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The Beginners
The Beginners | Anne Serre
1 post | 1 read
Quintessential Anne Serre—this restless, prowling novel explores love as a form of greed, and confused need as one shape of bereftness Anna has been living happily for twenty years with loving, sturdy, outgoing Guillaume when she suddenly (truly at first sight) falls in love with Thomas. Intelligent and handsome, but apparently scarred by a terrible early emotional wound, he reminds Anna of Jude the Obscure. Adrift and lovelorn, she tries unsuccessfully to fend off her attraction, torn between the two men. “How strange it is to leave someone you love for someone you love. You cross a footbridge that has no name, that’s not named in any poem. No, nowhere is a name given to this bridge, and that is why Anna found it so difficult to cross.” Anne Serre offers here, in her third book in English, her most direct novel to date. The Beginners is unpredictable, sensual, exhilarating, oddly moral, perverse, absurd—and unforgettable.
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Gleefulreader
The Beginners | Anne Serre
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Mehso-so

For a short book, this felt remarkably long. It is a translation from French, about a middle aged woman, Anna, who has a wonderful relationship with Guillaume. One summer she becomes obsessed with another man, with whom she embarks on an unusual affair. She is torn between the two men and much of the time is spent in her head trying to justify. She‘s an incredibly selfish and self-centred character and I just didn‘t care about the outcome.