I finished The Last Life a few days ago and enjoyed it. I wondered how an American could write about French Algerians but I gather that she does have a French/Algerian background. Could it have worked in some other setting, e.g. British born in India for instance? Mostly it was a coming of age book about 15 year old Sagesse LeBasse and I'm a sucker for these: Holden Caulfied, etc.
In any case, I'll stop here with Messud until her next ones. I don't know if I'd want to read any others. Unlike AM Homes, whom I was really sucked into book after book. I stopped reading only because I couldn't find any more on the library shelf. It may be time to get back to them.
2 comments:
"I wondered how an American could write about French Algerians"
Perhaps the same way a person who has never lived in New York could write about "New Yorkers", as Messud did in "The Emperor's Children"?
Then again, science fiction writers never lived on their planets, so that's why we call it fiction I suppose.
Yes, that is true but at the very least it would have to pass the laugh test. It passed with me but would it have passed with someone else? The Danes or Finns or French or Algerians or any combination thereof?
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