
A graphomaniac, Nothomb creates at least one novel per year while maintaining an immense correspondence. She's known to respond personally to each letter she receives. This novel dramatizes that practice: Amélie shares her (fictional) letters to and from a melancholy US soldier in Iraq. A Baltimore-born soldier who has read all her novels? An incisive insider critique of junk-food mess halls? A way into the vast problem of military health? (Check out an article in Slate about the appalling smorgasboard in mess halls at home and abroad: http://www.slate.com/id/2285229/ from 2/28/2011).
In the end, Amélie Nothomb's critique of American gluttony spirals into something wonderfully unexpected: she imagines the place of imagination and creativity in the face of Homeland Security, and our power to strike awe in our friends, correspondents, and neighbors. The last paragraph is staggering and takes this novel/memoir far away from its initial preachiness.
In the end, Amélie Nothomb's critique of American gluttony spirals into something wonderfully unexpected: she imagines the place of imagination and creativity in the face of Homeland Security, and our power to strike awe in our friends, correspondents, and neighbors. The last paragraph is staggering and takes this novel/memoir far away from its initial preachiness.
June 8, 2023
Decisamente non il mio preferito tra i brevi romanzi di Nothomb, un romanzo forse autobiografico o forse no, che parla di disturbi alimentari, quindi assolutamente non una novità per l'autrice belga, che ha un rapporto piuttosto particolare con il cibo e nei cui romanzi spesso si incontrano personaggi bulimici o anoressici.
La novità sta nel fatto che si tratta quasi di un romanzo epistolare, della corrispondenza di Amélie con questo militare statunitense obeso, con un finale à la Nothomb che mi ha fatto ridere malgrado fosse piuttosto tragico, questa volta. Chissà da dove le è venuta l'ispirazione... forse dai famosi foglietti verdi della dogana statunitense.
La novità sta nel fatto che si tratta quasi di un romanzo epistolare, della corrispondenza di Amélie con questo militare statunitense obeso, con un finale à la Nothomb che mi ha fatto ridere malgrado fosse piuttosto tragico, questa volta. Chissà da dove le è venuta l'ispirazione... forse dai famosi foglietti verdi della dogana statunitense.
June 26, 2018
"Otkad si počela pisati, za čime tragaš? Što već tako dugo priželjkuješ u tom svom revnom nastojanju? Što je za tebe pisanje?
Znaš to: svakoga dana pišeš kao mahnita jer tražiš izlaz u slučaju opasnosti. Biti pisac za tebe znači očajnički tragati za izlaznim vratima. Peripetija koju duguješ svojoj podsvijesti navela te da ih nađeš. Ostani u tom avionu, čekaj dolazak. Predat ćeš dokumente carini. I tvoj će nemogući život biti gotov. Bit ćeš oslobođena svoga ključnoga problema - sebe same."
dođoh u napast da joj pošaljem pismo ❤️
Znaš to: svakoga dana pišeš kao mahnita jer tražiš izlaz u slučaju opasnosti. Biti pisac za tebe znači očajnički tragati za izlaznim vratima. Peripetija koju duguješ svojoj podsvijesti navela te da ih nađeš. Ostani u tom avionu, čekaj dolazak. Predat ćeš dokumente carini. I tvoj će nemogući život biti gotov. Bit ćeš oslobođena svoga ključnoga problema - sebe same."
dođoh u napast da joj pošaljem pismo ❤️
July 12, 2019
In just 125 pages, Nothomb addressed many different social issues in this partly autobiographical, partly epistolary novel: the gorging of food among US Army soldiers stationed in Iraq as a means to deal with the atrocities of the unjust war; the epistolary relationship between a writer and her fan readers and the art of writing letters; the relationship with food and one's treatment of obesity as a work of art; the identity issue; and the shared reality which may or may not be true.
Life Form is a brilliantly clever novel blending fact and fiction together in a humorous and satirical tone.
Life Form is a brilliantly clever novel blending fact and fiction together in a humorous and satirical tone.
August 16, 2012
Como siempre, Nothomb me sorprende.
Lo que empieza como una relación epistolar se vuelve de pronto una intriga de vida y cuerpo de hambre y sueño de ficción y realidad. ¿Es esto una novela? no lo sé, poco importa porque la autora logra... no no no, el señor Mapple logra envolvernos en su vida y en su peso. Una forma de vida presenta un twist al final que lo deja a uno sin aliento.
Lo que empieza como una relación epistolar se vuelve de pronto una intriga de vida y cuerpo de hambre y sueño de ficción y realidad. ¿Es esto una novela? no lo sé, poco importa porque la autora logra... no no no, el señor Mapple logra envolvernos en su vida y en su peso. Una forma de vida presenta un twist al final que lo deja a uno sin aliento.
August 9, 2025
klasik bir nothomb, sahil kenarında başladı bitti, ilginçti...
June 5, 2017
There were several things about this book I found compelling - the idea of the author corresponding with so many people, for one, and her general enthusiasm for correspondence. But several of the details ruined the experience. The author got a lot of the details about the military so wrong...still a private after eight years in the army? Soldiers are all either promoted at regular intervals or else demobilized if they don't qualify for promotion. Spending the whole time in Iraq, with no rotations back to the States? Also doesn't happen. Tours are are 9-18 months, and they generally don't allow more than two back-to-back, even in wartime. I also don't understand how she could have received letters from a war zone in such a short time - they'd have had to go back to the U.S. first to the mailing facility first. There's no way he could have received her letter, written a reply, and the reply have reached her, all in a mere six days. Even the premise of the book - that a soldier could put on a few hundred pounds in a combat zone - is just ridiculous. The military regularly has physical fitness tests (abbreviated as PFTs, and happening every six months to a year) that everyone (even people with desk jobs) have to pass, and on top of that even if you pass, you have to meet a certain BMI. Soldiers who are very muscular often fail because it measures BMI instead of fat percentages. It just made me feel like she wasn't very bright not to notice any of this. How can an author of several dozen books be so out of touch with the rest of the world as not to even question these things? So her bizarre decision at the end just made me think she's also pretty impulsive in addition to stupid, which sort of destroys the magic of a sympathetic narrator.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 25, 2017
Amélie Nothomb, la escritora belga, empieza a recibir cartas de Melvin Mapple, un soldado estadounidense de servicio en Irak. Mapple le cuenta el padecimiento rutinario que vive por su enfermedad y la situación bélica: será el último de los soldados de USA en regresar a casa. El carteo se hace más frecuente e íntimo, lo que lleva a Amélie a sentirse involucrada en la vida del soldado. Al igual que en Estupor y temblores, nos encontramos en otra narración donde destacan el contraste de culturas y la fascinación por las rarezas que caracterizan a estas. Mapple parece representar la perspectiva que tiene la narradora sobre USA: una cultura cruel, violenta y superficial. El intercambio epistolar también se convierte en una teoría sobre los límites y posibilidades de la ficción y el arte: Mapple quiere convertir su padecimiento en una obra artística, situación que está a medio camino entre lo noble y lo grotesco. Uno no sabe si la intención de Nothomb es la fina burla de las excentricidades artísticas, la legitimidad de la ficción, una mirada noble sobre la soledad o acaso todas a la vez. En todo caso, el sentido del humor subyace en las reflexiones de las propias excentricidades de Amélie narradora: es una misántropa compasiva que se entiende mejor con las personas a través de sus letras. El intercambio cautiva a medida que se vuelve más confesional por parte de Mapple, queremos saber hasta dónde llegará su relación con la belga. Le hubiera puesto cinco estrellas si no fuera porque la resolución de la historia no me parece satisfactoria y su vuelta de tuerca se aleja de la sutileza del final de Estupor y temblores. Vale la pena, sin embargo, por la combinación entre acción y reflexión delicadamente irónica de sus cartas. “Todo escritor lleva a un estafador en su interior”.
March 14, 2017
Me gusta la forma de escribir (o la traducción) de Amelie Nothomb, sin excesivas florituras, con una narrativa que traza lineas rectas y pese a ello no renuncia a la reflexión.
Y es que el libro en cuestión se presta para ello, tratándose de un breve intercambio de cartas entre la escritora y un soldado estadounidense enviado a Irak quien acusa estrés postraumatico de una forma distinta al que las películas, libros, etc nos tienen acostumbrado, que en su caso es comiendo en cantidades monstruosas y de forma autodestructiva. Llegando a tal punto que su estancia en la guerra lo convierte en un obeso de más de 180 kilos.
Además no solo él, sino varios soldados se encuentran en ese estado de autosabotaje -y de paso generan una visible protesta contra sus superiores y el sinsentido de la guerra- de una forma que los vuelve kamikazes desechables y a la vez busca visibilizar físicamente las culpas de los mismos.
Si bien el último tercio tiene algún giro (imposible spoilear esta clase de texto) que podría ser un poco endeble, tanto la reflexión del arte de las cartas, como la historia del soldado Melvin Mapple hacen de esta novela corta una lectura necesaria.
"Dicen que hay que comer para vivir.Nosotros, en cambio ,comemos para morir. Es el único suicidio que tenemos a mano. Somos tan enormes que apenas parecemos humanos; sin embargo, los más humanos de entre nosotros son los que han caído en la bulimia. Hay muchachos que han tolerado la monstruosidad de esta guerra sin caer en ninguna forma de patología. No les admiro. No es valentía, es falta de sensibilidad por su parte."
Y es que el libro en cuestión se presta para ello, tratándose de un breve intercambio de cartas entre la escritora y un soldado estadounidense enviado a Irak quien acusa estrés postraumatico de una forma distinta al que las películas, libros, etc nos tienen acostumbrado, que en su caso es comiendo en cantidades monstruosas y de forma autodestructiva. Llegando a tal punto que su estancia en la guerra lo convierte en un obeso de más de 180 kilos.
Además no solo él, sino varios soldados se encuentran en ese estado de autosabotaje -y de paso generan una visible protesta contra sus superiores y el sinsentido de la guerra- de una forma que los vuelve kamikazes desechables y a la vez busca visibilizar físicamente las culpas de los mismos.
Si bien el último tercio tiene algún giro (imposible spoilear esta clase de texto) que podría ser un poco endeble, tanto la reflexión del arte de las cartas, como la historia del soldado Melvin Mapple hacen de esta novela corta una lectura necesaria.
"Dicen que hay que comer para vivir.Nosotros, en cambio ,comemos para morir. Es el único suicidio que tenemos a mano. Somos tan enormes que apenas parecemos humanos; sin embargo, los más humanos de entre nosotros son los que han caído en la bulimia. Hay muchachos que han tolerado la monstruosidad de esta guerra sin caer en ninguna forma de patología. No les admiro. No es valentía, es falta de sensibilidad por su parte."
February 4, 2014
Amelie Nothomb writes well. She frequently inserts herself into her stories when she is not in fact the protagonist. Her stories are often bizarre and have an otherworldly quality to them.
I knew all this when I picked up Une forme de vie. The pleasure of her other books inspired me to read it. This one, though, just didn't stack up.
I like least the books in which Nothomb plays a large role, but this one was especially narcissistic. Fictional fan letters? That goes a little far, don't you think, Ms. Nothomb? In startling arrogance, Nothomb (in the story) assumes she knows everything about the man on the other side of the letters. Of course, Nothomb (in reality) does know all there is to know, since he is her character, but it was still hard to put up with. Nothomb was proven wrong about the character on several occasions, but the novel wasn't at all critical of her assumptions.
I often recommend Nothomb to friends. This book will not be one of those I suggest.
I knew all this when I picked up Une forme de vie. The pleasure of her other books inspired me to read it. This one, though, just didn't stack up.
I like least the books in which Nothomb plays a large role, but this one was especially narcissistic. Fictional fan letters? That goes a little far, don't you think, Ms. Nothomb? In startling arrogance, Nothomb (in the story) assumes she knows everything about the man on the other side of the letters. Of course, Nothomb (in reality) does know all there is to know, since he is her character, but it was still hard to put up with. Nothomb was proven wrong about the character on several occasions, but the novel wasn't at all critical of her assumptions.
I often recommend Nothomb to friends. This book will not be one of those I suggest.
January 20, 2015
- Deseo existir para usted. Es pretencioso? No lo sé. Si lo es, lo siento. Es lo más auténtico que puedo decirle: deseo existir para usted.
-Las personas son como países. Resulta maravilloso que haya tantos y que una perpetua deriva de los continentes propicie que se encuentren islas tan nuevas. Pero si esa téctónica de las placas lleva un territorio desconocido hasta tu orilla, la hostilidad aparece de inmediato. Sólo quedan dos soluciones: la guerra o la diplomacia.
-La lectura permite descubrir al otro conservando esa profundidad que sólo se tiene cuando estás solo.
- El drama de los náufragos de la existencia es que, en lugar de abrirse a los demás, se repliegan sobre su sufrimiento y ya no salen de él...La correspondencia es una forma de palabra: la confidencia te salva de la asfixia.
-Las personas son como países. Resulta maravilloso que haya tantos y que una perpetua deriva de los continentes propicie que se encuentren islas tan nuevas. Pero si esa téctónica de las placas lleva un territorio desconocido hasta tu orilla, la hostilidad aparece de inmediato. Sólo quedan dos soluciones: la guerra o la diplomacia.
-La lectura permite descubrir al otro conservando esa profundidad que sólo se tiene cuando estás solo.
- El drama de los náufragos de la existencia es que, en lugar de abrirse a los demás, se repliegan sobre su sufrimiento y ya no salen de él...La correspondencia es una forma de palabra: la confidencia te salva de la asfixia.
September 27, 2017
Yazar, bu kez yine şaşırtıcı, farklı bir metinle çıkmış karşımıza. Irak'ta savaşan bir Amerikan askeriyle mektuplaşma öyküsüdür okuduğumuz. Asker, Nortomb 'un bütün kitaplarını okumuştur, başarısız bir ressamlık geçmişi vardır. Ordudaki birçok asker gibi o da 170 kiloluk bir obezdir. Mektuplaşma ilerledikçe konu iyice ilginçleşir ve yine şaşırtıcı bir son bizi bekler.
Amelie Nortomb' un okuduğum en güzel romanı Katilin Temizliği 'ydi. Bu kitabı da oldukça beğendim. Kitabın bir özelliği de dört farklı kapak tasarımı ile basılmış olması..
Amelie Nortomb' un okuduğum en güzel romanı Katilin Temizliği 'ydi. Bu kitabı da oldukça beğendim. Kitabın bir özelliği de dört farklı kapak tasarımı ile basılmış olması..
April 15, 2019
Si hay algo que caracteriza a esta escritora es que es diferente, tanto que llega a incomodar. Esta entrega no me pareció la mejor de ella pero tampoco puedo decir que no me haya gustado. En realidad aún no lo tengo claro. El hecho es que ella mueve sentimientos, te hace pensar con palabras muy directas, sin disfraces en circunstancias que nunca te plantearías, en las que no te detendrías ni un segundo a meditar.
January 9, 2012
Un livre qui change. Beaucoup de confessions de la part de cette auteure que j'apprécie. Je suis arrivée à la dernière page, j'ai tourné et ... et la suite ?! Je ne m'attendais certes pas une fin de ce genre, mais je suppose que ça fait partie du charme du livre :)
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