The Horseman on the Roof (French 1951, English 1953) By Jean Giono

 

Jean Giono is considered one of France’s greatest writers.  His mastery of narrative description is remarkable.  If the topic is beauty, valor or honor, the reader is sure to be enthralled. There is a downside to this skill however, and it is on shocking display in Giono’s classic The Horseman on the Roof: the story is set in the southeast of France during a cholera outbreak.  The visual of the narrative is ghastly, page after page of real life and death brought to your eyes and nose.  That said, it is a compelling read.

The story is about a young Italian man named Angelo Pardi.  He is a cavalry officer and a gentleman, son of nobility, elitist, yet fighter for revolution.  There is a lot of contradiction in that sentence, which makes Angelo an interesting character.  He has had to flee to France where he works to organize other exiles and let them know they’ve been sold out by the latest alliance change among Europe’s endlessly warring states.  It is France’s post-Napoleon era. 

Angelo's flight to France soon becomes a nightmare as the cholera epidemic begins to spread from person to person, village to village. The horror of the epidemic, with people trying to survive, and turning on each other, blockades at city gates, and mandatory communal quarantines of out-of-towners – is impeding Angelo’s work.  At one point, to avoid capture he ends up crawling on the tiled rooftops of a village – hence the title of the book.  In his escapades, he meets a young French noblewoman, who herself is trying to survive.  They will travel together, ever eastward trying to stay one step ahead of both the epidemic, and the French military.

FULL MOVIE (French, with English subtitles)

In 1995, a movie based on book was released starring Olivier Martinez  as Angelo, and Juliette Binoche as Pauline, the noblewoman.  It is largely faithful to the script – which makes its cholera scenes a bit much.  I prejudged the movie assuming it would be your typical “beautiful people” among the world’s ugliness re-write.  I was wrong on that front. There are many political asides in the book that are lost on readers without a background in French history (like me). The movie does a fairly good job of explaining this history for an international audience. 

Recommended.  Yes, both book and movie.  Though, not for the squeamish.

The Edible Woman (1969) By Margaret Atwood

 

The Edible Woman was Margaret Atwood’s first book.  Published in 1969 it has been categorized as belonging in almost every literary genre one can list. For me, I’ll call it feminist, though from reading interviews of Atwood I’m not sure she would completely agree.

The lead character is a young woman living in Toronto.  Her name is Marian.  She works for a marketing firm writing survey questionnaires.    

Marian is single.  Early in the book she will become engaged to her boyfriend Peter because that is the expected next step in her life.  Peter is what would have been called at the time “a good catch,” a handsome, up-and-coming professional. He, without a clue, treats her as nothing more than an accessory in his professional advancement. Peter though clearly a schmuck, is not necessarily an evil one. Her realization of this is the main plot of the book.

Ainsley is Marian’s roommate.  They have little in common.  Marian’s character is buying into what is supposed to be “a woman’s role” in society. Ainsley is having none of that.  Ainsley’s subplot is her decision to have a baby, without a husband.  She picks out an old friend of Marian’s to be the father, then waits until her pregnancy is confirmed before telling him his role is complete; he is no longer needed.

Then there is Duncan, without competition the most bizarre character in the story.  For most of the book he is referred to as “the laundromat guy.”  From scene to scene he is either a very insecure geek, or a complete jerk … sometimes both.  Duncan, and his two roommates, are English Literature Masters students – and Atwood’s depiction of the trio is priceless, not to mention spot on.  Through Duncan, Marian will realize she needs to bail from her “a woman’s role” trajectory.

Throughout the story, Marion develops increasingly severe eating disorders, all stress related.  How she deals with these is the source of the book’s title and makes for a hilarious conclusion.

Recommendation:  Highly recommended