In the Café of Lost Youth (New York Review Books Classics)

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Hôm tôi bảo bạn tôi, đọc quyển này thấy gần gũi quá, không chỉ vì bản thân tôi cũng trói mình vào nỗi buồn để tìm ra vẻ đẹp vĩnh cửa của nó, một sự quy hồi vĩnh cửu, khi rút cuộc mọi thứ trên cuộc đời đều sẽ quay về với nỗi buồn để ôm ấp cho đến chết. If you’re to persevere with Modiano, you’ll have to let yourself be transported to another place and another time: a place that is nowhere to be found and a time that resembles the meanderings and non-sequiturs of dreams. He is a winner of the 1972 Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française, and the 1978 Prix Goncourt for his novel "Rue des boutiques obscures".

But through Roland, a lover she lives with after she walks out on Jean-Pierre one day, we sense she might finally find a little happiness. Consider Philippe Claudel a far more versatile and passionate author than this accidental or compromise Nobel laureate. Set against the backdrop of the sixties in Paris, “In the Café of Lost Youth” explores the idea of a safe haven for those who wander through the “neutral zones” of a city where past, present a future are disquietingly interconnected. The title of this book, with a reference to a 'lost youth', immediately arouses a sense of melancholy that is the trademark of Modiano.I've read countless favorable reviews about Modiano, but I don't realize how it has always escaped me. In the Café of Lost Youth is a glimpse into post-war France, when celebrations and parties are galore. Step by step though, the author guided me from the tourist view to the disturbing, sad inner landscape of people living at the edge of society – misfits, bohemians, loners – a group of mostly young people who meet at the 'Conde' more to hide from the world than to plan to take it by storm. He talks about the Neutral Zones: “intermediary zones existed in Paris, no-man’s-lands where you were on the fringes of everything, in transit, or even suspended.

Each one comes at the story from a slightly different angle, and the multiple narrators help to create a fuller picture of the main character Louki, AKA Jacqueline Delanque.Bohemian youth and some older men form the crowd of this Condé, where our central character walks in. Earlier, reviewers including myself, have decried his books as plotless and kaleidoscopic: twisting, rehashing the same inputs into new configurations against a backdrop of nihilism and alienation. Nothing happens, nothing really changes," as Sartre says: "life mirrors death and death mirrors life. Not having been to Paris, I found the constant detailing of streets (to no discernible purpose) more than a little tedious - it seemed at times to be nothing more than a written walking map of the city. Patrick Modiano goes beyond the checklist accuracies of historical fiction, fashioning a lush fever dream filled with glamor, mystery, and despair.