This Strange Eventful History

There are books that are good enough to finish, but leave me with a sense of what the driving purpose of the book was. This is one of those books.

Mmm. This wasn't what I expected. The book review I read said it was a multi a generational history of an Algerian family. But the family is a French family resident in Algeria, and most of the action takes place outside Algeria. There is vanishingly little about life as colonists, and virtually nothing about the peoples who had lost their country.
None of this is the author's fault, but it adversely affected my reading. I was miffed.
The story telling is well structured - each segment is told in the voice of one of the family members. Although, with a few exceptions, the "voice" didn't vary all that much.
The dramatic love affairs seemed to be aimed at a different audience from this reader. I see the book has been highly rated by Oprah Winfrey, and I could readily imagine her audience enjoying it.
By the end I was enjoying it too, but it's not my sort of book. Close, but no cigar.

An epic story of a family who migrated from France to Algeria to Canada and to the US. Gaston and Lucienne fell in love, and had 2 children François and Denise. François marries Barbara, and they have Chloe.
The story is told over 7 decades, through WWII, their migration to Algeria and beyond. The children, François and Denise have never been able to live up to the love of their parents, and when Gaston starts developing hardening of his body and Lucienne begins with dementia, their story is re-told and examined. François and Barbara have a strange love marriage, and they wonder if they are meant for each other.
The most shocking part of the story comes at the end - and it blew me away. What a surprise.

This book was MADE for audio! If I had been reading a hard copy, I would have given up 50 pages in. However, in the leisurely environment of my car, over weeks, it was a relaxing listen, featuring three generations of a French Algerian family, which Messud says in the epilogue is a fictionalized version of her own. The grandparents start out in Algeria and travel to Greece and to South America during and after WW II. The other, more settled side of the family comes from Canada, yawn. All the marriages are complicated, one is blissful, and one contains a very large surprise. There's also a sister who slows things down, but all in all, it might be as if you told the story of your own family's three generations - interesting but maybe only to you and yours.

This is family saga and a long one. Based on good reviews I decided to read this. It was an excellent read with wonderful prose. The book covers 70 years and 3 generations of a French-Algerian family. They live across the globe and the story is constantly moving. This made it a little hard to stay up with. However, the beautiful prose more than made up for the pace of this story. Ultimately, it was a very good book that gave me an insight into a French/algerian family. A worthwhile read.

Phew! I feel like l've gone on a round the world trip without really landing anywhere. The epilogue nicely clears up the reason for the sprawling narrative. The writing is good with lots of interesting bon mots spread throughout. I bought it with Birthday money so it didn't cost me anything, if I had paid with my own money I would be disappointed.

Enjoyed it, wish there was more of each chapter instead of the flighty snippets between generations.

The big reveal was a surprise, but again left one wondering at it all.

The story takes place over 70 years from 1940 to 2010 . But this is a generational family saga. World War 11 and the war for Algerian Independence are just background events. Patriarch Gaston and his wife Lucienne appear to have the perfect marriage, and their two children , Francois and Denise , aspire to have the same. Francois eventually marries a Canadian woman named Barbara, and they have two children, Loulou and Chloe. The story of Denise was quite interesting , as she struggles to find a husband and battles a mental illness. Eventually we reach the end of both Gaston and Lucille's lives , and this proved to be very touching. Much later , following a stroke, Francois muses "what he would not do to drive the Mazda one more time....How swiftly this life vanishes.. What he wouldn't give to take the kids to the Beach House one more time...hold Barb's hand one more time under the table like high school sweethearts...All that was most banal was revealed to him ,again, as beautiful, each physical sensation a tiny explosion of life , a burst of life..." page 388

Where this book falls down is in the vast amount of superfluous detail, which makes reading this book quite a slog. I was grateful read about 1/2 of this as a physical book, and the other half as an audiobook, as otherwise I might not have made it through the 423 pages.

This is a story taken from Claire Messud's grandfather's memoir, with Chloe , the daughter of Francois and Barbara serving as a Claire Messaud. This would have worked better as a more concise , non - fiction memoir.

From 1940 to 2010, this is the story of a family. Beginning in Algeria with Gaston Cassar and his beloved wife, Lucienne. Both families are French "pied-noirs" (French born in Algeria). Gaston's father abandoned the family and was raised by his mother. His marriage to Lucienne (the circumstances which is unknown until the very ending of the book) was blessed with two children, Francois and Denise. As a member of the French Navy, Gaston sends his family back to Algeria during WWII. Then the Algerian Revolution takes place taking his homeland.

Francois is smart, studies in the United States, gets a degree in engineering and marries a Canadian woman, Barbara. Denise, the sister, with numerous health issues (including mental), remains single. Francois and Barbara have two children, Chloe and Loulou whose lives are Ameican but always with roots in a coastal town in France where Gaston and Lucienne live.

Gaston's career takes him to places as Beirut. Francois's career takes him to Argentina and to Australia.

The novel is made up of chapters told by the various members of the family throughout the years. There are joys, misunderstandings, jealousies, love, and sometimes understanding. Gaston's love for Lucienne seems to set the tone for all and none of them can achieve that kind of relationship with their spouses.

Some chapters were more interesting than others. There were many references I had to look up (French phrases, etc.). And, the author had a way of introducing events and new characters without initial explanation causing me to sometimes think I had missed something. However, overall, a good read and a wonderful study at family dynamics in front of interesting cultural and historical events.