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The pace is....very...slow!

Read 11/30 stories (36%)

Starting early to read books for challenge #GermanLitMonth.
The Trial - good so far. pg 16/182

Book truly deserved Prix Goncourt 2025...absolutely magnificent!

This biography is so easy to read in French, thank you Stefan Zweig!

Balzac is starting (1829) to become "the-talk-of-the-town"! (30 yr)

The author has an 'incredible' vocabulary!!

Finally finished the...prologue!

This book is a massive puzzle.
Take notes!

Another reference to (motif) Moon: Piano piece that he learned with teacher Rothenberg « Clair de Lune ».
Not much happened on these pages. Joe discovers some boys have a secret society they call « the watchtower »
According to Joe (narrator) simple fun and games, nothing more.

Having some second thoughts about this book.
At times I read it w/ reluctance! Pacing is at a snail's pace, useless page filling with bird and baby's name. So sick of all the attention on that damn bird, « corneille »! So sick of all the attention on fine a first name for the baby! Try to finish this book ASAP!

Baldwin has been in Paris for a year. Bad news - has learned French yet!
Good news: he has met the love of his life Lucien Happersberger (Swiss). Will he remain top on Baldwin's list?

Balzac is still struggling. First attempt « Cromwell » was a dud. He has 1 more year or $$ credit from his parents and he is going for it!

Irony: Abbot Séance (director of Catholic Orphanage, « Les Confins ») described (pg 76) « un tendresse toute franciscaine » - Abbot is anything BUT KIND!!

Last thought: Madeleine's ( grandmother, la vieille) hatred for Alfred feels overdetermined: it’s too intense to be only about ecology or property rights; it smells of a personal history where Alfred has already violated someone or something that mattered deeply to her.

Verbs  I see mostly in CF.
C: colmater (stop, seal off) - se chianer (squabble), chialer (whine, blubber)
A: alpaguer (grab smth, sb)
Verbs I hate!
R: raccommoder, rafistoler  and ravauger (mend, patch up smth) - pop up and annoy me all the time!
Two new characters ALFRED and LYSIANE.  (pg 116)
Grandmother HATES Alfred...why?

This book is going nowhere fast,
Skim 48 pages...not my kind of book!
I'm afraid all the suspense and
resolutions will be in the last 10 pages!!

Arrives at "Les Confns" and we read who' who:
Grenouille, Etienne, Rachid (lay personal)
Momo, Souzix, Fouine (boys)
Soeur Angeliqe, Hélène, Albertine (the sisters)
L'Abbé Sénac, Mgr. Théas, (clergy)
Daily routine, dormitory, meals in the mess
Book is oké but I hope it gets better soon.

2 year $$ credit from parents, if you are not a celebrated writer by then you must go to school to become lawyer/notary!
Never underestimate Balzac's mother! She intentionally rents the WORST apartment she can find for him. She wants to « amener à réspiscence"   bring him to his senses! Balzac describes his "trou" (dump) in « La Peau de Chagrin » Very engaging biography, Zweig is an excellent  NF writer!  (pg 34-43)