Picture of author.

Yves Navarre (1940–1994)

Teoksen Cronus' Children tekijä

41+ teosta 391 jäsentä 8 arvostelua 1 Favorited

Tietoja tekijästä

Sisältää nimet: Navarre Yves, Yves Navarre

Image credit: Yves Navarre en février 1989 pour un portrait lors de l'émission télévisée "Lunettes noires pour nuits blanches"

Tekijän teokset

Cronus' Children (1980) 70 kappaletta
Our Share of Time (1979) 50 kappaletta
Sweet Tooth (1973) 44 kappaletta
Une vie de chat (1986) 39 kappaletta
The Little Rogue in Our Flesh (1977) 27 kappaletta
Kurwenal (1977) 12 kappaletta
Fête des mères: Roman (1987) 10 kappaletta
Hotel Styx (1989) 9 kappaletta
Le coeur qui cogne : roman (1974) 9 kappaletta
Ce sont amis que vent emporte (1991) 9 kappaletta
Niagarak (1976) 8 kappaletta
Il giardino zoologico (1980) 8 kappaletta
Killer (1975) 7 kappaletta
Evolene (1972) 7 kappaletta

Associated Works

The Penguin Book of International Gay Writing (1995) — Avustaja — 176 kappaletta
First Love/Last Love (1985) — Avustaja — 86 kappaletta

Merkitty avainsanalla

Yleistieto

Jäseniä

Kirja-arvosteluja

Una de las mas originales novelas de la literatura francesa, tanto en su fondo como en su forma. Una familia, un día. La vida los separa, el texto los reúne. Novela, saga, he aquí a la familia Proullian, el recuerdo de los muertos y la memoria de los vivos. En torno al personaje central -el padre- se despliegan las restantes figura, Luc, Sébastien y Claire, quienes celebran el curioso aniversario de los cuarenta años del menor de los cuatro hijos: Bertrand. ¿Por que esta encerrado Bertrand en la mansión familiar Moncrabeau? ¿Por que abandonan todos el domicilio parisiense número 2 de la plaza de Antioche, barrio distinguido? ¿Que pasa con el jardín de aclimatación?.… (lisätietoja)
 
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ArchivoPietro | 2 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Oct 27, 2020 |
Were I writing my dissertation today, I would probably choose to study Yves Navarre. While not as prolific a writer as Brasillach (the author I did study for my PhD), Navarre wrote considerably more novels than Brasillach, and, to my mind at least, has the advantage in that he was openly gay. His literary output is fairly evenly divided between books with an obvious gay context and those that would appeal to a more mainstream audience. Hôtel Styx falls into this latter category.

Imagine a hotel where you check in, but leave without ever checking out. A hotel with an exquisite kitchen serving up dinners of the finest type--all you could ever wish for. A hotel with porter named Caron (sic). A hotel with a proprietress reminiscent of Dr. Kevorkian.

Navarre's novel brings together a group of people who are tired of life. Not necessarily elderly, but done in by life. We piece together their stories, even as Madame (the proprietress) tells her clientele that such stories are not to be shared. People do like to talk about themselves. Seventeen rooms, seventeen guests. How long will today's arrival remain a guest? Who will not be present at tomorrow's breakfast?

Navarre's novels often take death as a subject, but none are so filled with death as Hôtel Styx. And yet, it is not a mournful book. Not a dispiriting story. Rather it is a tale that reminds us how death is a great leveler. Death is one of the few things we all have in common. Life is, after all, a terminal condition, yet few of us take the option of choosing when to depart on that final stage.

I have not found an English translation of the work, but if you read French, you'll find Navarre's language clear and unambiguous. I recommend this novel highly.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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mtbearded1 | Oct 11, 2014 |
Biographie, Yves Navarre.

Les quarante premières années de l'écrivain.
Chapitres 1 à 47 en version pdf avec annotations
Chapitres 48 à 94 en version pdf avec annotations


Voir aussi "Une vie de chat" : Tiffauges, le chat d'Yves Navarre, prend la plume pour écrire la biographie de son maître.
extrait
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BibliOdyssee | Dec 27, 2013 |
Cronus (or Kronos), in Greek mythology, was the leader of the first generation of Titans, divine decendants of Gaia, the earth, and Uranus, the sky. Cronus overthrew his father, ruled during the mythological Golden Age, and was overthrown by his own son, Zeus. It is said that Cronus was castrated by his son Zeus just like he had done with his father Uranus before.

Cronus, in this novel, is 74-year old Henri Prouillan, ex-minister, leading citizen, and resented father, husband, and brother of the Prouillan family. All that happens in this novel takes place within a day, beginning in the late morning of the 9th of July until dawn next day. This date is significant. Henri, in the salon of his grand apartment at Place d'Antioche, gets ready to bring the old dog to the vet, for a last and final visit. It is significant, too, that he chooses this day to bring the beloved dog there. All of Henri's children have gone, his wife is dead, and only the loyal housekeeper, remains. It seems Henri is alone with his thoughts that day, but the thoughts of members of his entire family, and those closest to them, wherever they were in the world actually converge in that house at Place d'Antioche, as each remember what took place there exactly two decades ago that day, and how their lives and their relationships were forever changed from that moment.

Twenty years ago, Bertrand, the youngest of the four children, was a brilliant student and poet. For 20 years now, he has been living in the family estate in Moncrabeau, away from the eyes of his family, a broken shell of a being, product of his father's cold decision to "cure" him of his homosexuality, flagrant, scandalous and harmful for Proullan's rising political career. It was the 9th of July, his birthday, when he returned from having this treatment, and the family learned everything.

Navarre strips layer after layer from the lives of the characters, to reveal their weaknesses, their disappointments, and their failures, and the unacknowledged but strong bonds that connect them to each other. Luc, the eldest, is a successful industrialist but could not sustain relationships; Sebastien could not get over losing his family in a painful divorce; Claire, an artist, continues to grieve for her dead husband; and Suzanne, Prouillan's sister, lives in the legacy of her dead playwright husband. Loss and grief is a common experience and hounded them, seemingly an extension of the first loss and grief they went through 20 years ago. That they were marked forever by the event shows in their living for a time when their world was still whole, untainted by the monstrous deed. Time has not purged the anger, the helplessness, the bitterness, and the guilt, most specially the guilt over Bertrand. They were complicit in the act.

We never know the thoughts of Prouillan and Bertrand, the central characters. He drives the story, but we never access Prouillan's motives, interests, and feelings. We can only guess that he did what he did in order to tame Bertrand, the rebel child. For Prouillan, there were no half-measures, even if it destroyed lives. Bertrand lives through the kindness of the family paid to look after him, and we know almost nothing of his animal existence. We know him though before his world fell through, as we read through his passionate missives to an older lover. We learn that the lover killed himself, and somehow we get the feeling that Prouillan must be behind it.

This book is not an easy read, there is so much tension and antagonism that simmers below the surface, in the characters' recollections. They are each tortured individuals, marked by the father, at the same time, feeling as helpless now as they were when they were children, in the face of this coldhearted individual. Cronus' reach is far and enduring, and we realize that he himself is the children's greatest tragedy.

Yves Navarre (born 1940) was a French gay writer, whose works were on homosexuality and related issues. He was awarded the Prix Goncourt in 1981 for this novel. He was François Mitterand´s main advocate in the gay community in the 1980s. He killed himself in 1994.
… (lisätietoja)
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deebee1 | 2 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Feb 6, 2013 |

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