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A review by bucket
Cross Channel by Julian Barnes
4.0
I really enjoyed most of the stories in this collection, with just a few misses. They all feature Englanders in France - in time periods ranging from the 1700s to 2000-ish and everything in between. The thematic tie is basically just the experience of being non-French in France. Though the immigrant/alien experience is very prominent in some stories and completely absent in others. My favorites:
Interference - a dying and very selfish composer redeems himself in the eyes of his lover at the last possible moment.
Evermore - a woman mourns her brother who died in WWI in ways both touching and disturbing.
Hermitage - two women undertake to run a vineyard together.
I also liked Experiment (nephew digs into the truth of his uncle's dalliance with surrealists) and Dragons (reformation, protestant Pierre's life torn to shreds).
Interference - a dying and very selfish composer redeems himself in the eyes of his lover at the last possible moment.
Evermore - a woman mourns her brother who died in WWI in ways both touching and disturbing.
Hermitage - two women undertake to run a vineyard together.
I also liked Experiment (nephew digs into the truth of his uncle's dalliance with surrealists) and Dragons (reformation, protestant Pierre's life torn to shreds).