La fille du chemin du Puits (FICTION) (French Edition)

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There's a problem loading this menu right now. Learn more about Amazon Prime. Get fast, free shipping with Amazon Prime. Get to Know Us. And of course, I never have to dwell in metro's filth everyday as a higher middle-class person. Desert has two loosely coupled plots of untamed spirits of the descendants of a desert tribe, interwoven till the end. One part of the story follows a caravan of nomadic Berber tribes traveling northwards across the Sahara desert, led by the Tuareg, "Men in blue", the last freemen fleeing from the Soldiers of Christians. Major part of novel is the story of Lalla, an orphan girl growing in 'the Project', across the river from an unnamed Moroccan town.

And, her short stint in modern Marseille. Time of the story is not mentioned, could be guessed as s. Waves of dunes, rugged hills, blazing sun, white light, high plateaus and intimate mythical connectedness of an individual's soul to the land are elaborated in this part. This part contains some beautifully crafted passages I have never read before, such as the wandering of Lella on an unchartered high plateau - on the night the wind of ill fortune flows on the Project, her wanderings in the filth and coastal parts of Marseille etc.

The prose is poetical, descriptions are beautiful. The English translation is flawless, from a reader's perspective for whom English is only a second language. May 04, Rosana rated it it was amazing Shelves: I had never heard of Le Clezio until he won the Nobel in , then when I bought the book a few months later, it was not the Noble prize that compelled me, but the picture on the cover of the verbamundi hardcover edition— an enigmatic woman with a blue veil.

It First the confession: It also requires the same patience and attention. Readers who crave plot should be warned that this is probably not a book for you. Le Clezio is a master of description. The desert, a slum in Morocco and the streets of Marseille all comes alive, but their hues and smells and the people populating them take shape slowly and hazily. If I stay with the idea of painting with words, I would say that Le Clezio is an impressionist painter at that.

His writing reminded me of, the also Nobel Prize winner, Kawabata. I will attempt to read other books by Le Clezio, but I probably will wait a while. If Desert is a sample of how he writes, he is an author that demands a certain mood and commitment from his reader. I will plan for a summer weekend when I can read without interruptions for hours on end. I should be ready for it then Dec 15, Louise rated it it was ok Shelves: While there was some very good prose and a very good story concept, this book, for me, was disjointed and, largely, overwritten. The idea of showing an inherited untamed spirit of the last North African desert tribes to hold out against the "Christian invaders" is a good one.

Unfortunately, the stories of past and present, through much of the novel, are only tenuously connected. I like that the author has chosen a woman to embody this spirit. The freedom accorded to Lalla as a young teenager is no While there was some very good prose and a very good story concept, this book, for me, was disjointed and, largely, overwritten. The freedom accorded to Lalla as a young teenager is not realistic. She can walk alone, talk with men, have a temper tantrum on her first day of work and walk out on marriage contract which was, no doubt, negotiated at some cost.

While she may have been from a tribe of "free men", I doubt that women had this degree of autonomy. Once she gets to France, her French language skills not mentioned as is her illiteracy and her rise to fame while pregnant are pretty fantastic. Her lack of planning for her baby may be meant to define her as one of the tribe of the "last free men", but it doesn't ring true. While the novel is meant to be representational, it should parallel something approaching real life.

It may be the fault of the translator, but words such as "hunger" and "terrified" are overused such that they lose their meaning. Not that the people in this book aren't hungry and terrified, it's that more creative description is expected from a Nobel Laureate.

Desert by J.M.G. Le Clézio

Some of the dialog doesn't match the characters, the most egregious example being on p. There are parts and pages where the writing shows the skill of the author, but on the whole, neither the writing nor the development of the story suggests a Nobel quality artist. Oct 15, Andrew added it Shelves: It so often seems that all late 20th Century French literature lies in the shadow of Proust.

The style is so persistently rapturous, so caught up in breathless reverie and dazzling impressionism, that it might take a while for a "story" to appear. That's fine by me. Desert is absolutely gorgeous, there's no doubt about that. And I found myself really liking Lalla as a protagonist.

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OK, she's the sort of existentialist heroine who yo It so often seems that all late 20th Century French literature lies in the shadow of Proust. OK, she's the sort of existentialist heroine who you've seen before in countless Nouvelle Vague films. A Moroccan slum-daughter in origins, perhaps, but with all the mope of a Parisienne. Again, fine by me. In fact, it was an abrupt anti-climax. But this doesn't detract that much from the quality of the book as a whole. This is largely because right before the bum ending, there is a scene where Lalla sort-of-but-not-really returns to the desert that is one of the most shimmering, pitch-perfect pieces of prose I've ever read.

It alone makes the entire book worth reading. Apr 06, Monica Carter rated it really liked it. One thing not to expect when you read Desert is a fast-paced narrative that immediately transplants you into another place and time. He begins the novel telling the story of Nour, fourteen year old boy who is part of a North African people, the Taureg, more commonly referred to as the blue men because of the sky blue robes that they wear to honor the father of their people.

Throughout the novel, we learn Nour has a family — parents, sisters and brothers — and we learn of his staid character, his generous and loyal nature. But mostly he is the observer, the eyes we see through as we watch this Berber tribe lose their land, their leader and their hope to ward off the superior warring efforts of the Christians. The Earth shows no favoritism. She provides food and water to sustain them yet also tortures them with unrelenting rugged terrains and a scorching sun that dehydrates and destroys.

Nour observes the toll of the journey and the effect of the elements on his people: Standing by the side of the trail, he saw them walking slowly past, hardly lifting their legs, heavy with weariness. They had emaciated gray faces, eyes shiny with fever. Their lips were bleeding; their hands and chests were marked with wounds where the clotted blood had mixed with golden particles of dust. The sun beat down on them as it did on the red stones of the path, and they received a real beating.

The women had no shoes, and their bare feet were burned form the sand and eaten away wit the salt. Not one of them spoke or sang. No one cried or moaned. To combat complete fatigue of the reader, he introduces Lalla, a young girl living in the slums of Tangier as a descendant of the blue men. This is where nature becomes cleansing,vivifying and spiritual. Lalla does not go to school. She does not read or write. Instead she wonders her countryside jumping dunes, laying on the white sand and running along with the wind, breathing in its rhythm and essence. She lets the sun edify her, erasing her hunger and loneliness, inhaling it as if it were the source of life itself.

She befriends flies and wasps, recognizing their role in the cycle of life and she finds comfort and solitude in the sea and the freedom it offers. The in goes farther out, toward the horizon, gets lost out at sea on the mighty waves, it carries the clouds and the sand toward the rocky coasts on the other side of the sea, toward the vast deltas where the smokestacks of the refineries are burning. Lalla lives with her Aunt Aamma.

Lalla has friends like the shepherd boy, the Hartani, who does not speak and the fisherman, Naman, who regales her stories of all the places where he has traveled. There is al-Ser, which stands for the Secret, a spirit she visits in the middle of the desert who fills her with an overwhelming sense of well-being and becomes her spiritual guide.

After an attempt by her aunt to arrange a marriage for her, Lalla leaves with the Hartani to escape her destiny. The Hartani and Lalla become separated and Lalla ends up months later in Marseilles, where her aunt has already situated herself in one of the immigrant tenement housing projects.

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Lalla finds work and befriends a gypsy teenager, Radicz, who steals for a living. She goes through life like the wind, without a true purpose, flowing in any direction that pulls her. But the freedom and solitude that nature offers her are the only real things that compel her to thrive. Eventually she returns to Tangier to give birth to the son of the Hartani in the vast landscape of Morocco with its promise of peace and independence.

Lalla and Nour listen to the earth for answers, sustenance and portents. The wind, the sun and the sea do not control their lives, but they pulse within their blood and live within their hearts.

But the hunger for power slowly wipes clean the slate of ethnic diversity. Jan 06, Helena K. Mar 23, Louisa rated it really liked it Shelves: In the beginning there were the nomads, men and women whose faces and bodies were tinted blue with indigo and sweat Lalla is a descendent of Nour's tribe, a little orphaned girl who is fascinated by the creatures of the desert; the insects, the ants, even the flies.

In the shade of a tall fig tree, she listens to the stories told to her by an old fisherman about her ancestors, and about places and cities far away, in the north. Fleeing to escape an early marriage, Lalla makes the journey to France, where she discovers that life in the city isn't quite as beautiful as the old fisherman had led her to believe. When she finally returns to her fig tree in the desert, it is as if she had never left. May 07, Lada rated it it was amazing. Qu'est ce que je pense de ce livre ecrit en qui est une spiritualite interieure, un chemin personnel dans le monde des annees 80 devenu de plus plus utilitaire et mercantile.

L'ecrivain aide par son epouse marocaine, Jemia traverse l'ocean de desert a la recherchew d'un calme interieur qu'une curiosite avive en lui a l'ecoute du bruissement des choses de la terre autour de luiqui suscite, avive et aiguise son interet devant son identite et ce par rapport aux autres. Le livre est structure co Qu'est ce que je pense de ce livre ecrit en qui est une spiritualite interieure, un chemin personnel dans le monde des annees 80 devenu de plus plus utilitaire et mercantile. Le livre est structure comme un va et vient, du passe au present, de l'histoire du tribu de desert, d'un point tournant a leur vie, ou elle traverse le desert, guide par leur chef spirituel religieux, dans un essai impossible d' arreter le changement commence par une modernisation colonial.

Une epreuve surhumaine, un mythe d'origine qui se revele un desastre mais portant en lui une lueur d'espoir quoique faible et qui aidera les survivants jeunes a suivre et faire attendre le temps d'assumer leur destin propre Le moment present relate l'histoire d'une jeune fille, descendante de la tribu, la jeune Lalla qui orpheline et fille de desert mene une vie toute a son interieur vivant dans une bidovville e avec sa tante et sa famille est attiree par le secret du desert et les histoire de sa tribu et de son ancetre.

La bas elle prend connaissance de la force de l'identite face a la terre et au territoire aide par un double a lui jeune garcon sourd-muet, Hartani, et un peu medjnoun, etre venu de nulle part, pose au bord d-un puits par un guerrier du desert et il enseigne Lalla l'amour de desert et comme l'amour de son prochain et pareil de L'Autre. Separe de lui dans un parcours a travers desert et venue en ville Lalla traverse son desert spirituel en memme temps et a travers le traversee par le Bateau et a Marseille puis a Paris elle reussit a garder sa foi et sa religiosite de tribu du a son eneignement du desert qui luia enseigne les vraies valeurs.

Elle quitte cette vie contemporaine pour donner naissance a la fille, sa fille et la fille de Harnani, son eoux spirituel, son double, son ami de desert. Elle donne naissance a sa fille un matin sous un figuier come tant de femmes traditionnelles de sa tribu. Sep 27, Jesse K rated it it was amazing Shelves: Desert was an amazing book. It was published 7 years after the Giants, but it seems like it was written 40 years later by an entirely different man. Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration. Le Clezio still employs alot of the same tricks like long descriptions of people walking and minute objects.

The first 7 of hi Desert was an amazing book. The first 7 of his books seemed to be a sort of mad scream about something awful whereas Desert seemed to be an actual attempt to depict that which so horrified the author. In the first 7 he pulled out all of the pyrotechnic literary tricks, whereas he did more with less in Desert. I can't objectively say which style of his is better. His first 7 books blew my mind. Desert made me cry. Take from that what you will. Either way, they're all worth reading. I took quite a long time to read this book. Not that the writing is that difficult to read, but the author doesn't exactly narrate a lot of action.

The first thing that I loved about it was the setting of the story. Even in my bed, no sound around the house, I could feel the wind, the sun on my skin. I've definitely been transported by it. Two stories are assembled, but as there's not a lot of action, and as the characters are rea I took quite a long time to read this book. Two stories are assembled, but as there's not a lot of action, and as the characters are really different you have no problem in telling when you switch story.

I'm left with a bittersweet feeling as I close this book. I've traveled, I've thought about a lot of things, and the end feel bitter to me. It was a really moving book, that made me thought about how perceptions can differ depending on where we were born, and how we're raised, what virtues are taught to us et cetera.

Aug 16, Suraj Alva rated it it was ok. Was reading this book in French and not a translation, got to page 70 and couldn't take it anymore. It is too effing repetitive, the author just labors on and on and on and on, on unnecessary and redundant details; so much so that you feel as if he got his money per the number of pages he wrote. I struggled through about half of this because I was traveling and didn't have anything else to read, but I found it absolutely flat, opaque and affectless.

Wondering if I'd missed something through lack of attention, when I got back to Australia I gave it to my dad to read, and his response was the same, despite his tastes being fairly different to mine. This just seems a clear case of overreach: Le Clezio doesn't have the requisite empathy with his mostly black, African, poor characters and I struggled through about half of this because I was traveling and didn't have anything else to read, but I found it absolutely flat, opaque and affectless.

Le Clezio doesn't have the requisite empathy with his mostly black, African, poor characters and the result is tedious and empty. Or so it seems to me. Mar 13, Mehdi Jemaa rated it it was ok Shelves: Two linked stories about tradition and progress and what we as a civilisation have come to sacrifice to get where we are.

Beginning of the twentieth century, Nour, one of the last of a disappearing tribe who have to start a migration through the desert to find their homeland. Lalla, the descendant of that now disappeared tribe, who has to take her own journey to find what's lacking in her life. Prose which should be read as poetry, through the senses. I think that if you try to read this novel in Two linked stories about tradition and progress and what we as a civilisation have come to sacrifice to get where we are. I think that if you try to read this novel in the traditional sense, you won't be very satisfied with the experience.

There's a plot to follow, but sometimes great important facts seem to be omitted whereas details such as the smell of the sand or the texture of some clothes or the warm and salty water of a particular beach are described for pages and pages. You have to feel more than to read this novel. It reminded me of Woolf's writing style, dense, subtle, elegant and poetic. May 30, Jane rated it really liked it Shelves: The absolutely stunning descriptive passages were slow and lyrical. I felt through everything I was watching a movie, not reading a book. The author's power of words was amazingly vivid, even in translation.

This is the story of the desert in North Africa, the near wiping out of the whole Tuareg nation [a nomadic tribe, the so-called "blue men"] told through the story of Nour, a Tuareg boy, and the forced march he and his people endure in This story alternates with that of Lalla, in the pr The absolutely stunning descriptive passages were slow and lyrical. This story alternates with that of Lalla, in the present.

She runs away from home to avoid being forced into marriage. The story also recounts the bitterness of the immigrant experience in Marseilles. I am perplexed by Le Clezio's "Desert"; it is so beautifully written that it actually becomes mesmerizing. Such mastery of language in the most classical sense I could not help sensing some strong Proustian affinities! Yet, I also felt the book was so strangely empty; the thought dawned on me that maybe, just maybe, Le Clezio engineered that emptiness to reflect the vast empty horizon of the desert itself.

Apr 15, I Am rated it liked it. Jul 06, Igor rated it it was amazing Shelves: Sensaciones arenosas garantizadas -en el mejor de los sentidos-.

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Apr 18, Aaron Cance rated it it was amazing. A handsomely written, sprawling epic that chronicles the slow death of a North African culture. Jan 06, Oxana Gutu rated it it was amazing. Le Clezio received the Nobel prize for literature in DesertClezio The desert appeared to me as a metaphor for human misery and emptiness, but also for wholeness and its intrinsic happiness.

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The human misery and happiness are told through stories of descendants of a man believed to be holy by his North African nomadic people. It is such a beautiful story that I read it every time I wanted to escape the daily routine. Lala takes you places. I loved to read it on my flights back home and to be mentally in the places Lala took me and see what she saw from the harshness of the desert to the brutality of the streets of Marseille inhabited by the once nomadic by lifestyle or spirit people, and further to the glamorous life of the most photographed face.