Alone with their bullying father on a vast estate, a sister and brother speak a language and inhabit a universe of their own making. When the old man commits suicide, they are forced into contact with the villagers and their cloak of romance and superstition quickly falls away to reveal shocking truths. Balancing naiveté with carnality, Soucy employs his signature playfulness, plot twists, and fascination with guilt, cruelty, and violence in a narrative tour de force where nothing is quite what it seems.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
When it appeared in 1998, Soucy's work received critical raves and was the first novel published in Quebec ever to be nominated for France's celebrated Prix Renaudot. Magic realist in tone, the novel chronicles the story of two brothers who grow up isolated from and largely ignorant of the world outside their father's massive estate, save for information gleaned from books and fairy tales. After their father dies, the boys must confront their surroundings, both familiar and unfamiliar; encounters with the inhabitants of the neighboring village rapidly and cruelly strip away their innocence. Occasionally, Soucy's colorful prose captivates, but more frequently the convoluted nature of the narrative befuddles and keeps the reader from following the course of events. A good deal of the writing is stilted and perplexing, as the narrator's frame of reference consists mainly of imagined objects and perspectives born solely of books, and therefore (understandably) divorced from reality. To be sure, such a style reflects Soucy's creativity and inventiveness, and his writing abounds with expressive flights of fancy. Unfortunately, the cumulative effect is to keep the reader at arm's length, and to weaken the force of Soucy's innovative storytelling.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Originally published in Canada and nominated for France's Prix Renaudot, The Little Girl is now ready to seduce and disturb American readers. The story concerns two young siblings who have been raised in isolation by their father. They speak a language gleaned from the Bible, tales of chivalry, and Spinoza's Ethics, and live in their own odd world of superstition and (inescapably naive and incorrect) supposition. When they wake one day to find their father dead, the recorder of the tale or, as she calls herself, the "secretarious," ventures for the first time into the nearby village to purchase a coffin. Contact with the villagers speedily unravels the bizarre truth of her and her brother's existence, and they must choose between adapting to the horror of the real world or shutting out knowledge that contradicts every foundation on which they have built their lives. Told in the siblings' language and in their achingly limited point of view, Little Girl is a novel of suspense in which the tension creeps deliciously slowly over readers. If V. C. Andrews and capital-L Literature had a brainchild, this would be it. Simultaneously chilling and enchanting, this is a perfect choice for teens who prefer being scared intelligently and lastingly.
Emily Lloyd, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
AN ASTONISHING ACHIEVEMENT,
By
This review is from: The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches: A Novel (Hardcover)
I found this wonderful book by chance in a local bookstore -- and what a discovery! I have read reviews and commentaries about this novel that compare Soucy's literary style to that of noted Italian master Italo Calvino -- and while I think the comparison is an apt one, it is certainly not an indication that Soucy is derivative in any way. This is a refreshingly original work, and one that is a joy -- as well as a challenge -- to experience.Written in the form of a hurriedly-composed memoir, yet incredibly rich in its language and imagery, this novel slowly and masterfully lays bare the beautiful but horrifying existence two siblings experience on a large estate in the countryside, raised there in isolation by their authoritarian father. They are not sent to school -- there is no television and no radio, and no contact with the nearby village. Neighbors are few, and are only seen on rare occasions, at a distance. The estate is occasionally visited by a one-legged beggar -- one of the few people the father seems to welcome into their company. Any other visitors are kept at a distance from the children, dealt with by the father in tete-a-tetes in the fields, far out of earshot. The children's only knowledge of the outside world comes from the seemingly thousands of books in the estate's library. The narrator of the story -- one of the two siblings -- refers to the books as 'disctionaries'. There are classic tales of chivalry and adventure to be found there, as well as texts on philosophy -- Spinoza is mentioned quite often. The reference to these books as 'distionaries' is an important and telling revelation about the way the children perceive the world -- left to their own devices and imaginations, their view inevitably is a skewed one, and the amazing construction of language they use, and with which Soucy tells this tale, is a wonder to behold. The language sometimes gets a little cumbersome and confusing -- but that, again, is a symptom of the lives led by these children, and, I believe, an effective conveyance of their situation and outlook to the mind of the reader. It makes for a sometimes slow read -- but it's a very rewarding one. The story itself peels away rather like the layers of an onion -- as it progresses, the reader (as well as the narrator), comes closer and closer to the heart, to the truth, of the matter. The journey is filled with scenes of breathtaking description, of beauty and horror, of rapturous joy as well as despair. There is a timeless quality to the story itself -- there are few details that reveal the setting, either in place or in time. It is only toward the end of the book that we begin to get a feel for approximately when this story might have taken place. Soucy's workings here are deft and masterful -- the book is crafted like a precious stone being cut by a lapidary genius. Without having read his other novel, THE ATONEMENT (which I plan to do, and soon), I would rank this work right up alongside the creations of the aforementioned Mr. Calvino, as well as the works of Jorge Luis Borges, Carlos Fuentes and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Again, let me emphasize -- I found Soucy's highly original and in no way derivative. I place him in the company of these other authors only to give the potential reader an idea of the magnitude of his talent. A note on the translation work involved: given the language employed by Soucy, I can only applaud the work of Sheila Fischman, who translated this novel from the original French. The wordplay, the puns, and the alliteration must have presented a monumental task. Without having read the original French version, I can only imagine what a formidable task this must have been. She also translated THE ATONEMENT -- which makes me look forward to reading it even more. THE LITTLE GIRL WHO WAS TOO FOND OF MATCHES is a relatively short book -- at 138 pages -- but the intelligence, imagination and sheer creativity that are at work within it give it a body that belies the size of this slim volume. I'm sure that I will return to it again and again -- and that I will find even more jewels within it with each exploration.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Like a bad car accident, you can neither look away nor enjoy,
By
This review is from: The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches: A Novel (Hardcover)
My bookclub had chosen this book as a "scary" read, or I'd have never known of its existence. This book was both compelling and repelling, but I did read it completely. It is very difficult to follow, but my curiousity got the best of me and I soldiered on. The more I read, the more "aha's" I got-- and the more I could piece together what was really happening. It is like a puzzle, and if you don't have the mental energy to be on your toes with it, you will find it too frustrating. It is a horror story that is told as if with poetry, and is a very tricky and appalling read. This is definitely the most unusual book I've ever read. I gave it three stars because I both hated and loved it!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Truly unforgettable,
By
This review is from: The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches: A Novel (Hardcover)
As other reviewers have said, this is a difficult book to read, because of the language but also because of the subject. The story gradually unfolds, allowing you to understand what the narrator really said, as opposed to what you think you read.But it's also difficult to read because of its subject matter. It is truly horrifying in a way that horror books never are. It is a great book, but if you read it, be prepared for it to stick with you, and to remember it at odd hours, and to feel the world is a little uglier after you've read it.
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