French

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Thumbs up for Pétronille by Amélie Nothomb. Literature.

An authoress – who happens to share the name of the actual author – who is obsessed with Champagne finds a drinking buddy in the mercurial Pétronille. This is a brisk, readable, sometimes very funny little novella that is definitely not taking itself too seriously. Not bad. Makes me want a drink.

Intoxication doesn’t just happen.

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Thumbs up for Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac. Literature.

Every time I think of Balzac I think of the West Wing episode in which Balzac is made fun of for his windiness. This is not wrong – at least in the first chapter. It was good that the introduction (by E.K. Brown) in my edition warned me that Balzac front-loads his books with lots of description, setting the scene and placing the characters within it before the story gets rolling.… >> Read more