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New York Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
2 Books for Birthday Introspection
By Joumana Khatib Dear readers, The approach of my birthday always leaves me a little blue; the occasion is a sour cherry on top of my usual two scoops of critical scrutiny and second-guessing about my life. This year is no different. But I find myself leaning more toward introspection than self-loathing. I can't account for how I've used the past 30-odd years, to say nothing of the previous 12 months, but I'd like to better understand how exactly I got to where I am. These books, each in its own way, model the type of precise self-dissection I strive for. (I can practically feel the snap of the rubber gloves on my hands.) And I like to think they chime with the indelible literary project the Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux set out to accomplish: 'I shall carry out an ethnological study of myself.' Ready to begin? —Joumana 'Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?,' by Lorrie Moore Fiction, 1994 I'm nakedly pandering to myself here, because reading Moore blisses me out as predictably as Xanax. But this is, word for word and paragraph for paragraph, one of the most enjoyable novels about what-ifs I have on my shelves. Plus, it opens with a delectable bit of food writing — about brains: My husband likes the vaporous, fishy mousse of them. They are a kind of seafood, he thinks, locked tightly in the skull, like shelled creatures in the dark caves of the ocean, sprung suddenly free and killed by light; they've grown clammy with shelter, fortressed vulnerability, dreamy nights. Me, I'm eating for a flashback. We can taste those flashbacks ourselves. The ensuing story is a romp through the counterfactual realm. The narrator, Berie, realizes she no longer loves her husband, and begins to imagine alternative lives: What if she were in Paris, but attached to someone else? Perhaps someone who wouldn't confuse 'arrondisement' with 'aggrandizement'? Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Irish Times
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
My Cousin Maria Schneider by Vanessa Schneider, translated by Molly Ringwald
My Cousin Maria Schneider: A Memoir Author : Vanessa Schneider, tr. Molly Ringwald ISBN-13 : 9781472158574 Publisher : Corsair Guideline Price : £10.99 Recounting the press coverage of her cousin Maria Schneider's death (known to most of us as the actor from Last Tango in Paris), Vanessa Schneider writes: 'No one writes about how, when you die, you are sipping champagne, your favourite drink … You leave us amidst bubbles and bursts of laughter, loving faces and smiles – upright with your head held high, a little tipsy. With panache.' Beside this, in the margin I have written 'the dream'. Not that Maria's life was a dream, but scenes like this show Vanessa's magnificent balance of tone . There is something distinctly French in this ability to recount injustice and pain without wallowing in it. There's an enviable simplicity of form, reminiscent of a jumbled photograph album, with each section recounting a memory or fact taken (seemingly) at random. Vanessa's sentences, too, translated by another actor, Molly Ringwald, put me in mind of those of Annie Ernaux, in their all-encompassing brevity. It's almost as if the best French writing is like the best French fashion, each paragraph conveying its message with straightforward elegance. She even pulls off the (usually dangerously insipid) second person, writing directly to 'you', Maria – no mean feat. READ MORE As for Maria herself, it's quickly made clear that the perfect storm of an abusive mother, a manipulatively charismatic father, precocious physical attractiveness, natural talent, a taste for fun and professional mistreatment all led, perhaps inevitably, to addiction. Yet, although her heroin problem is recounted in graphic detail, it's again without the excess of pathos one might fear from an adoring relative. I felt only admiration when Vanessa writes: 'There are few people who admit to fearing the madness of others and fleeing in the face of it. [He] put into words our family's ambivalence – the rush of relief, and the attendant shame we feel when we don't hear from you.' All in all, this is a timely recounting of the toxic misogyny that existed in filmmaking in the 1970s, contained within a candid yet loving celebration of an actor who was offered up as one of its many female sacrifices. Yet, despite the numerous harrowing events of her life, one comes away from these pages admiring rather than pitying Maria. A quiet triumph.
France 24
28-05-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Some 380 UK and Ireland writers denounce Gaza 'genocide'
The letter called on "our nations and the peoples of the world to join us in ending our collective silence and inaction in the face of horror," they wrote in a letter published on the Medium website. "The use of the words 'genocide' or 'acts of genocide' to describe what is happening in Gaza is no longer debated by international legal experts or human rights organisations," the letter continued. Israel has repeatedly denied all accusations of genocide in its campaign to crush Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. The letter comes a day after 300 French-language writers, including Nobel Literature prize winners Annie Ernaux and Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, signed a similar statement condemning "genocide". "Palestinians are not the abstract victims of an abstract war. Too often, words have been used to justify the unjustifiable, deny the undeniable, defend the indefensible," the British and Irish writers said. The writers, including novelist Elif Shafak and playwright Hanif Kureishi as well as the Scottish and Welsh writers PEN clubs, called for a ceasefire, the "immediate distribution of food and medical aid" in Gaza and sanctions on Israel. International condemnation has grown over Israel's humanitarian aid blockade and relentless strikes after it ended a ceasefire in March and intensified military operations this month. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said 53,977, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israel's offensive since October 2023, when a Hamas attack on Israel triggered the war. Some 1,218 were killed in the Hamas attack, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead. "This is not only about our common humanity and all human rights; this is about our moral fitness as the writers of our time," the writers said. On Monday over 800 UK-based legal experts, including former Supreme Court justices, wrote to Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying: "Genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza or, at a minimum, there is a serious risk of genocide occurring. "Serious violations of international law are being committed and are further threatened by Israel," the lawyers said, adding the UK is "legally obliged to take all reasonable steps within their power to prevent and punish genocide." © 2025 AFP
Middle East Eye
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Leading French authors ask for Israel's war on Gaza to be called 'genocide'
The French newspaper Liberation published an op-ed on Monday signed by 300 French-speaking authors, which called for "naming the 'genocide'" committed by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. The signatories of the text, which included two Nobel Prize winners for literature, Annie Ernaux and Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, denounced "the repeated public statements of leading figures such as Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir," who "openly express genocidal intentions". "The term 'genocide' is not a slogan. It carries legal, political and moral responsibilities. We can no longer simply call it 'horror' or show general and pointless empathy without qualifying this horror or specifying what it is," they argue. "Just as it was urgent to qualify the crimes committed against civilians on 7 October 2023 as war crimes and crimes against humanity, today we must call it 'genocide'." The op-ed, signed by Goncourt Prize winners Leila Slimani and Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, also calls for "sanctions against the State of Israel", "an immediate ceasefire" and "the release of Israeli hostages" along with "the thousands of Palestinian prisoners arbitrarily detained in Israeli jails". New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Citing the killing of Palestinian poet and novelist Heba Abu Nada by Israeli bombings on 20 October 2023, the signatories pay tribute to the Palestinians killed "relentlessly" by Israel, "by the dozens, every day" and among them their "brothers and sisters: the writers of Gaza". "When Israel doesn't kill them, it maims them, displaces them and deliberately starves them. Israel has destroyed the places of writing and reading - libraries, universities, homes, parks." 'No longer a matter of debate' The authors point out that "the term 'genocide' to describe what is happening in Gaza is no longer a matter of debate for many international lawyers and human rights organisations". Accusations of "genocide" against Israel have multiplied recently, coming from the UN, prominent human rights groups, a growing number of countries and international law experts. Earlier this month, an investigation by Dutch newspaper NRC showed that a growing number of the world's leading genocide scholars believe that Israel's actions in Gaza constitute genocide. Top genocide scholars unanimous that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza: Dutch investigation Read More » The paper interviewed seven renowned genocide and Holocaust researchers from six countries - including Israel - all of whom described the Israeli campaign in Gaza as genocidal. Many said their peers in the field share this assessment. On Sunday, Elie Barnavi, former Israeli ambassador to France and a historian, told TV5 Monde that while he had long been reluctant to use the term genocide for "legal and historical" reasons, he had to admit that "there are genocidal people in the Israeli government". "They proclaim it themselves: 'We want to kill everyone, we want to destroy everything,'" he said, adding that these statements clearly reflect genocidal rhetoric. On Monday, the leader of the French Socialist Party Olivier Faure also denounced for the first time Israel's war on Gaza as a 'genocide'. "Benjamin Netanyahu's government is committing genocide," he told hundreds of supporters gathered in Paris, saying he now embraced the term "loud and clear". "Genocide is characterised as soon as there is intentionality. Members of the Israeli government are making numerous statements to this effect [...] This policy is unfortunately thought out, planned, and even claimed," Faure added. "Better late than never," replied Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of France Unbowed (LFI), a left-wing party that has been using the word genocide to describe the situation in Gaza for a long time. Public approve sanctions If the French government itself has refrained from adopting the term - unlike European countries such as Spain and Ireland, which have joined South Africa's lawsuit accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice - it has showed a much more critical stance towards Israel in recent weeks. On 13 May, French President Emmanuel Macron accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "unacceptable" behaviour in blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, raising the possibility of sanctions. French teacher suspended over minute's silence tribute to Palestinians in Gaza Read More » And last week, the French government joined Canada and the UK in condemning Israel's "egregious actions" in Gaza and warned of joint action if it did not halt its current military offensive. The threats of sanctions are widely supported by French public opinion, according to a poll published on Tuesday that reported that 74 percent of respondents were in favour. While 75 percent of respondents support halting arms deliveries to Israel, 62 percent deem necessary the suspension of the trade association agreement between the European Union and Israel, and 58 percent see an embargo on Israeli products as a good solution. In addition to sanctions, Macron could announce France's recognition of the Palestinian state at the UN during a trip to New York in June. The measure is supported by almost two-thirds of those surveyed (63 percent), particularly on the left. On the right and far right, support is weaker, with only 41 percent of far-right National Rally supporters in favour.
Spectator
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
Murderous impulses: The Possession, by Annie Ernaux, reviewed
'The first thing I did after waking up was grab his cock – stiff with sleep – and hold still, as if hanging on to a branch.' The opening of Annie Ernaux's essay might suggest that the 'possession' of the title is of a husband's penis. But after our nameless protagonist leaves 'W', her husband of 18 years, it is with his new woman that she becomes obsessed – possessed with a 'primordial savagery'. She is maraboutée, or bewitched. Ernaux writes not in the heat of desire but in retrospect. The translation by Anna Moschovakis is chicly austere. Like concrete poetry, small paragraphs sit adrift on the page; the text is as unmoored as our protagonist. Ernaux won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2022, and her hybrid memoir The Years has been adapted into a staggeringly powerful stage production. The Possession is a microcosmic analysis of jealousy and agony. Our heroine becomes an 'echo chamber for all pain everywhere'. She goes on a 'tortuous and relentless search' through the internet to find the lover and fantasises about committing 'crimes of passion', reflecting that one is more likely to cave into murderous impulses in the evening, much like scoffing chocolate. For the French, the only thing worse than murder is getting fat. What makes her possession possible is the ex-husband. The couple 'maintain a painful bond' as W drip-feeds her information about the 'new woman'. His reasons are especially murky when he gives her a birthday present of a bra and g-string. While she dances on the edge of insanity, she revels in the pain of feeling alive.
