Word: aym
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...GREEN MARE (234 pp.)-Marcel Aymé-Harper...
...there are the Mauriacs who turn it into a measure of sin. But for the moment, U.S. read ers can settle back in relief with two new French novels that restore the classic Gallic atmosphere to the oldest game in the world. In both The Green Mare of Marcel Aymé and The Wicked Village of Gabriel Chevallier a fun-and-games attitude toward sex sets the tone, so that even the most serious consequences of immoderate passion are summed up with nothing more stern than a sympathetic shrug...
Under the Bed. Author Chevallier is obviously out for a fictional romp, and even people who deplore his easy tolerance can enjoy his plotless prattle. Marcel Aymé, as able a writer as any in France, is no more inclined to scold sinners, but his tightly plotted yarn is a more sardonic, more pointed comment on the human comedy. The Green Mare has some of the quality of a fable, as well as some of the inescapable judgment of life that every good fable offers. In the farm town of Claquebue most human feelings and actions are taken coolly...
Things become even more difficult when the classic Romeo-and-Juliet aspect of feuds crops up in the love affair of Honoré's daughter and Maloret's son. The complications, always hilarious and elaborated with much Ayméan gusto, come thick and fast. But Honoré, the soul of goodness and absolutely free of guile, cannot live down the need for revenge. In the last Rabelaisian scene he stuffs...
...MAGIC PICTURES, by Marcel Aymé (Harper; $2.50), is all about a wonderful farm where pigs have wings, the wolf who ate Little Red Ridinghood goes vegetarian, and two little French girls named Delphine and Marinette share all their secrets with the animals and none with their parents. Aymé, a skilled satirical taxidermist of the French middle class (The Barkeep of Blémont, The Miraculous Barber), brings his farm animals to life so wisely and winningly that he is now being hailed in France as the best fabulist since La Fontaine...