*****
Synopsis:
In a wistful, tough, funny, clever, and characteristically odd memoir-cum-novel, Amelie Nothomb casts herself as hunger: hunger for experience, hunger for life, hunger for sweetness and, in what is the book's nucleus, hunger for hunger (the period during which she was afflicted by acute anorexia).
The daughter of a Belgian diplomat, Amelie had an itinerant childhood, ranging from Tokyo to Peking and Paris to New York by way of Bangladesh. Recounting these formative journeys right up to her return to Japan in 1989, and the Kobe earthquake, The Life of Hunger is an extraordinary examination of the self, and perhaps Amelie's most mature and moving work to date.
Excerpt:
...'In Vanuatu, there is food everywhere. We never had to produce it. We hold out our two hands and a coconut falls into one, into the other one bunch of bananas. We walk into the sea to cool ourselves down, and cannot help collecting excellent, shellfish, sea urchins, crabs and delicate fish. We go for a walk into the forest, where there are to many birds: we are forced to do them the favour of removing their surplus eggs from their nests, and sometimes wringing the neck of one of these feathered creatures, which don't even run away from us. Female warthogs have to much milk, for they to are overfed and beg us to milk them to ease their discomfort; they utter shrill cries that cease only when we yield to their plea.'
...For a few minutes he said nothing. Then after a while, he added:
'It's terrible'...You can't imagine what it's like!
My review:
This novel by Amelie Nothomb is indeed more mature and rather different from her usual creation. Also it does I believe addresses her life. If you read as many of her novels as I have, you begin to notice her childhood emerging, and staying faithful novel to novel.
I enjoyed THE LIFE OF HUNGER immensely. If you have never read her, do read this book.
The above excerpt addresses her believe that if you are satieded in all aspects of life you become unproductive. The 'hunger' for life is what drives us to search, in Amelie's case "sweets" which her mother forbids, at least at an early age. Her unique style makes this novel a serious and fun read.
5 comments:
Amelie Nothomb has been popping up for me online and in bookshops recently but I hadn't yet read anything she'd written. Thanks to your review I have requested The Life of Hunger from my library and I look forward to reading it.
I've only read one of her books: "Journal d'Hirondelle". It was strange, but interesting and unusual. I didn't know that she was Belgian and that she had an itinerant childhood (it seems to be the case of quite a few writers, I wonder if by chance or not). I'd like to read this book, one small book such as "Journal d'Hirondelle" is not enough to understand if I like Amélie Nothomb or not.
Greetings from Italy!
Hi Stefania,
Journal d'Hirondelle" is perhaps one of the few novels Amelie Nothomb has written which had her fans disappointed. It deals with some violence which is not usual for her.
being French I have read pretty much all her novels and some are just a lot of fun to read, if you can read them in French, here are a few you might like and which might give you a better idea of this unique novelist:
METAPHISIQUE DES TUBES
PEBLUM
STUPEUR ET TREMBLEMENT
COSMETIQUE DE L'ENEMI
HYGIENE DE L'ASSASSIN
NI D'EVE NI D'ADAM
Greetings from the States :D
To paperback reading,
I liked THE LIFE OF HUNGER a lot, it might be one of her best novel even so there are some really good ones.
Let me know how you liked THE LIFE OF HUNGER
Have a wonderful week!
Yes, I can read them in French, they're not too difficult (my personal struggle when I read in French is slang). I'm pretty sure I saw at least "Metaphisique des tubes" in the interntional bookshop I often go to!
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