My Friends [Paperback]

Emmanuel Bove (Author), Janet Louth (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1988 | ISBN-10: 0856357847 | ISBN-13: 978-0856357848

Victor Baton is a wounded war veteran trying to reestablish his prewar lifestyle but avoid work. Living in a run-down boardinghouse, Baton spends his days searching Paris for the modest comforts of warmth, cheap meals, and friendship, but he finds little. Despite his desperate situation, Baton remains vain and unsympathetic, a Bovian antihero to the core. Bove himself called My Friends, published in France in 1923, a “novel of impoverished solitude.” The book, his first novel, drew praise from such writers as Rilke, Gide, and Beckett and is to this day the author's most celebrated work.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This wistful, sad little French novel from the 1920s is here translated into English for the first time. Bove, who died in 1945, has regularly been admired by other writers but never by a wide audience. His melancholy clown, Baton, is a damaged veteran of the Great War, living from hand to mouth in the dank rooming houses, filthy soup kitchens, grubby cafes and drab streets of the Paris no tourist knows. He longs only for a friend whom he can love, and who will love him; but in a sequence of accidental encountersgenerally with gross, coarse, unfeeling peoplehis life is briefly jarred but never significantly altered. A man of exquisite sensibilities, hoping that one day, against all odds, something splendid will happen, Baton finds the doors remain shut against him. If Marcel Marceau's eternally yearning little man could remove his mask and find a voice, he might look and sound like this one.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Three years after World War I, Victor Baton is a crippled veteran wandering the streets of Paris, disoriented and alone. In his rented room, he envies and suspects his neighbors and dreams of wealth, friends, and good times he will never have. He is a hapless observer of his own lot whose delusions and foolish behavior defeat his attempts at love and friendship. When a wealthy manufacturer takes pity on him and offers him a job, Baton betrays him by pursuing his young daughter. First published in France in 1923, this is a portrait of a frightened and pitiful man unable to adapt to the strange world of normalcy. Bove's influence on other French Writers (Colette, Rilke, Gide) has led to a recent rediscovery of his work, largely out of print since his death in 1945. For large fiction collections. Leonard Kniffel, Detroit P.L.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: Carcanet Press Ltd. (March 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0856357847
• ISBN-13: 978-0856357848
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 4.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,254,357 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I agree with the review below, December 2, 2007

By 

Craig Bowers (East Lansing, Mi United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Friends (Paperback)

Except that I think this deserves to be in the same category as the novels he mentioned as five-stars. Perhaps it was just the setting I was in in my life at the time though. This novel is perfect for someone who is stuck in thought and wonder at existence, but still wants to be entertained.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You are my friend!, August 29, 2001

By 

"haskeller" (Göteborg Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Friends (Paperback)

This is a very nice book! It is almost a five (but I have reserved five for books like "Crime and punishment", "Third policeman", "Master and margarita", "The overcoat" and so on).
The book is about loneliness. It is written with a lot of humor and melancholy.
The main character is walking the streets alone searching for friends. It is so desperate that it becomes ironic. You get the feeling he likes to be alone feeling sorry for himself....
I don't want to say more than that about the story. I guess that's about what the cover lets you know. I would say it is in Beckett style but I don't know if an expert would agree...
If you are a person inclined to feel you are all alone in this world. This book will definately cheer you up....making you feel you are not the only one!