The Ritual Master As a french and spanish litterature major living in Bucharest, going to the Institut Français or French Cultural Institute was an invaluable step in my personal growth. The institute would organise live readings of French authors followed by an informal cocktail party every month. I was a devoted participant, needless to say !
So when I saw that the Forum of Foreign Cultural Institutes in Paris is organising a Night of Literature this 29th of May, I felt myself compelled to mark the event.
My very own Night of Literature will take us through 6 continents, with a choice of quotes that speak to my mind and to my soul, in an attempt to honour the Foreign Cultural Institutes and their precious role in opening far away doors that await us.
Pack your bags, grab your passports and let’s go !
North America : Elizabeth Gilbert, City of Girls
This is a novel that represents all that a European imagines about the United States, especially in the 40’s. The jazz, the new found freedom after the war, the big city life starting to define itself. For me, it was a light read of many simple pleasures. Here’s one quote for the road :
People will tell you not to waste your youth having too much fun, but they’re wrong. Youth is an irreplaceable treasure, and the only respectable thing to do with an irreplaceable treasure is to waste it. So do the right thing with your youth, Vivian—squander it.
Elizabeth Gilbert, City of Girls
South America : Gabriel García Márquez, One hundred years of solitude
Nobel Prize laureate Gabriel García Márquez. You cannot imagine South American litterature without him. And the tour de force that is One Hundred Years of Solitude has become a classic, for the stories of the Buendia family revolve around love and solitude, seen as through a magical lens.
Wherever they might be, they always remember that the past was a lie, that memory has no return, that every spring gone by, could never be recovered, and that the wildest and most tenacious love was an ephemeral truth in the end.
Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
Europe : Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey
Being an European myself, I feel both in difficulty and at ease choosing a representative book and quote. Today, I believe that Anne Bronte’s Agnes Grey expresses the sort of familiar, un-exotic pleasure that a beautifully designed park can offer, on a lovely day. Simple, right at home, like a walk through the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, with a Zola novel in your hand.
One bright day in the last week of February, I was walking in the park, enjoying the threefold luxury of solitude, a book, and pleasant weather.
Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey
Africa : Fatou Diome, Kétala
Fatou Diome is one of those phenomenons that conquer an audience with simple and sincere, well put phrases. Born in Senegal, she is a proud and worthy advocate of African voices in France and in the French speaking world. She was one of my discoveries at the Institut Français de Bucarest, and one of my most precious memories from that time. The following translation is my own, as her books are not yet found in English.
In the silence of the setting, on the speechless dust that covers the objects, the words freed from the mind draw serpentine paths, gather and recompose the crumbled life.
Dans le silence du décor, sur la poussière muette qui couvre les objets, les mots libérés de l’esprit tracent de sinueuses pistes , ramassent et recomposent la vie émiettée.
Fatou Diome, Kétala
Asia : Xingjian Gao, Soul Mountain
While visiting one of the most originally kept Loire Valley Châteaux, in Chaumont-sur-Loire, I discovered an exhibition of Gao Xingjian’s ink paintings and was seduced by his universe. Little did I know he was the Nobel Prize Laureate for Litterature in 2000. His paintings led me to his writing, and to this original novel of inner discoveries on the path of the Southern Chinese villages.
You should know that there is little you can seek in this world, that there is no need for you to be so greedy, in the end all you can achieve are memories, hazy, intangible, dreamlike memories which are impossible to articulate. When you try to relate them, there are only sentences, the dregs left from the filter of linguistic structures.
Xingjian Gao, Soul Mountain
Australia : Liane Moriarty, Nine perfect strangers
A globally acclaimed novelist and sensation of the last decade, Liane Moriarty is a very fashionable read, so I hesitated a long time before trying out one of her novels. And the biggest compliment I can give her, is that even when the subject is not entirely my cup of tea, she manages to draw me in and keep me hooked right until the end. So I have learned that when beggining one of her novels, I should not expect 8 hours of sleep per night, but mainly a sleepless 2 days while I absorb the entire book.
She generally felt that the advice she offered was superior to the advice she received. Other people’s problems were so simple; one’s own problems tended to be so much more nuanced.
Liane Moriarty, Nine Perfect Strangers
One quick, unfair, subjective world tour, that might look different tomorrow, but an exciting exercise nonetheless. I would love to hear your picks in the comments, let me know how does your world tour of books look today ?
The Forum of Foreign Cultural Institutes in Paris is holding this years Night of Litterature edition online, so you can all join in, tomorrow evening, May 29 th, on their website and YouTube channel that I will link bellow. I salute their initiative and encourage you all to check out the schedule of your local Foreign Cultural Institutes, they might surprise you !
Until next time, enjoy your reading !
The official Night of Litterature website : https://www.ficep.info/nuit-de-la-litterature
The FICEP YouTube channel where videos will be premiered every 20min starting at 6pm Paris time, May 29th : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsE4XfmZXBb-0so5w6r_f6g
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