Five Photos of My Wife - Softcover

Desarthe, Agnès

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007100922 ISBN 13: 9780007100927

Verlag: Flamingo, 2001

Über diesen Titel

Reseña del editor:

The English debut of a bestselling novelist, kin to Penelope Fitzgerald and Louis Begley in style and subtlety.

At eighty, Max Opass is still reeling from the death of his wife a year earlier. His two grown-up children live abroad with their own families, his son in Bolivia, his daughter in Japan: he writes awkwardly to his daughter with the news of his humdrum activities and tells her that he’s decided to have his wife’s portrait committed to paper or canvas, permanently and posthumously. So, he looks up ‘Artists’ in the Yellow Pages, picks a few for arbitrary reasons, and calls them up. He asks each if they will paint a portrait of his wife, using his five favourite photographs of her for their sole visual reference. One artist – successful and modish – intimidates him; another – an amateur raising kids by herself – prompts him to pity; a pair of art students baffle him; and a bridge-playing acquaintance turns out to have elderly hots for him. Each encounter, each portrait, is both comic and moving, like Max. As these accumulate, the reader comes to realise that Max’s grasp on who his wife really was is not so sure after all. Nor indeed is he a star of self-knowledge. Through a sequence of droll confrontations, his and our understanding expand, and by the end of the book he finds his priorities and intentions have altered utterly. And the reader is brought, quietly and slyly, to an appreciation of loss, memory, love and the uselessness of false images. The book oscillates calmly between being amusing and being reflective, and delivers a powerful slow punch at its close.

Agnès Desarthe began her writing life as a children’s writer, and it shows here: as in Gretta Mulrooney’s ‘Araby’, not a word is wasted and the pace is even and sure. In its sympathetic but unsentimental portrayal of a deluded old man, the book is reminiscent of Louis Begley’s work. And in her dry wit, exquisite ear for conversation and reverberating sense of more being meant than at first seems apparent, there are echoes of Penelope Fitzgerald or Hilary Mantel.

Contraportada:

Still reeling from the death of his beloved wife Telma, old Max Opass writes to his daughter with news of his empty days and humdrum activities – and tells her that he's decided to Telma's likeness committed to canvas.

To start with, he looks up 'Artists' in the Yellow Pages, picks a few at random, and commissions each to produce a portrait of his wife, working from five snapshot photographs from reference. But while one artist intimidates Max, another prompts him to pity; a pair of art students baffle him; and a bridge-playing acquaintance turns out to have the elderly hots for him. And with each subsequent moving, sometimes comic encounter, the reader comes to realise that Max's grasp on who his wife really was perhaps is not so sure after all...

'A subtle and sly dissection of love, loss and truth. Darkly funny, too.'
ELLE

'A rare tribute to the love of a wife... Desarthe's gentle novel, lucidly translated by Adriana Hunter, is the kind of mood piece at which the French excel. While many kinds of art are evoked (acrylic, oils, collage and video), her own prose suggest a watercolour – delicate, subtle and full of charm.'
MICAEL ARDITTI, 'Daily Mail'

'From the memories of an old man, Agnes Desarthe has carved our a novel of irresistible charm. It is sober, tender, moving, underpinned by the disorienting wit of the hero Max, and haunted by his unforgettable wife Telma. Desarthe is a master at expressing the unspeakable truths of daily life and of time passing.'
MADAME FIGARO

'Well told, elegantly conceived and constructed.'
DOMINIC BRADLEY, 'The Times'

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: Flamingo
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0007100922
• ISBN 13: 9780007100927
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 176