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Today, "In the blue" by Joyce Carol Oates, published on September 8, 2022 by Éditions Robert Laffont.
Cathy Borie, novelist and contributor to the 20 Minutes
Books reading group
, recommends
Dans le bleu
by Joyce Carol Oates, published on September 8, 2022 by Éditions Robert Laffont.
His favorite quote:
“At that moment I began to understand that I had been wrong: I had not been loved.
Even in the blue I had not been loved.
My mother left me, went with the geese, I could never catch up with them.
»
Why this book?
Because it's a novel for teenagers
that can only affect adults too, because they were also teenagers, but also because everyone, teenager or adult, can find themselves in Jenna's way of manage your grief by trying never to get out of “blue”, the color of artificial happiness.
Because the great JCOates knew how
to put herself perfectly in the shoes of Jenna, 15, seriously injured in the collision which cost her mother's life, between revolt and feeling of abandonment.
Because two serious subjects are addressed in this novel,
bereavement and addiction, and they are approached with simplicity and naturalness, while not hiding the real issues.
Because it's a learning novel that will speak to everyone,
even those who are not in mourning, even those who are not addicts, because we wonder about the meaning of life, about what is friendship, on what it means to love, on the family.
The essentials in 2 minutes
The plot.
Jenna wakes up in the hospital after a serious car accident where her mother dies.
The painkillers cut her off from reality for a time, but she has to go through her rehabilitation, go live with her aunt, integrate a new high school, when she would so much like to stay "in the blue".
She tells.
Characters.
Jenna, the narrator;
his aunt Caroline and her family;
his father ;
Raven, with whom she falls in love;
Trina, his “friend”;
his teachers;
his shrink.
Places.
A small town in New Hampshire.
The time.
Nowadays.
The author.
Joyce Carol Oates, who needs no introduction: a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an author who has received numerous awards for her many novels, she is an essential contemporary writer.
This book was read with
great empathy for Jenna and her distress cleverly camouflaged under an apparent indifference.
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