Yasmina Reza - Free Library Land Online - Reference

Anne-Marie the Beauty

Tue, 27 Jul 2021 19:55:20 +0300

Another thought-provoking master class in how we perform life by the award-winning novelist and playwright Yasmina Reza.
"I was bored with my husband," says Anne-Marie, the irrepressible voice of Anne-Marie la Beauté, "but you know, boredom is part of love." Mostly she is speaking here of her more famous friend and colleague, the French actress Giselle Fayolle, in whose shadow she has spent her career. "My life was a near miss," she adds, before explaining that she enunciated well because "I loved to say the words." A very short novel with the power and resonance of a much longer one, Anne-Marie la Beauté is a profound and moving act of remembrance, a clear-eyed assessment of the hard-edged nature of fame, a meditation on aging—and a wonderfully observant and comic exploration of human foibles. In short, another thought-provoking master class in how we perform life by the peerless Yasmina Reza.

Serge

Fri, 26 Nov 2021 14:45:40 +0200

Acclaimed novelist and playwright Yasmina Reza masterfully portrays the messiness of family, where affection and resentment intertwine and the weight of a shared past looms large.

When adult siblings Serge, Jean, and Nana embark on an unexpected road trip, they take along one daughter and more than enough tangled family history. As Jean watches his older brother fall apart, he tries to hold the center, and what might have been a solemn pilgrimage into the past quickly devolves into a tragicomedy of mutual fixations, private grievances, and the limits of kept company. As reflective as it is incitement, Serge is a testament to Reza's gift for finding light in the abyss.

Babylon

Sun, 11 Nov 2018 15:24:54 +0200

Winner of the Prix Renaudot
Shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt

Elisabeth is a woman whose curiosity and passion far exceed the borders of her quiet middle-class life. She befriends a neighbor, organizes a small dinner party. And then, quite suddenly, finds herself embarked with him on an adventure that is one part vaudeville and one part high tragedy. A quiet novel of manners turns into a police procedural thriller. Her motivations for risking everything she has are never transparent. In a world where matters of life and death are nearly always transported to a clinical setting, whether it be a hospital or a courtroom, here each character must confront them unassisted. A truly original and masterful novel from one of the world's most inventive and daring artists.

Desolation

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:59:22 +0200

Happy Are the Happy

Sat, 14 Nov 2015 22:59:21 +0200

"Happy are the loved ones and the lovers and those who can do without love. Happy are the happy." --Jorge Luis Borges

This citation of Borges resonates with every character in Yasmina Reza's novel, except that they are never so lucky. In fact, what happens to them is the exact opposite of what they crave. The twenty short chapters that make up this unusual book deal with both marital and extramarital vicissitudes, the elusiveness of intimacy, the fear of loneliness, and the desire to be loved or at least understood just once in our lives. The mixing of tones--cruelty and despair competing with humor and fantasy--and the quality of the monologues--taut and highly original--adds to the novel's virtuosity. This is without a doubt Reza's most accomplished work.

Adam Haberberg

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:49:32 +0200

From the award-winning author of Art and Desolation comes this bitingly funny new novel that follows the absurd adventures of a man struggling with a midlife crisis.

Adam Haberberg is losing his sight in his left eye. His new book is a flop. And his marriage isn't doing too well. But while sitting one day on a park bench, he sees an old friend from high school, Marie Thérèse, and suddenly his whole life seems to change. Adam soon finds that his own life has somehow become intertwined with Marie Thérèse's, throwing everything into question. A wry tragicomedy and a nuanced study of a man in the throes of an existential crisis, Adam Haberberg has the same wit and panache that have marked all of Yasmina Reza's work to date.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Desolation (Vintage International)

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:59:21 +0200