Never Anyone But You
Autor Rupert Thomsonen Limba Engleză Paperback – 3 ian 2019
Găsim în proza lui Rupert Thomson o precizie aproape hipnotică, o scriitură care refuză artificiul în favoarea unei intimități profunde, pe care critica o descrie adesea ca fiind de o atenție „aproape psihică”. În Never Anyone But You, autorul britanic abandonează peisajele urbane contemporane din Barcelona Dreaming sau explorările memoriei personale din This Party's Got To Stop pentru a recupera o istorie reală, mult timp rămasă în marginea documentelor oficiale. Romanul ne poartă prin metamorfoza a două femei, Suzanne și Lucie, care părăsesc rigiditatea rurală a Franței pentru a deveni figurile centrale ale suprarealismului parizian sub numele de Claude Cahun și Marcel Moore.
Observăm cu interes cum Thomson construiește această relație nu doar ca pe o poveste de dragoste clandestină, ci ca pe un act continuu de creație artistică și identitară. Stilul său evocativ reușește să capteze atmosfera efervescentă a Parisului interbelic, dar forța narațiunii rezidă în a doua parte a cărții, când decorul se schimbă în insula Jersey ocupată de naziști. Aici, arta devine armă de rezistență, iar dragostea lor — un act politic periculos. Ca și în Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 de Francine Prose, suntem martorii unei epoci în care libertatea individuală se ciocnește violent de ascensiunea totalitarismului, însă Rupert Thomson alege o perspectivă mult mai introspectivă, concentrându-se pe spațiul fragil dintre cele două protagoniste și pe curajul lor aproape tăcut de a „exista altfel”.
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Specificații
ISBN-10: 1472153480
Pagini: 352
Dimensiuni: 130 x 198 x 16 mm
Greutate: 0.28 kg
Editura: Little Brown
Colecția Corsair
Locul publicării:London, United Kingdom
De ce să citești această carte
Recomandăm această carte cititorilor care caută biografii ficționalizate scrise cu o sensibilitate literară rară. Veți descoperi nu doar istoria fascinantă a două pioniere ale identității de gen și ale suprarealismului, ci și o reflecție profundă despre cum arta poate deveni un gest suprem de rezistență în fața opresiunii. Este un câștig intelectual și emoțional pentru oricine apreciază legătura dintre viața privată și marile traume ale istoriei.
Despre autor
Rupert Thomson, născut în Anglia în 1955 și educat la Cambridge, este un romancier recunoscut pentru versatilitatea sa stilistică și capacitatea de a aborda genuri diverse, de la ficțiune contemporană la memorii. Autor al mai multor romane premiate, Thomson s-a stabilit în Barcelona, experiență care i-a influențat lucrări precum Barcelona Dreaming. Opera sa este definită de o explorare constantă a identității și a modului în care individul se raportează la structurile sociale sau istorice, fie că investighează moartea și datoria în Death of a Murderer, fie că recuperează voci uitate ale avangardei artistice.
Descriere
'A beautiful and extraordinary book' Philip Pullman
When Suzanne, a shy 17-year-old, meets the brilliant but troubled Lucie in rural Provence at the turn of the twentieth century, the two young women embark on a clandestine love affair. But they soon long for greater freedom.
The lovers move to Paris where they recreate themselves entirely, as Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore. Before long, they are mixing in the most glamorous social circles and producing art of great power and strangeness.
But the world is rapidly darkening around them. With war looming they leave Paris for Jersey, and it is here that they confront their destiny, dreaming up a campaign of propaganda against Hitler's occupying forces that will put their love - and even their very existence - in jeopardy.
From one of our most celebrated writers, Never Anyone but You explores the gripping true story of two extraordinary women who smashed gender boundaries and ultimately risked their lives to overcome oppression. Theirs is a story that has been hidden in the margins of history - until now...
Recenzii
Thomson has created a taut, magnificently controlled novel about creativity and personal survival that is a lucid reflection of the period it describes, as the surface of a surrealist picture is lucid . . . Like Cahun's photomontages, it looks like life, but it's not life, exactly. Only art can achieve this degree of realism.
It's sensational stuff, undoubtedly, but Thomson's skill shows in his restraint - there's an authenticity to the dramatic ebb and flow and a slight detachment to Suzanne's retrospective narrative gaze that becomes increasingly poignant with the passing years. Sensitively realised, but hugely powerful, it's a reminder of how, paradoxically, we need others to become ourselves
A quiet, expert, inestimably engaging novel . . . it is his consistent attentiveness to the interiors of these women and their lives that makes this such a lovely reading experience. He's written the kind of book all incorrigible novel addicts will treasure
Thomson's novel is based on actual events and it's a jolting moment when, as an old woman, Malherbe reflects 'it has not been much of a life'. In fact, it was an extraordinary life - well lived and very well told in this moving story of love, difference and defiance
Elegant
In prose so sharp it glitters, Rupert Thomson reveals in fiction what inevitably remains hidden in nonfiction - lived experience. Through the measured but incisive voice of Suzanne Malherbe, the reader enters the intimate world of two life-long lovers, artistic collaborators, and anti-Nazi rebels who left behind a haunting photographic legacy. After I finished this acute and tender book, I felt that two fascinating ghosts had become real.
Hands down, Rupert Thomson is one of my favourite writers of all time. I impatiently wait for his new novels and he never disappoints. The atmospheric Never Anyone But You is exquisitely crafted and pulls you deep into the love affair of two extraordinary women. Magnificent. As always.
NEVER ANYONE BUT YOU is a delightful, surprising and highly accomplished novel that puts a hidden piece of history into its long overdue place in the spotlight. Rupert Thomson deftly weaves a story that spans several decades, the Paris surrealists, Nazi-occupied Jersey, heroic acts of resistance, and intense and enduring (and forbidden) love into one seamless whole. I was gripped, thrilled, entertained and deeply moved.
A beautiful and extraordinary book . . . strange and moving, and quite unlike anything else. It's a long time since I read a love story quite so convincing and truthful
This novel brilliantly captures the daringness of their artistic lives, the drama of their resistance efforts and the dazzle of their enduring love.
Never Anyone But You tackles love between two complex people with a tenderness and attention to detail that is almost psychic. He creates characters, then he inhabits them. Thomson has absorbed art history and made it seamless to the story, but what he seems to know best is love . . . Thomson's delicately paced prose inhabits the impatience of young love, the claustrophobic obsession of erotic desire and then, most convincingly, the bittersweet emotion of a woman who is old and anonymous and bled dry by complicity, memory and physical loss. If you are tempted to Google the artists the book is based on, please resist, because what the author has created on the page defies comparisons with the living or the dead.
A novel of tremendous beauty . . . a wonderful achievement
In this novel about Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, Rupert Thomson tells the thrilling story of how, fusing love and art, one of the great collaborative partnerships of the 20th century mounted an unthinkably brave, largely unsung campaign of political witness and resistance. The voice Thomson gives Marcel is a brilliant invention: flashes of poetry trouble the patina of its self-control, intimations of the wildness and terror of genius.
'A moving story of love, difference and defiance' Mail on Sunday
When Suzanne, a shy 17-year-old, meets the brilliant but troubled Lucie in rural Provence at the turn of the twentieth century, the two young women embark on a clandestine love affair. But they soon long for greater freedom.
The lovers move to Paris where they recreate themselves entirely, adopting the gender-neutral names Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore. Before long, they are mixing in the most glamorous social circles and producing art of great power and strangeness.
But the world is fast darkening around them. With war looming they leave Paris for Jersey, and it is here that they confront their destiny, dreaming up a campaign of propaganda against Hitler's occupying forces that places them in great danger and demands their love endure against ever greater odds.
From one of our most celebrated writers, Never Anyone but You explores the gripping true story of two extraordinary women who smashed gender boundaries, redefining what it means to be a woman, and ultimately risked their lives to overcome oppression. Theirs is a story that has been hidden in the margins of history - until now...
'A beautiful and extraordinary book . . . It's a long time since I read a love story quite so convincing and truthful' Philip Pullman
'A taut, magnificently controlled novel about creativity and personal survival' Guardian
'Sensitively realised but hugely powerful' Daily Mail