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Au Revoir, Tristesse: Lessons in Happiness from French Literature
Maybe someday
27
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
19/100Critics
36/100Scholars
Author:
Viv Groskop
Publisher:
Abrams Press
Date:
June 9, 2020
English writer, comedian, and journalist Groskop mixes literary history and memoir to explore how the classics of French literature can infuse our lives with joie de vivre and teach us how to say goodbye to sadness.
What The Reviewers Say
Groskop has continually surprising reflections, having steeped herself, in the meantime, in a dozen authors’ biographies. She isn’t trying to unearth new gems or evangelize for the overlooked; this is a star show about books and writers so famous that Groskop can compare them to celebrated films.
... offers the reader a handy shortcut through the hard graft of learning these lessons for oneself.
... witty and informative.
[Groskop] succeeds; not only in finding them in a quirky assortment of guises, but also, more importantly, in making the process of looking for them fun — which makes this book feel a bit like a game of hide and seek. So prepare to run rampage through the grand mansions of French literature, to rummage around in biographies, skedaddle through plots, overturning conventions and sending pomposity flying as you hunt down the secrets of human jollity.
