Tag: shaun whiteside

What you need from the night by Lauren Petitmangin

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What You Need From The Night by Laurent Petitmangin

French fiction

Original title –Ce qu‘il faut de nuit

Translator – Shaun Whiteside

Source – Personal copy

I brought this in York on our trip just before Christmas. I felt there is always a french novel that I hadn’t know of on the booker longlist. But I also liked the fact it was a father bringing up his sons after the death of the mother. This is a subject not often tackled in Fiction. I hadn’t heard of Laurent Petitmangin or this book it had won several prizes in France when it came out. The writer came from a family of rail workers in the East of France. I would imagine it is in the Metz area, where the book itself is set in the 54th department  of France. near Lens and Metz (I’m sure Eric Cantona had played for one of them back in the day )

FOR WEEKS WE were invited to Jacky’s and to other people’s houses too. Wed never had so many invitations in the three years of illness, or even before. It was nice, but it made me feel sorry for la moman. She hadn’t been able to take advantage of any of that, of those endless drinks and snacks that led so nicely into a good meal.

We got pretty drunk quite quickly so that we didn’t have to talk, or else so that the flood of words came more easily. The most important was to break that awkward moment that would inevitably come. Feeling obliged to talk about la moman in a lower voice so that the kids carried on playing and didn’t listen.

The weeks after his wife died they are hel;ped by all those around them

When a father loses his wife to Cancer he promises her he will do his best with the kids as they grow up. Of the two sons, Gilou is the younger son. After the loss of his mother, he becomes a studious young man after his mother dies. It is almost as though he throws himself into his studies to deal with his grief. This is not really discussed in the book; it is just my observation of the book. Then there is the older son, Fus, who was actually doing just as well as his brother when their mother passed. But unlike his brother, he goes the other way and starts slipping. But on top of this, he is close with his father and brother, both staunch socialists. So when he comes home wearing Lazio’s symbolic scarves of the Ultras. He is drawn by the feeling of brother he gets from these new friends. This sets father and son on a head course. The book’s backbone is the love between them and the football the father uses for them to bond when the mother dies. But it also shows how easily someone can get caught by the seemingly charming right-wingers he falls in with.

‘What’s that, Fus, your scarf?’ Gillou asked him.

‘No, fatso, that’s not a scarf, it’s a bandana.

I took a look at the bandana myself and I was puzzled.

‘Fus, what’s that cross on there?’

‘Dad, I don’t know anything about it, it’s just a bandana that a mate lent me.

‘Fus, if you don’t know then I’m going to tell you, it’s a Celtic cross! A Celtic cross! My God, Fus, are you wearing fascist gear these days?’

When he sees his brother wearing a Ultras symbol in the form of a bandana

I’m pleased I read this I hadn’t seen it talked about much. But it is my sort of book I like books around family buit this has a little bit of football thrown in. Also, growing up and being tempted by those dark charmers we all meet when we are younger, whether into drugs, drinking, or her, in this case, being right-wing, anything to form a sense of comradeship. I think of the film This is England, where we see a young man drawn down the same path by another charmer in the form of Combo or even a French take on the same story where we see the young Quin Quin drawn to be right-wing in part of the series. The unnamed father had done his best, but it shows what happens when political extremes appear, and they all have to deal with the fallout from this and its effect on the whole family. I am pleased I picked it up as I hadn’t seen it mentioned. I just liked the description when I read it: Waterstones York, where they had it up as maybe a staff pick. Anyway, a book that can be read in the evening lingers with you after you finish it! Have you heard of this book ?

Winston score – B solid novella around grief moving on political extremes and family at the heart of it

Football by Jean-Philippe Toussaint euro 2016

~ winstonsdad ~ 4 Comments

Football by Jean-Philippe Toussaint

Belgium Non -Fiction

original title – Football

Translator – Shaun Whiteside

Source – Review copy

Jean Philippe Toussaint is a writer I had long wanted to get to his novels are well-known for a minimalist style , so when this collection of prose piece by him on football arrived from Fitzcarraldo editions I got a chance to tick off a writer I had wanted to get to for a while. He has written nine novels which have been translated into many languages and he has won a number of book prizes as well .This also ties in with my current set of Euro 2016 related books as it follows his life in recent years tracking the Belgium team.

Childhood

In Brussels, in the playgrounds of primary school no. 9 , we used to play football at break time and the criterion used ro seprate the two teams was nopt little versus big or fair versus dark or year four versus year five, it was moral versus religion . At the start of the year, in this secular school on rue Americaine in Ixelles, you effectively had to choose between Moral and religion, according to whether you parents or we ourselves wanted to take catechism classes.

I love this way they choose the teams in my day it was against a wall and I was often near the end .

The book is a collection of short essays about his early life and football , things like playing with friends , getting a bad injury whilst a kid. what jersey he loves.I like the insight into shirts and teams we always think of certain teams and colours his examples are France in Blue, Brazil in Yellow and Germany in White.But what happens when they don’t where that shirt of course here in the England this was the case on our biggest game ever the 66 final where the team wore red shirts! Then he finally watches matches as an adult first in France 98 which strangely serves as a mid-point in the book and a tying to the end of the book as of course both involve the french player Zidane.Toussaints memories are tied to his team Belgium and their course through the cup which in this case was three draws . Then what follows is how he sees the team at the following world cups the next saw them make the 2nd round only to lose to Brazil.then the missing belgium team means a short piece on 2006. Then South Africa also a year without Belgium . The work is rounded off with an earlier piece he wrote on Zidane about the mad night 2006 when Zidane end his career getting sent off for the first time for headbutting an italian player in an act out-of-place for the great player and hero of the first year Toussaint talks about .

Night has fallen over Berlin now, the intensity if the light has faded and Zidane has suddenly felt the sky darkening over his shoulders, leaving nothing in the firmament but the flayed trails of blck and pink clouds. Water mixed with night is an old remorse that will not sleep

No one in the stadium has understood what just happened.

That moment in 2006 from the piece Zidane’s melancholy

Now I find hard not to like this book as Toussaint is a true football fan , the real shame for me is the book ends just as the story of his team and country is about to turn the book ends in 2010 , when in 2014 the belgium team makes it quarter-final and even this time have been maybe the best team or second best team at euro 2016 so far with their team of stars. So lets hope we get a football 2 with these years at some point Toussaints take on Hazzard, Fellani and so on. The Belgium team is packed with talent not seen since the days of Enzo Scifo the great Belgium player with the Italian name that caught the eye in the 80s world cups where they finished 4th in 86 and Scifo was one of the stars of that year.This is one of the best football books I have read. But for further reading on the Benelux football I would point you in the way of Brilliant Orange a book on the mad genius of Dutch football .