I also agree: good sentiments and political correctness don't
make a good crime novel. But it is not systemacally true. you
can make a good crime novel with good intentions. I think
about Patrick Bard novels: "La Fronti貥" and "l'attrapeur
d'ombres". I don't know if there are translated in
United-States. But both are very good crime novels, with a
lot of suspense, the kind of novel you can't stop reading it.
The Fonti貥 is a very hard denonciation about the women
torurted, raped and mudered in the mexican border city of
Cuidad Juares; it's based on reality. When he writed her
novel, the murders were about 250. Now, few years later, it'a
about 500 women killed. Nobody has an explanation. The novel
denonciates that situation. but it'e not exactly political
correct. L'attrapeur d'ombres is about about the war in
Sarajevo during the civil war and after. The novel
denonciates the money made with war, denonciates prostitution
connexion, and things like that. It's very
interresting and it's a good novel. But Patrick Bard
before writing novel was a reporter. So he knows certain
things..
I also think about George P. Pelecanos who is one
of my favorite author. For me he is one of the greasted.
"Anacostia River blues" is not polically correct: her
detective is an alcoolic, he's drunk, and go to Anacostia
river to vomit and he see two man, a Black one and a White
one, assassinting a young Black boy. Because he fet guylty to
haven't react, too drunk for it, he decided to enquire. And
the books of Pelecanos are very good, with a denonciation
about the social condition of life of Black people, the
discrimation, the exploitation of poverty... For instance, I
didn't know there are appartements number 8; I leantn it
reading "Soul circus".
I think if the writer is talentuous he can make a
good crime novel with good sentiments, but good sentiments
never be substitued to the talent. Sometime good sentiments
are just an alibi for the absence of writing talent.
Best
Fabienne
andr頤ussolier <
adussolier@yahoo.fr> a 飲it :
Totally
agree with Jean-Pierre Good sentiments and political
correctness never made good crime books.
----- Message d'origine ---- De : jean-pierre jacquet <
jacquet@optonline.net>
:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com Envoy頬e : Samedi, 16 F鶲ier
2008, 14h34mn 10s Objet : Re: RARA-AVIS: French smoke
This article is much more interesting than Fred Vargas'
books, which I
find undigestable for the most part; she cites Proust and
Hemingway
among her influences, fair enough, but seems to favour the
former
rather than the latter when it comes to her writing style,
heavy and
sleep-inducing. Not to mention fake sounding dialogues... I
was about
to post something about her during the "female crime writers
writing
from a male perspective" thread discussion, but gave up
because I
don't really care for Commissaire Adamsberg from any
perspective. As
for her political causes and crusading style, "vociferous" is
indeed a
word that comes to mind, to which I could ad a number of
epithets
ending in "ous".
jean-pierre jacquet
On Feb 16, 2008, at 5:40 AM, Steve Novak wrote:
> From the Guardian UK....this interesting interview
of Vargas...
> Steve Novak
> Cinefrog@comcast. net
>
> Crime writer Fred Vargas - also a renowned
archaeologist and
> vociferous
> political campaigner - is not only a bestseller in
her native
> France, but a
> hit across the English-speaking world
>
> Nicholas Wroe
> Saturday February 16, 2008
> The Guardian
>
> About a third of the way through French crime writer
Fred Vargas's new
> policier, This Night's Foul Work, the sometimes
infuriating, sometimes
> inspirational hero, Commissaire Adamsberg, stands
over a grave he has
> ordered to be opened. Adamsberg is a man who values
intuition as
> much as
> logic, and while there seems to be nothing
suspicious in the
> disinterred
> plot, his nagging hunch that foul play has occurred
- the menacing
> sense of
> "shade" that haunts him - is not unfounded. Turning
to a
> subordinate, he
> explains:
> Article continues
>
> "If there's a sound to be heard, and we're not
hearing it, it means
> we're
> deaf. The earth isn't dumb, but we are not skilled
enough. We need a
> specialist, an interpreter, someone who can hear the
sound of the
> earth."
> "What do you call one of those?" asked Justin,
anxiously.
>
> "An archaeologist, " said Adamsberg, taking out his
telephone. "Or a
> shit-stirrer, if you prefer."
>
> It is not a bad description of Vargas herself. She
is a distinguished
> archaeologist who has written important works on
medieval social
> structures
> and on the epidemiology of the plague. She is also a
vociferous and
> persistent critic of the French political and
judicial systems as a
> prominent supporter of the fugitive Italian writer
Cesare Battisti,
> exiled
> from France and currently in custody in Brazil, who
is accused of
> committing
> terrorist offences in Italy in the 1970s.
>
> But Vargas is now best known as a crime writer. Her
stories of
> Adamsberg
> negotiating his rural Pyrenees roots with his job in
a Parisian
> murder squad
> - in the latest novel, he places a pebble from a
village stream on
> the desks
> of his wearily perplexed staff after a trip home -
have not only
> topped the
> French bestseller lists, but stormed the
English-speaking world. Her
> 1999
> novel L'Homme ࠬ'envers, published in English as
Seeking Whom He
> May Devour
> in 2004, was shortlisted for the Crime Writers'
Association Gold
> Dagger. In
> 2006, she picked up the International Dagger for The
Three Evangelists
> (Debout les morts), and last year she repeated the
triumph - an
> unprecedented double - with Wash This Blood Clean
from my Hand (Sous
> les
> vents de Neptune)
>
> Speaking in the offices of her French publisher in a
courtyard just
> off the
> Place de la Bastille in Paris, Vargas exudes the
focused intensity
> of the
> proselytising political activist. But she says her
roles as scientist,
> campaigner and novelist are essentially separate. "I
don't think the
> detective story is there to change social reality.
As a historian, I
> know
> that decisive victories in social and political
problems are not
> made by
> authors. ɭile Zola did it with J'accuse, but that
wasn't a novel.
> The novel
> serves other purposes, which are just as important
and deep in their
> own
> way, but they are different to politics."
>
> Vargas sees the novel, and the detective story in
particular, as
> fulfilling
> some of the same functions as Greek tragedy. In This
Night's Foul
> Work,
> Adamsberg travels out to a Normandy village where
the locals' caustic
> observations on his investigation resemble nothing
so much as a Greek
> chorus. "I like to use these people from villages.
Theirs are the
> voices
> that never move and never change." She makes a low
humming noise. "I
> think
> of the story like an orchestra with the violins and
the brass at the
> front
> taking forward the action. But at the back are
basses" - more low
> humming -
> "making a noise that comes from eternity. I know the
Normans very well
> because my mother's family is from there. But for me
they represent
> all
> village people, and by extension some sense of
elemental humanity."
>
> Fred Vargas was born Fr餩rique Audouin-Rouzeau in
Paris in 1957.
> Both she
> and her twin sister Jo, a painter, adopted the name
Vargas from the
> Ava
> Gardner character - the Spanish dancer Maria Vargas
- in The Barefoot
> Contessa. Their father was a prominent surrealist
who wrote studies
> of Andr銼/EM>
> Breton and other leading figures in the
movement, but he made his
> living
> working for an insurance company. "He never talked
about his job," she
> recalls. "Apart from saying 'I am going to the
box.'"
>
> Vargas says her father was a brilliant but
intimidating presence who
> seemed
> to know about everything except science. He forbade
television, and
> from the
> "thousands" of books in the house he would
"authorise" what the
> children
> could read - mostly myths, folk tales and
17th-century baroque
> poetry.. "Can
> you imagine it? Having books that were 'authorised'
! And many of
> them were
> too old for children, although I did love the myths.
And our house
> was also
> full of primitive arts and masks and this surrealist
fascination
> with death
> and decay. Thank God my mother was a chemist who
helped us keep our
> heads on
> our shoulders, because a surrealist atmosphere is
really not so good
> for
> children."
>
> It's no surprise that the children eventually
rebelled in
> interesting ways.
> Vargas's elder brother, St鰨ane, is a leading
historian of the
> first world
> war. "My father absolutely hated war and thought it
was disgusting.
> So my
> brother did history - as father would have liked -
but another type of
> history. My father was a wonderful cartoonist, but
my sister's art
> is very
> different. I went into science and then writing. He
was a wonderful
> writer,
> but thought that detective stories were the silliest
thing
> imaginable."
>
> Although her father wrote many books about
surrealism, he never
> published
> "anything personal", Vargas explains. "I once asked
him why and he
> told me
> that, when he was 17, he had said to himself he will
be 'Rimbaud or
> nothing'. That is a bit sad." Vargas began to write
when her father
> was ill
> at the end of his life, and he died before she was
published. "But
> of course
> I would have shown it to him and I know what he
would have said:
> 'Fred, this
> is shit from A to Z' . And he would have been right,
and I would have
> stopped writing, so it is strange how it worked
out."
>
> It was while on an archaeological dig in the Midi
when she was 28 that
> Vargas began writing "for fun. I'd tried the
accordion and was
> terrible."
> She loved her job, but when she looked at her older
colleagues, she
> knew she
> had to have "something else" in her life "apart from
this rather
> austere
> science".
>
> Her first book, Les Jeux de l'amour et de la mort
(Games of Love and
> Death),
> won a competition for unpublished manuscripts.. The
prize was
> publication,
> but she says "it was a very bad book. My ambition
was to find some
> music in
> the language, but I made the mistake of thinking the
plot had no
> importance.
> Now I hope I also put in a good story, but I still
believe even the
> best
> story is nothing without having music in the
writing."
>
> The music she was seeking to emulate came from
Rousseau, Proust and
> Hemingway. "Rousseau was my first love when I was
15. He was so
> criticised
> at the time when compared to Voltaire, whom I never
liked. But in
> the French
> language, his writing achieved the most beautiful
music." Since the
> 1970s,
> Vargas argues, serious literature has regarded
stories as "slightly
> silly",
> forcing them to become "refugees" in the crime
novel. "It has been a
> literature of narcissism about 'me and my family',
'me and my
> problems', 'me
> and my lover'. I'm sick of it, especially as Proust
did this
> perfectly all
> those years ago. But when he spoke of himself, he
spoke of the whole
> world.
> Most writers today just speak of themselves. And
Hemingway's
> language is
> precisely the opposite of Proust in that it feels
rougher, and while
> Proust
> could deal with the infinite smallness of life,
Hemingway has the
> infinite
> hugeness of it."
>
> Despite her own disappointment with her first novel,
Vargas took to
> writing
> as she "did to smoking - it was an addictive habit".
She began to
> write the
> first drafts of new books during her three-week
summer holidays, and
> followed this routine until four years ago when she
took a break from
> archaeology. "I had completed two big projects and
needed a rest. I
> had
> always been interested in the economic story of the
Middle Ages, the
> Roman
> times and the 16th and 17th centuries. I wanted to
paint a picture of
> economic life, but also cultural life, involving
hunting and eating
> habits.
> Show me what someone eats, and I will show you who
they were." She
> ended up
> with a comparative research project that included
over a thousand
> archaeological sites from different periods. "I then
continued with
> another
> interest I had about the rat and the transmission of
the plague - it
> had
> never been resolved to my satisfaction - and that
took six years."
>
> With her books selling well enough for her to
support herself and
> her son,
> she took a year off. "It was wonderful. I had all
this time in front
> of me
> to work on another book. Three weeks later, it was
finished. The
> problem
> never was me having to work in this way, the problem
was me. I take
> time to
> correct and change the books, but my first drafts
still take three
> weeks."
>
> By the time she was due to return to work, she had
become involved
> in the
> campaign to exonerate Battisti - who denies the
1970s terrorist
> charges
> against him - and she put her research skills to use
in the Italian
> legal
> archives to try to clear his name. "I told them not
to wait for me.
> Something more urgent had come up." The campaign
continues, and
> Vargas has
> written a book explaining why her friend is
innocent. She has also
> found
> time for a dispute with the French ministry of
health about her
> suggestions
> for dealing with a potential avian flu epidemic -
"it is 90% certain
> to
> happen" - based on her research into the
plague.
>
> "I'm involved in many fights, which can be quite
dangerous
> sometimes. And I
> will continue to shout that there is something
rotten in the state
> of France
> and Italy and everywhere in Europe. But I do this
with reality. With
> facts
> and with interviews and with protest. When I write
about
> archaeology, I use
> science. My novels are something else
again."
>
> She says she has a theory of art, into which the
crime novel fits,
> that goes
> back to Neolithic times. "I think art emerged as a
sort of medicine
> to deal
> with the fact that we are afraid, alone, small and
weak in a dangerous
> world. But we are not like all the other animals and
cannot live
> with just a
> pragmatic and realistic life. So we invent a second
reality, similar
> but not
> identical to ours, into which we escape to confront
these perils."
>
> Her work is defiantly not realistic in that
Adamsberg drives just a
> car,
> not, say, a Renault, and we don't know what he eats
or wears or
> listens to.
>
> "In real life, I love clothes and labels and shops.
But not in my
> novels. It
> becomes too precise." She unexpectedly cites Agatha
Christie as a
> model.
>
> "Holmes is rightly thought to be brilliant, and
people now laugh at
> Christie. But I see links between her and the
mythology I read when
> I was
> young, and I think she was conscious of it, too.
Like her, I want to
> tell a
> story that identifies and deals with the dangers we
face. It's no
> longer
> wild animals, but the fears are just as real, so I
make a journey
> with the
> reader, confront the horror of humanity, and deliver
them safely home.
> Instinctively we feel better and can sleep soundly.
Then, in the
> morning
> when the sun comes up, we can again face the world
and move forward."
>
> Inspirations
>
> Marcel Proust
> Jean-Jacques Rousseau
> Ernest Hemingway
> Agatha Christie
> Arthur Conan Doyle
>
> guardian.co. uk © Guardian News and Media Limited
2008
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
removed]
>
>
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