Les Années cerises (lit. 'The Cherry Years') concerns an eleven-year-old boy and his desires, his hopes and his fears. Rather like the later Les Déferlantes, this is about a fragile individual for whom communication is really difficult. In Les Déferlantes, the unnamed protagonist is traumatised by a previous relationship and incapable of expressing her feelings; in Les Années cerises, the eleven-year-old first person narrator expresses himself very well in the book, but in his daily life can't express his feelings, his knowledge, or his desires. His parents beat him, his mother takes him to a useless psychologist, and he seems trapped. He's 'L'Anéanti', or the destroyed or the broken person, literally living on the edge of a cliff which will soon give way and threatens to send his whole family over the edge into oblivion.
Not that he doesn't have friends, such as Paulo, who comes from a richer family, but who mocks the narrator as do the other kids and his teachers, but Paulo's sister (unnamed) gets the narrator's young juices flowing, even though he knows that he's at least three years too young for her, and anyway she sees him as a bit autistic, and there's probably a fair amount of truth in that. The narrator's mother thinks that sending him to a private (Catholic) school will be better for him, and surprisingly instead of this idea alienating him, his existing schoolmates ironically see this as a major plus: he can spy on them for his former school, whose pupils are at war with the other school.
Events get in the way though, specifically the erosion of the cliff their rented house is on, to such an extent that the family will have to be rehoused. Cue for major developments. Judging by the two books I've read of Claudie Galley's, (lack of) communication appears to be a major theme with her, although I may be barking up the wrong cherry tree.
My Claudie Gallay posts:
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Claudie Gallay: Les Déferlantes | Breakers
Claudie Gallay: Les Années cerises
Claudie Gallay: L'Office des vivants
Not that he doesn't have friends, such as Paulo, who comes from a richer family, but who mocks the narrator as do the other kids and his teachers, but Paulo's sister (unnamed) gets the narrator's young juices flowing, even though he knows that he's at least three years too young for her, and anyway she sees him as a bit autistic, and there's probably a fair amount of truth in that. The narrator's mother thinks that sending him to a private (Catholic) school will be better for him, and surprisingly instead of this idea alienating him, his existing schoolmates ironically see this as a major plus: he can spy on them for his former school, whose pupils are at war with the other school.
Events get in the way though, specifically the erosion of the cliff their rented house is on, to such an extent that the family will have to be rehoused. Cue for major developments. Judging by the two books I've read of Claudie Galley's, (lack of) communication appears to be a major theme with her, although I may be barking up the wrong cherry tree.
My Claudie Gallay posts:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Claudie Gallay: Les Déferlantes | Breakers
Claudie Gallay: Les Années cerises
Claudie Gallay: L'Office des vivants
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