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ben11m's review against another edition
5.0
Je pensais pas me prendre une claque aussi forte, mais j'en braille fort et ça m'est tellement rare dans un livre. C'est probablement une des plus belles odes à la vie depuis La vie devant soi (ou bin récemment Afterlife). Il y a quelque chose de violemment humain dans l'écriture de Carrère, autant dans le style généralement simple que dans les montées magnifiques qui BRISENT LE COEUR.
Je suis bin content d'avoir acheté l'intégral finalement, mais pas tout de suite, je me donne un petit break et je braillerai en juin.
Je suis bin content d'avoir acheté l'intégral finalement, mais pas tout de suite, je me donne un petit break et je braillerai en juin.
literarycrushes's review against another edition
4.0
Lives Other than My Own is a story of loss: both the tragic anomalies and the commonplace varieties. But it’s also a lesson in the love and hope that can arise during that pain. Translated into English from French, Emmanuel Carrere’s focus remains steadfastly on others, though we catch glimpses into his mind through his observations (hence its being categorized as a ‘memoir’).
It began in 2004 on a joint-family vacation with his partner Helene and their two young sons. They’ve come to Sri Lanka to revive their failing relationship but are quickly realizing they might be better suited without one another. And then, the morning after Christmas, a horrific tsunami hits Southeast Asia, killing more than a quarter of a million people. While their opportune location spared Carrere and his family, they’re instantly surrounded by death, devastation, and loss.
He and Helene are drawn to another French couple whose 4-year-old daughter was killed, and they spend time consoling them as well as searching through thousands of unclaimed bodies in overwhelmed hospitals for her already decomposing body. We then meet other people, like Ruth, who was separated from her new husband in the wave, and, sure he is among the dead, enters a catatonic state her body cannot sustain. Somewhat abruptly, the family returns to Paris and skips ahead to when Helene’s younger sister Juliette is told she has only a few weeks to live. Spared most of the details of her decline, we find a portrait of a family in grief – her parents and siblings, as well as her husband and young daughters. Somewhat removed from grief (he didn’t really know her and is frequently remorseful of the business trip to Japan he was supposed to be on), he is able to capture many of its synchronicities, from an overly enthusiastic volunteer mortuary cosmetologist to the subtler feelings of displacement. Rather than dwell too much on Juliette herself, he takes up with her former coworker, a man named Etienne, and strives to write his life story.
This was a truly moving book that made me cry more than once (my highest praise) withing ever feeling overly sentimental thanks to his structured and clear writing.
It began in 2004 on a joint-family vacation with his partner Helene and their two young sons. They’ve come to Sri Lanka to revive their failing relationship but are quickly realizing they might be better suited without one another. And then, the morning after Christmas, a horrific tsunami hits Southeast Asia, killing more than a quarter of a million people. While their opportune location spared Carrere and his family, they’re instantly surrounded by death, devastation, and loss.
He and Helene are drawn to another French couple whose 4-year-old daughter was killed, and they spend time consoling them as well as searching through thousands of unclaimed bodies in overwhelmed hospitals for her already decomposing body. We then meet other people, like Ruth, who was separated from her new husband in the wave, and, sure he is among the dead, enters a catatonic state her body cannot sustain. Somewhat abruptly, the family returns to Paris and skips ahead to when Helene’s younger sister Juliette is told she has only a few weeks to live. Spared most of the details of her decline, we find a portrait of a family in grief – her parents and siblings, as well as her husband and young daughters. Somewhat removed from grief (he didn’t really know her and is frequently remorseful of the business trip to Japan he was supposed to be on), he is able to capture many of its synchronicities, from an overly enthusiastic volunteer mortuary cosmetologist to the subtler feelings of displacement. Rather than dwell too much on Juliette herself, he takes up with her former coworker, a man named Etienne, and strives to write his life story.
This was a truly moving book that made me cry more than once (my highest praise) withing ever feeling overly sentimental thanks to his structured and clear writing.
elenamolinariiiii's review against another edition
4.0
this got me absolutely SOBBING, if you like to get destroyed by books like A Little Life this is for you
spayette's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.5
The last chapter is the best chapter of the book so don’t bail before then!
sujuv's review against another edition
4.0
An exceptionally honest and generous book that lives up to its title: it is a memoir that is about the lives of others. And somehow it manages to succeed at both. Carrere starts with a story so awful - being in Sri Lanka at the time of the deadly tsunami and befriending a fellow French family that lost its 4-year old to the wave - and moves on to another more quotidian but equally heartbreaking story of a young mother (his sister-in-law) dying of cancer, leaving behind three young daughters in addition to other heartbroken family members. He dives into the lives, including backstories, of all of these people, and also - surprisingly - a man who worked with his sister-in-law for years as a fellow judge in a small, consumer court in France that managed to make a difference in people's lives. Carrere's great gift is to be able to look at each person and find the value and beauty in their existence while at the same time looking honestly at himself and seeing where he fails and who he is at heart. I learned about this book from the New York Times 50 best memoirs list and I am so grateful I did. Reading it was a truly moving and worthwhile experience.
anaisrvlr's review against another edition
4.0
4.5
Waouh. Magnifique livre, très bien écrit. Les histoires sont tristes à en pleurer.
Pourquoi l’auteur a écrit ce livre et a choisi cette structure ? Dur à dire et c’est pour que je ne mets pas 5. On dirait qu’il choisit ses sujets un peu au hasard mais grâce à son talent d’écrivain, ca marche.
Waouh. Magnifique livre, très bien écrit. Les histoires sont tristes à en pleurer.
Pourquoi l’auteur a écrit ce livre et a choisi cette structure ? Dur à dire et c’est pour que je ne mets pas 5. On dirait qu’il choisit ses sujets un peu au hasard mais grâce à son talent d’écrivain, ca marche.