Customer Reviews

The Life Before Us ("Madame Rosa'')

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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This is by far the best book that I have read in a very long time. I wasn't familiar with Romain Gary until I read a little book called "Darkness Visible - A Memoir of Madness" by the great author William Styron. In "Darkness Visible" Styron describes his crippling depression and near suicide and speaks of Camus and Romain Gary with great affection. He knew Gary and his wife Jean Seberg. (Styron almost met Camus - he had a dinner engagement with him when he learned he was killed in an auto accident.) Styron saw Romain Gary in his deepest state of depression only to experience serious depression himself later. Styron was deeply affected when he found out that Jean had committed suicide and later so did Romain Gary. It is disturbing how we often lose so many of our great artists by their own hand. And Romain Gary was certainly one of the greatest.

In "The Life Before Us" Romain Gary tells the story of Madame Rosa from the viewpoint of little "Momo". This was the first time I had ever read a novel where I was literally laughing from humour and crying from sadness at the same time. It is amazing how the same exact sentence can inspire both humour and sadness. But Gary accomplished this and much more with this very touching novel. There are many tender Truths in this work. A touching quote: "'Monsieur Hamil, can somebody live without love?''Yes', he said, and bowed his head in shame. I burst into tears." Another is: "'It's where I hide when I'm afraid.' 'Afraid of what, Madame Rosa?' 'You don't need reasons to be afraid, Momo.' I've never forgotten those words, because they were the truest words I've ever heard."

This novel is about life and what it means to be human. It is profoundly touching, disturbing, sad, funny, and honest. You will look at the world differently after reading this novel. It is sad that Romain Gary is gone from our world, but my how he enriched it.

This is one of the best books I've ever read or ever will read! It tells the story of a young Arab kid (from his point of view)living with an aging ex-prostitute ,Rosa ,in paris. Rosa raises the children of prostitutes.I know it doesn't sound like much but believe me, you won't be sorry! It is almost a poetic book.It's certainly one of the most humain books you'll ever come across. People that read and loved "Angela's ashes" and "Cacher in the rye",will love this book also.The book is a little sad but most of the time it's very funny, it's a book about people,the little people.The author, Romain Gary is very well known all over Europe and it saddens me that he's almost anonimus in the states.He deserves the recognition in the states and the Americans deserve to know this great writer.I hope he will be published again and won't be out of print.In case you do want to read it,I think you can buy it at amazon.uk.

I have never read this book in the English translation, but I am sure that in any language, the feeling of it is the same. It is the story of an Arab child being raised by an old Jewish woman. And through them, the most beautiful and unusual love story emerges. There are several dualities within the book (Jewish/Arabic, Rich/Poor,Young/Old) but the narrator, as he is a child, sees no conflict here. Through Momo's eyes, the rich and old, the young and poor, all merge together into a sad and beautiful universe which is uniquely his and Madame Rosa's. It is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read and if your French skills are even moderate, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of the French, La Vie Devant Soi.

All I have left to say is that i wish that all the books i've read were as good, as fuuny, and as sophisitcated as this book.

I have read 13 of Gary's books. I read this book and for 2 years I couldn't stop reading Gary's books. A very emotional novel. Gary is the only writer to win two Goncourt prizes. The first one was in 1954 for his novel "Les racines du ciel" (also a great book).

Whether or not you have seen the movie "Madame Rosa," read this book. I have never read such a painful book yet one so filled with love. Bittersweet? Sounds sappy, and this book is anything but. A mature meditation on childhood and, as in Gary's other work, the paradox of love and humanity after the Holocaust. This book is also a perfect exercise for developing writers (and translators) and a lesson in how a master author can create character and can use language to create an entire world.

This book won the Prix GONCOURT UNDER A PSEUDONYM,meaning that France's highest literary prize went to an unknown author. It is an amazing tale of love and caring - rather sad, altogether. But I wish that modern novelists would have the scope of human knowledge, combined with imagination, that Gary brings to us. What a pity he died so young and is so unappreciated in our country

One of my all-time favorite novels is Roman Gary's The Roots of Heaven, so I snapped Madame Rosa up when I saw it on my mother's bookshelf. It's quite a short novel -- just under 200 pages -- and is narrated by an Arab boy named Momo whose prostitute mother has left him in the care of Madame Rosa, a former hooker and Auschwitz survivor now living in Paris. This is not the Paris of the Seine and Tour Eiffel. Rather it is the Paris of the poor slums circling the affluent core, gritty neighborhoods of immigrants from France's former colonies in Africa and Asia which burst into riots a few years ago. Through Momo, Gary presents the people and place in all their tawdry humanity, and the honest affection of the teenage boy and dying woman is quite touching, as is the care and attention they receive from the transvestite prostitute next door who once was a boxer in Senegal. Underneath all the labels, Gary says once again, people are all the same.

This little book is extraordinary. No wonder it won the French prestigious award 1975 Prix Goncourt. Gary (1914-1980) was a noted and very popular French diplomat, novelist, film director and World War II aviator.

Generally I don't like reading books written in the first person, especially when the voice of the novel is that of a child. However, an exception is happily made for "The Life Before Us" ("Madame Rosa"). It was originally published in France as "La Vie Devant Soi," with authorship to Gary's pseudonym, Emile Ajar. The translation is first-rate. It reads seamlessly, quickly. Toward the end, it's a "page-turner."

Like it or not, the primary theme of this book is death. Of course, it's also about life and love and devotion and being a minority within a not-very-accepting majority. Its value is in its everyday truths. It's about living with love (or without it) and dying with dignity (or without it). Never did euthanasia have a more able spokesperson than young Momo, as he (at age 14) agonizes over (but deals with) the impending death of 69 year-old Madam Rosa, the obese ex-prostitute, who raised him and many other illegitimate orphaned children of prostitutes from the streets of rough districts of Paris.

The book is also, I must report, very, very funny.

My copy of the book (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 191 pages), is now filled with my own underlines and personal comments. Consider this passage, Page 103 with Momo, the young Arab boy - the book's narrator -- speaking, "Old people may not be what they used to be, but they're worth as much as anyone else. They have feelings same as you and me, and sometimes, they suffer even more because they're too old to defend themselves. Their worst enemy is Nature, which can be a very ugly customer and kills them by slow torture...." This is the beginning of a long section on euthanasia. Even with the numerous passages like that, never is the message cynical or self-pitying. It just is.

Peppered with a mix of cultures, ethnicities, languages and idiosyncrasies, this little book is simply a treasure. Read it and laugh and cry and think about your own mortality. It's good for us. I have a new favorite author.

An Amazon 5+ by anyone's measure!

I could easily say this is one of the best books I've ever read. Roamin Gary is briliant. He make you laugh and cry at the same time. I would definitely recommend this book.