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A Very Long Engagement
This is a wonderful little book, a best-seller and heart-wrenching tear-jerker in the best sense (and there is a good sense of those terms). A girl's fiance' is reported dead in World War One, but she has reason to doubt the report. She tracks down leads for years, with the sort of perseverance only such a motivation brings. In the process she encounters help and hindrance, lies and truth, wisdom and incompetence, enough so that those who detest suspense can value this book while pretending to ignore it.Only after more than half of the story has been told are we given a glimpse of our heroine's pre-war happiness. The scene could stand alone, but is unbearably beautiful when read in its place.
A Very Long Engagement
I picked up this novel in part due to the many glowing reviews here. In retrospect, I have to wonder if these people were lauding the book or the movie. The book is very tedious in many respects due to its format. I think that Japrisot based his writing partially upon Calvino's work, such as the novel 'If on a Winters Night a Traveler,' or 'Invisible Cities.' The chapters of Japrisot weave from here to there in time and perspective dealing with first hand accounts, letters, and conversations. I think that all of this was a little too clever for Japrisot and that after a while the cumbersome nature of all this forces a collapse of will and you as a reader will be overwhelmed by its overworked zeal. I brought up Calvino because where-as 'Winters Night' is magical in many ways, 'Engagement' comes across as sort of typical.You might disagree with my summation here. The story is pretty good, though I would not recommend it to anyone. I think that Japrisot's cleverness smothers a lot of what was enjoyable in regards to the plot. I would say that if you enjoyed this book, you are in for a nice treat if you have not read 'Winters Night...' by Calvino. You might also be interested in Murakami's 'Wind Up Bird Chronicle'.
A Very Long Engagement
It is a shame that I saw "Amalie" before reading this book. Though I loved the movie, I kept seeing that actress as the main character of this book. And though there are some similarities in personality, Mathilde exposes herself to our examination far more deeply than Amalie did.Many books have been written about missing fiances, missing lovers, war widows. This book takes those stories and binds them into a gripping mystery. This novel is NOT a tear-jerker and for that alone, it is wonderful. It is a novel about strength and love and a wish for what could have been. It is about who you would want to be if your lover was lost in the war. I will be buying this book for my mother and my best friends. It is something different. I loved it.
A Very Long Engagement
I didn't expect to love this book. I'm not much of a history buff and hardly ever read mysteries, so I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. The love story is great and the images are wonderful. I can't say enough about it.
A Very Long Engagement
In 1917 five French soldiers are sentenced to death for desertion. Instead of being normally executed, they are taken to the French front to be shot dead by the Germans.Mathilde Donnay, the seventeen-year-old fiancee of one of the five, is told her lover died bravely in combat. But two years later she's contacted a dying officer who tells her otherwise. Some facts are missing from his story. There's a slim chance one or two of the men survived, and so, Mathilde undertakes a heroic search for the truth.A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT is the story of Mathilde's search, told in a collage of scenes, letters, and narrating voices of those who knew the five men. What emerges is a gripping, sometimes thrilling mystery as Mathilde uncovers one piece of a very complex puzzle after another. Along the way we get to know not only the man Mathilde loves but also the other four (a carpenter, a welder, a pimp and a farmer) and their loved ones.Mathilde is a wonderful heroine. A fall off a ladder at age three left her bound to a wheelchair, but she's completely free of self pity. She is above all stubborn, someone who will not give up no matter what. Many people try to tell her that her search is futile, but she persists with doggedness that is at times a little selfish, but also a measure of her loyalty and love for her fiance.Most of the characters in A VERY LONG ENGAGMENT are very likeable. While their circumstances are sometimes sad, and we see how the war has affected their lives, the book is also uplifting because so many of them go out of their way to help others.The first chapter is a bit slow, but after that, the book takes off like a roller coaster. Clue after clue falls into place, and Japrisot keeps the reader guessing. The setting, France 1919-1924, is beautifully and authentically rendered.I enjoyed A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT tremendously. It is a story about devotion and dedication, as well as a story about the tragedy of war, and the beauty of life.
A Very Long Engagement
Sebastien Japrisot -- what a discovery! "A Very Long Engagement" is everything you could possibly want in a novel. It is divine and picturesque. It is unbelievably sad and beautiful, competantly evoking anger and pain in even the most jaded of readers. I found myself in tears and rapture countless times over. For the first time, I am hoping desperately for a second novel as I was completely tormented at having to come to the end of this one. An absolute must read for anyone looking for real literature in the existing sea of legal deception, post-mortum examination, and intellectual cannabalism.