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| My French tutor |
My second (weekly) visit with my new French conversation tutor, Annie, in Glastonbury this afternoon. I chose this article from Le Monde to discuss: the reaction of the « foulards rouges » (red scarfs) against the violence and looting associated with a « gilets jaunes » movement which continues to maintain its strength across France into the new year.
We talked about that for quite a bit - I can basically follow her slightly-slowed-down idiomatic French. I mentioned that I had read Michel Houellebecq's novel 'Submission' in translation but I really wished I could read it in the original French, not least because his latest novel, Sérotonine (which is said to accurately diagnose the social malaise underpinning the revolt of 'peripheral France'), won't be available in English until the Autumn.
I reviewed 'Submission' a year ago.
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| Amazon link |
The problem is that with a literary novel, even an accurate translation of the words will fail to capture the wealth of cultural allusions which underpin the essential quality of the work for a native speaker.
Annie agreed, and as homework suggested I order 'Maigret' and read that: several times.
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