American Clichés

(not for the faint-hearted)

Sophie Simon
JC Lattès
17€
april 2011

The Hands That Built America – U2

All That Glitters is Silver – Me Against Hollywood

Paris, April 3, 2011,

Sophie Simon: “I have no connection with the United States. I’ve been there three or four times at most. I don’t read the New York Times, I don’t know much about Obama’s policies, and I wouldn’t be able to name the latest American blockbuster. In short, I’m not obsessed with America.

But when I write, it changes everything: I’m an Ohio girl drawn to the great myths of theAmerican way of life. “

American Clichés is his first.

The first collection of short stories “she dared to show”. We’re thinking she must have thought – still unflatteringly – that this one wasn’t so bad… Good for us. As for the stairs, I adopted the 2 by 2 technique. So I had the pleasure of reading, in order: “ED BOOKMAN”, “LE DESTIN D’HOWARD”, “A MOI, HOLLYWOOD”, “VERN ET DOREEN”, “TOMMY” & “MA VIE PAISIBLE”.

Soft ticket

The book offers us canvases of life in the four corners of the USA, in different eras, with the great myth of the American dream as the hovering figure. To be understood as the notion of ALL possibilities. Sophie Simon, the author, is not afraid to use cliché, and even to use it frankly, as the title of the book suggests… What she succeeds in doing, with great skill and subtlety, is to create a false suspense that contains the art of bringing about the denouement, which is almost already there. Our characters, confronted with various forms of malaise and bitterly won over by a “desire for better”, are truly at a crossroads – a rather fatal one – in their lives, where much is at stake. In each story, it’s about a reality that tastes pungent and rancid, that no longer satisfies, and that invites those dreams, those that cherish the idea of turning things upside down.

A book designed to make you breathe even more heavily.

A must-read.

Elisa Palmer

l'american way of life - 001

l'american way of life - 002

l'american way of life - 003

l'american way of life - 004

l'american way of life - 005

Cette publication est également disponible en : Français (French)