Thursday, May 26, 2011

Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran/Oscar and the Lady in Pink-Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt (117 pages)

A. Sorry for my lack of blog posts. Miss College Student has been busy with finals and a new job and whatnot.
B. If our library doesn't have Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt translations in it, somebody might want to get on that. (I like how the Iowa City Public Library still isn't really my library...)
C. The actual post:

This book contained English translations of two novellas "Monsieur Ibrahim" and "Oscar." Both are amazing! "Monsieur Ibrahim" describes the tale of a Sufi grocer who adopts a young Jewish boy after his father commits suicide. "Oscar" tells about a boy dying from cancer, who writes letters to God every day for twelve days until his death. Both are incredibly beautiful, gut-wrenchingly so, as is Schimtt's signature.

Two of my favorite quotes:

"Your love for her belongs to you. It's yours. Even if she refuses it, she cannot change it. She isn't benefiting from it, thats all. What you give, Momo [short for Moses], is yours forever. What you keep is lost for all time!"-Monsieur Ibrahim

"For the last three days, Oscar had a sign on his bedside table. I think it's meant for you [God]. On it he had written: 'Only God is allowed to wake me up.'"-Oscar and the Lady in Pink

I honestly believe Schmitt is a divine teacher. Everything he writes is so beautiful, I cry.

1 comment:

  1. We do have Schmitt in translation; I've read most of what we have. My favorite was the collection of short stories: The Woman with the Bouquet.

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