It is a violent book – and quite graphic at times. I don’t think this is a book for everyone, as I can think of one scene in particular which involves children experimenting with sex, and it was just very hard to read. There’s no denying it is a very coarse and raw book. At first, we try to be like the others, and I have tried to be like everyone else. We do not know that an escape is possible. But first, we do not naturally think of running away because we do not know that there is an elsewhere. On essaye dans un premier temps d’être comme les autres, et j’ai essayé d’être comme tout le monde. On ne sait pas que la fuite est une possibilité. Mais d’abord, on ne pense pas spontanément à la fuite parce qu’on ignore qu’il existe un ailleurs. I also read that it was pretty much a best-seller in the US, although it was criticised in France for its coarse language and crude representation of the working class poor. I can see why this would be, as there is a constant opposition between the narrator’s elegant prose in a perfect written French, and his family’s mundane and vulgar spoken words. I haven’t read the English translation but heard that it didn’t quite convey the subtleties of language of the original version. It was first published in France in 2014 and was translated into English two years later by Michael Lucey (published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Before I delve into the content of the book, I think it’s important to note that I’ve read this novel in its original language – French.
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