8th French Night 11/29

Our 8th French night is almost here. It will take place at the Cornelia Street Cafe on the 11/29 at 6 pm.

And to stop Mother Nature’s anger, we are going to devote this evening to animals that appear in the French novel.

Excerpts of Une Partie de Chasse/ « Hunting Game » by Agnes Desarthe 

which was published this fall in France (Editions de l’Olivier). 

A young man is forced by his partner to go hunting with the other men of the village. He doesn’t want to kill animals and while we follow his thoughts and discover his former life, we also hear from a rabbit he wounded and put in his bag.

The second novel is Que font les rennes à Noel? / « Where do all the reindeer go? » 

by Olivia Rosenthal, published in 2011 (Gallimard/Verticales). 

The narrator recounts her childhood and her desperate search of a pet that leads her to ask « Where do all the reindeer go? ». The plot mixes a scientific and a legal exploration of animals in captivity.  In this novel, human and animal behaviors seem to follow the same path.

The third text is Je ne suis pas un héros/ « I am not a hero », 

by Pierre Autin-Grenier (L’Arpenteur/Gallimard, 1996).

 In this book of 33 very short stories, close to prosaic poetry, the author tell us how he observes the absurdity of reality and the revenge of unimportant creatures when a tiny gnat that is about to be crushed changes into an eagle or a red-crested hoopoe and is swallowed by the worm it was about to eat.

Come and join us for a very enthusiastic French Night at the

Cornelia Street Cafe in Cornelia Street, Greenwich Village, West 4th on the A, C, E, F