Partage des connaissances

Nom canonique: Poirier, Agnès Catherine
Date de naissance: 1975
Sexe: female
Nationalité: France
Lieu de naissance: Paris, France
Études: London School of Economics
Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris
Sorbonne
Professions: journalist
political commentator
film critic
author
Courte biographie: Agnès C. Poirier was born in Paris and graduated from the Sorbonne and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences-Po). She went to live in London in 1995, originally as a Ph.D. student at the London School of Economics. She's an independent writer for Le Nouvel Observateur and Le Monde, and her work in English has been featured in The Guardian, The Times and The Independent on Sunday. She also has been a correspondent for Marianne, La Vie and the Italian L'espresso. From 2001 to 2006, she was a political correspondent and film critic for Libération. She's also an advisor to the Cannes Film Festival on British films. She is a regular contributor to the BBC, Sky News, and Al Jazeera. Her first book was Les Nouveaux Anglais (2005), followed by Touché! A French Woman's Take on the English (2006), Le Modèle anglais, une illusion française (2007), and Les Pintades à Londres (2008).

Membres

Critiques

Left Bank: Art, Passion and the Rebirth of Paris… par Agnès Poirier

Poirier follows the same formula as Mary McAuliffe, that is, going year by year and within each year, discussing all those who were relevant. I don't know if McAuliffe is the first to construct a history this way, but she's the first author I've read who does it. And I must say, she does it much better than Poirier. The method gives you a running history of the place, but a disjointed history of each of the subjects. I found this to be the case in McAuliffe's writing, but I thought it was effective in that it gave you a good idea of how they all fit in together into the history of Paris at the time. When one was doing this, another was doing that, etc. But with Poirier it is far more disjointed, so much so that it gave me the feeling of when your car jerks back and forth because the fuel pump or spark plugs aren't working properly, and I didn't find it a pleasure to read. Thus I would say that this book is on a very interesting subject, but it is not very well written.… (plus d'informations)

Signalé

dvoratreis | 10 autres critiques | May 22, 2024 |

Left Bank: Art, Passion, and the Rebirth of Paris,… par Agnès Poirier

It had me hooked. This is a wonderful piece of non-fiction that chronicles the development of the Paris Left-Bank intellectuals. The author explains how the second world war was a prime influence in shaping the minds and attitudes of Parisians and how, in the time after the war, the intellectuals and artists influenced the public and government through publications, demonstrations and debate. All this is played out on the world's political, artistic and intellectual stage. The author's style draws the reader in as she uses source material to extrapolate the personal and emotional events of her subjects. This is an accessible history of a fascinating time.… (plus d'informations)

Signalé

dwhatson | 10 autres critiques | Aug 11, 2023 |

Left Bank: Art, Passion, and the Rebirth of Paris,… par Agnès Poirier

(book #63 from 2022):
Left Bank : Art, Passion, and the Rebirth of Paris, 1940-1950 by Agnès Poirier
reader: Christa Lewis
published: 2018
format: 13:49 audible audiobook (352 pages in hardcover)
acquired: December 11, 2022 listened: Dec 11-30, 2022
rating: 2½
genre/style: cultural history theme: Richard Wright
locations: Paris
about the author: French journalist working in London, born 1975

My Litsy post:

Poirier‘s fact-dump on post-war Paris - 1945-1949 - is more like a biography on Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, but without getting too close. It‘s so fact dense, that it practically lacks a narrative. Unfortunately it‘s compromised on audio by a terrible effort that make no distinction of tone or subject changes. It becomes monotonous facts. They‘re deadening at their worst, but hit strides of fascination. My last audiobook for 2022.

---

Fact-wise there is a lot of interesting stuff here. She begins with an effort to capture the WWII occupied France experience, especially for Sartre (who was imprisoned), Beauvoir, Picasso & Camus, Hungarian-born, Jewish Arthur Koestler, and the Irish Samuel Beckett. Then after the war ends in Europe, as Paris lives in a state of shortages, rationing & rebuilding, and remaking its Republic, and when the WWII resistance Communist heroes were politically prominent, tilting France ever so close towards that direction, then she brings in both the intellectual explosion and international visitors. I can't capture all the names, but they include Canadian-born Chicago author Saul Bellow, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Nelson Algren, actor Marlon Brando (who I didn't know was gay), Norman Mailer and many more.

The five-year post-war period she covers was unique in France in that the leading intellectuals, like Sartre and Koestler, had political impact, and influenced the direction of the Republic. Their support for Communism helped encourage its spread, and when they later pulled away, it helped defeat it. Sartre eventually created his own party, and its rather pathetic failure is presented here as eclipsing much of how he saw the purpose of his life. A non-violent resister during the war, unlike, say Camus, who was in the action, his philosophical ways had influence, but not as much as he imagined, unless that's just Poirier's spin. I don't really know. Beauvoir, his non-exclusive partner, did not eclipse. She published [The Second Sex] during this period, a book Poirier makes almost the high point of her book. She left me wanting to read it.

So, this has the information to make a good book. But is tries to cover so much, switches topics so fast, that I was really left feeling like I just took in a fact dump, without atmosphere and without any true sense of what all these artists were actually creating. So, ultimately, not recommended for anyone who is looking for atmosphere in their literature.

2022
https://www.librarything.com/topic/347061#8028907… (plus d'informations)

Signalé

dchaikin | 10 autres critiques | Jan 7, 2023 |

Left Bank: Art, Passion, and the Rebirth of Paris,… par Agnes Poirier

לא באמת ספר טוב. יותר רכילות של זיונים, פגישות, מקומות, ותאריכים של מפורסתמים בגדה השמאלית של פריז בשנות המלחמה ואחריה. מרתק בגלל שזו מפה, גם אם לא מוסברת, של תקופה ומקום שהיו מיוחדים מאוד לדור שלי וכנראה שלא יחזרו עוד. חשוב כדי להזכיר לך בכמה מקומות היית וכמה ספרים קראת וכמה אתה רוצה עוד לקרוא פעם שנייה או ראשונה… (plus d'informations)