Scan barcode
A review by mtillstaff
Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau
2.0
I found reading this French popular classic pretty difficult. I assume the original includes a lot of French slang, and the translator aimed to capture that. The result is a weird version of English. Words were slurred together and there were lots of strange phonetic spellings, for example 'explained' was 'iksplained'. It was distracting and hard to read. Beyond that, I very much felt like an outsider to this book. I suspect references, characters, and humour would make A LOT more sense if you are French.
The story is set in the 1950s. A potty-mouth, sassy, street-smart girl Zazie (maybe 9?) comes to Paris to stay with her uncle. Alone, and with others, Zazie traverses the city meeting a range of strange characters and having bizarre experiences. This is not Paris, city of love and light -- but one of dive bars, street markets, and gay clubs. It sounds like it could be fun, but it really wasn't.
Louis Malle did a film adaptation of this book that I would like to see. I think, for an non-Francophone like me, it might work better in that format.
The story is set in the 1950s. A potty-mouth, sassy, street-smart girl Zazie (maybe 9?) comes to Paris to stay with her uncle. Alone, and with others, Zazie traverses the city meeting a range of strange characters and having bizarre experiences. This is not Paris, city of love and light -- but one of dive bars, street markets, and gay clubs. It sounds like it could be fun, but it really wasn't.
Louis Malle did a film adaptation of this book that I would like to see. I think, for an non-Francophone like me, it might work better in that format.