Comments on: Fear and Trembling

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:22:43 +0000

The film of this book (with the same title) is very good as well – I would recommend that you see it if you get a chance.

By: Ad Blankestijn

Ad Blankestijn — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:03:55 +0000

Sounds interesting, I am going to read her other novels as well!

By: Hetty

Hetty — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:49:47 +0000

And then I almost forgot to mention her other book about Japan, Ni d’Eve ni d’Adam, which is about her love affair there.
The best way to learn Japanese, she wrote, is to teach French to Japanese.

By: Hetty

Hetty — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:09:56 +0000

Amélie Nothomb is one of my favourite writers. Stupeur et Tremblements appeared some years ago, but I still remember vividly some scenes. Her style of writing is difficult to describe, but it love it. It’s Socratic, its acidic, its humorous. In her following book Métaphysique des Tubes she has toned down her harsh judgment on Japanese society somewhat. There is a funny episode in which her dad (again it’s fictional biography and about Japan) falls into a sewer pipe during the long rains, and she says:
Tu es dans le miso, Papa?
There may even be something Japanese in her style. There is a kind of hardness of fatality you often see in Japanese films, something like that.
She is fascinated by little things that other people wouldn’t even notice about Japan.