{"product_id":"an-impossible-love-isbn-9781953861047","title":"An Impossible Love","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn agonizing turbulence lies just beneath the surface of this skillfully wrought novel by the French phenom who caused a sensation with the publication of her novel \u003ci\u003eIncest\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReaching back into a world before she was born, Christine Angot describes the inevitable encounter of two young people at a dance in the early 1950s: Rachel and Pierre, her mother and father. Their love is acute. It twists around Pierre's decisive judgments about class, nationalism, and beauty, and winds its way towards dissolution and Christine's own birth. Though it's Pierre whose ideas are most often voiced, it's Rachel who slowly comes into view, her determination and patience forming a radiant, enigmatic disposition. Equal parts subtle and suspenseful, \u003ci\u003eAn Impossible Love\u003c\/i\u003e is an unwavering advance toward a brutal sequence of events that mars both Christine's and Rachel's lives. Angot the author carves Angot the narrator out of this corrosive element, exposing an unmendable rupture, and at the same time offering a portrait of a striking, ineradicable bond between mother and daughter.\"The most recently translated autofiction by controversial French literary phenomenon Angot brings her unflinching intelligence to a terrible childhood trauma . . . Described without overstatement or sensationalism, raw and honest, [Rachel and Christine's] experience rings brutally true . . . Disturbing, powerful, a deeply personal story that is also searingly political.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"An illuminating account of a mother and daughter's complicated love.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e–- \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Christine Angot is one of the bravest women writing in France today, and Armine Kotin Mortimer’s English translation of this novel is lucid and powerful. Incest was among the most difficult books I’ve ever read. Shockingly raw, erratic, poetic, and chaotic, it put you in the center of the author’s self-loathing. But the restraint and emotional range displayed in An Impossible Love makes this book a more painful story.\"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Amanda Holmes Duffy\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e,\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWashington Independent Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eAn Impossible Love\u003c\/i\u003e immerses the reader in both the solipsism of the two lovers and the wider world of French society in the 1950s . . . Angot has suggested that there is no distinction between real and fake, nor true and false in literary writing. There is only ‘alive prose’ and ‘dead prose’. There are words that remain on the page, and those that somehow manage to transcend themselves. Angot’s writing lives.\"\u003cb\u003e \u003cbr\u003e--Alice Blackhurst,\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew Left Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I was enthralled by \u003ci\u003eAn Impossible Love\u003c\/i\u003e from the first page to the last.  Christine Angot brilliantly traces the minute fluctuations of emotion in her trio of characters, as well as the evasions, omissions and deceptions implicit in every kind of love.  A daring and impressive performance.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Lynne Sharon Schwartz\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"A compelling chimera . . . A dissection of how power can be a potent aphrodisiac to those who wield it, a poison to those on its receiving end . . . Angot’s method is cunning and confrontational, delivering a shocking sucker punch to any of us that might be tiring of autofiction.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Heavy Feather Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"[An Impossible Love] has a formal, dispassionate style of language. Towards the end, this yields to an emotional depth when mother and daughter . . . reach a point of clarity and concord about the person who ruined their lives.\"\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003cbr\u003e--Declan O'Driscoll, \u003ci\u003eIrish Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eIncest\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"A formally daring and passionate performance of the depths of human self-loathing, and the sufferings of attachment. It cut deep inside me with its truths. In every moment of reading it, I both wanted to keep reading it and wanted to write. I don't think I will ever forget this book.\" -- Sheila Heti  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A maximalist in the art of emotion, Angot unmasks with frightening precision the roiling heart and the sharp edges of lust, loathing, and scorn lodged within love's fossil record. This is a book that points you toward the subterranean roots of your own emotions, the intricacies and murk we cover up in the name of normal daily operations.\" -- Alexandra Kleeman  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"At times reminiscent of playwright Sarah Kane, particularly in her incantatory free associations . . . Incest is remarkably prescient. Christine Angot pinpoints how technology antagonizes mental health; how a lack of immediate reply can give the obsessive mind no room to breath.\" -- Rebecca Watson, \u003ci\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A sensation in France, [Incest is a] novel in the form of a wild confession of a life filled with trauma.\" -- \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Given Angot's antagonism toward conventional syntax, the English translation, by Tess Lewis, is a feat of perspicuity... When \"L'Inceste\" was first published, an interviewer asked Angot what she hoped to achieve. \"My ambition is to be unmanageable,\" she said. \"That people swallow me and at the same time cannot digest me.\" -- H. C. Wilentz, \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Angot's writing reclaims the confession as a radical act--spiritual, even... At its core, \u003ci\u003eIncest\u003c\/i\u003e is a true testament to the subversive power of literature, in that it transmutes the violation of incest into connection with the reader.\" -- Elizabeth Baird, \u003ci\u003eThe Millions\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Christine Angot, who despises proper sentiment, has a fascinating, exhilarating, dazzling sensitivity.\" -- Yann Moix, \u003ci\u003eLe Figaro littéraire\u003c\/i\u003eCHRISTINE ANGOT is one of the most controversial authors writing today in France. Since the 1999 publication of \u003ci\u003eIncest,\u003c\/i\u003e Angot has remained at the center of public debate and has continued to  push the boundaries of what society allows an author to express. Born in  1958 in Châteauroux, Angot studied law at the University of Reims and  began writing at the age of 25. Her literary works have received prizes  including the Prix France Culture in 2005 (for \u003ci\u003eLes Désaxés\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eUne partie du cœur\u003c\/i\u003e), the Prix Flore in 2006 (for \u003ci\u003eRendez-vous\u003c\/i\u003e) and the Prix Sade in 2012 (for \u003ci\u003eUne semaine de vacances\u003c\/i\u003e),  which she refused on the grounds that the theme of the prize did not  correspond to the book she had written. In 2015 she won the Prix  Décembre for her novel Un Amour impossible. Angot is now also a  commentator on the television show On n'est pas couché.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eARMINE KOTIN MORTIMER is the translator of Philippe Sollers's \u003ci\u003eMysterious Mozart\u003c\/i\u003e (University of Illinois Press, 2010) and his \u003ci\u003eCasanova the Irresistible \u003c\/i\u003e(Illinois, 2016), as well as Julia Kristeva's \u003ci\u003eThe Enchanted Clock\u003c\/i\u003e (Columbia University Press, 2017). Her long career as a professor of   French literature occasioned many scholarly books and articles, as well   as recognition by the French government with the Palmes Académiques in   2009.My father and mother met in Châteauroux near the Avenue\u003cbr\u003ede la Gare in the cafeteria she frequented, at twenty-six she had\u003cbr\u003ealready been with the Sécurité Sociale for several years. She\u003cbr\u003estarted working at seventeen as a secretary in a garage; he, after\u003cbr\u003elengthy studies, had his first job at thirty. He was a translator at\u003cbr\u003ethe American base in La Martinerie. Between Châteauroux and\u003cbr\u003eLevroux, the Americans had built a housing development on\u003cbr\u003eseveral hectares with little one-story houses surrounded by gardens\u003cbr\u003ewithout fences, in which the families of the military lived.\u003cbr\u003eThe base had been allocated to the Americans through the Marshall\u003cbr\u003ePlan, at the beginning of the fifties. A few trees had been\u003cbr\u003eplanted, but when you went by on the highway, you could see a\u003cbr\u003emultitude of red hip roofs scattered across a broad empty plain.\u003cbr\u003eInside what was really a little village, wide paved streets allowed\u003cbr\u003ethe inhabitants to travel in their cars, slowly, between the houses\u003cbr\u003eand the school, the offices, and the runway at the base. He had\u003cbr\u003ebeen hired there after his military service, he didn’t intend to\u003cbr\u003estay. It was temporary. His father, who was a director at Michelin,\u003cbr\u003ewanted to persuade him to work for the Green Guide, but he\u003cbr\u003ereadily saw himself having a career as a researcher in linguistics\u003cbr\u003eor in academics. His family had lived in Paris for generations, in\u003cbr\u003ethe seventeenth arrondissement, near Parc Monceau; they came\u003cbr\u003efrom Normandy. In Paris, many had been doctors. They were\u003cbr\u003ecurious about the world, they had a passion for oysters.\u003cbr\u003eHe invited her for coffee. And a few days afterwards for a dance.\u003cbr\u003eThat evening she was supposed to go to a so-called “social ball”\u003cbr\u003ewith a girlfriend. Social balls, organized by a group or an association\u003cbr\u003ethat rented an orchestra and a large hall (distinct from the\u003cbr\u003edance halls frequented by Americans and prostitutes), attracted\u003cbr\u003ethe young people in Châteauroux. This one took place in a large\u003cbr\u003eexposition hall on the Déols highway, Hidien Park. My father\u003cbr\u003edidn’t usually attend.\u003cbr\u003e“Oh, I don’t go to that kind of thing … We’ll go out another\u003cbr\u003eevening. I’m going to stay home. I have work …”\u003cbr\u003eShe went with her friend Nicole and Nicole’s cousin. The evening\u003cbr\u003ehad already gone on for quite a long time when she saw him\u003cbr\u003ein the distance coming through the crowd. He approached their\u003cbr\u003etable. He invited her to dance, she got up, she was wearing a\u003cbr\u003ewhite skirt with a wide belt. They made their way toward the\u003cbr\u003edance floor, he smiled as they arrived on the parquet floor, she\u003cbr\u003ewas ready to slip into his arms, he took her hand to guide her and\u003cbr\u003espin her around among the dancers. At that moment the orchestra\u003cbr\u003ebegan playing the first measures of “Our story is a story of\u003cbr\u003elove.”\u003cbr\u003eIt was a song you heard everywhere. Dalida had inaugurated\u003cbr\u003eit. She would sing it with intensity, mixing the tragic with the\u003cbr\u003ebanal. Her accent gave a roundness to the words and stretched\u003cbr\u003ethem out at the same time, her deep voice enveloped the sounds\u003cbr\u003eand gave them a particular substance, there was something\u003cbr\u003ehaunting about the whole thing. Accompanied by the orchestra,\u003cbr\u003ethe singer imitated Dalida’s original interpretation, the better to\u003cbr\u003eheighten the emotion.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eOurr storrry is a storrry of lo-o-ove\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eEterrrnalll and banalll it brrrings each day\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAll the good all the bad.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey weren’t talking to each other.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eIt’s the well-known storrry …\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe dance floor was crowded, it was a very popular song.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThose who lo-o-ove each other play together, I know\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMy complaaaint is the plaaaint of two hearts\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eIt’s a novel like so many others, which could be yourrrs\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eIt’s the flame that enflames without burning\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eIt’s the dreeeam you dreeeam without sleeping\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMy storrry, it’s a storrry … of … a … lo-o-ove.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey were silent during the whole song.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWith the hourrr when you embrace, the one when you say\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003efarrrewell\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWith the evenings of anguish and the marrrvelous mornings …\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAnd tragic or very deep, it’s the only storrry in the worrrld\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThat will never end.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eIt’s the storrry of a love …\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey weren’t looking at each other.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBut naïve or very deep, it’s the only storrry in the worrrld,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eOur story is the storrry … of a lo-o-ove.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe song came to an end, they separated. And they went back to\u003cbr\u003etheir table through the crowd. She introduced Nicole and her\u003cbr\u003ecousin to him.","brand":"Archipelago","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302541381861,"sku":"NP9781953861047","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781953861047.jpg?v=1767721514","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/an-impossible-love-isbn-9781953861047","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}