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Chargement... The English understand wool (édition 2022)par Helen DeWitt
Information sur l'oeuvreThe English Understand Wool par Helen DeWitt
Top Five Books of 2023 (104) Books Read in 2023 (698) Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. A light, dry, chilly short story about a teenager called Marguerite who is from a privileged background. The satirical jabs about the publishing industry are fun; the voice is entertaining, but the main character fails to entirely convince. ( ) Marguerite’s maman is a woman of high standards. She goes to Scotland to purchase a bolt of fine tweed. But she takes that tweed to London to have it made into clothes. Linen is purchased in Ireland but is cut for clothes in Paris. There are other strictures to her routine and Marguerite has taken all of them on board. So the sudden disappearance of Marguerite’s “parents” is less traumatic than might be expected. Even that these characters had made off with $100 million dollars of Marguerite’s real inheritance is not troublesome for her. She had, after all, been given a perfectly splendid education, and expressing dismay now would certainly display mauvais ton. Helen DeWitt’s creation is an absolute delight. So measured and controlled. And, despite her youth, so wise. Even the brevity of the book is not distressing. An excess would, in Marguerite’s understanding, be mauvais ton. Definitely recommended. Enjoy! As I said, I picked this up because I loved her novel The Last Samurai. This turned out to be very short, more of a short story even, rather than a novella. But it is nevertheless very good. The story is narrated by a young girl who we learn has been engaged to write a memoir. We learn the reasons she has been asked to write a memoir at such a young age over the course of the story. From the beginning we learn that she has had an unconventional upbringing in Marrakech. She has lived a fabulously wealthy lifestyle, frequently traveling, staying only in the best hotels (Claridges in London, Georges V in Paris), where the best pianos are placed in their suite so she can keep up with her piano lessons. The title refers to the trips to the Hebrides to purchase the handwoven tweeds for the tailor in London. (Linen must come from Ireland, silk from Thailand). It's all a pleasant frolic as the young narrator outwits those surrounding her who are trying to take advantage. Recommended. 3 1//2 stars aucune critique | ajouter une critique
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"Raised in Marrakech by a French mother and English father, a 17-year-old girl has learned above all to avoid mauvais ton ("bad taste" loses something in the translation). One should not ask servants to wait on one during Ramadan: they must have paid leave while one spends the holy month abroad. One must play the piano; if staying at Claridge's, one must regrettably install a Clavinova in the suite, so that the necessary hours of practice will not be inflicted on fellow guests. One should cultivate weavers of tweed in the Outer Hebrides but have the cloth made up in London; one should buy linen in Ireland but have it made up by a Thai seamstress in Paris (whose genius has been supported by purchase of suitable premises). All this and much more she has learned, governed by a parent of ferociously lofty standards. But at 17, during the annual Ramadan travels, she finds all assumptions overturned. Will she be able to fend for herself? Will the dictates of good taste suffice when she must deal, singlehanded, with the sharks of New York?"-- Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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