Three books that affected me II

[sollersuk]

I stayed on into the Seventh Form at school for two reasons: I needed to re-sit A Level Latin (this may be irony or it may be a real help because in recent decades I have had to read a great deal of Latin, including Boethius' "De Arithmetica") and I was sitting the Oxford Entrance Exam. There were three or four of us, so to keep us out of mischief

Comments

[heleninwales]

"Le Silence de la Mer"

I'd forgotten that book! In fact I have forgotten everything about it but the title, but I have a dim memory of reading it at school. As I only did O-level French, it was perhaps an abridged and simplified version, but I seem to remember a small, slim blue book. I can, however, remember absolutely nothing of the story, even after reading your summary. :(

[la_marquise_de_]

I haven't read that: I will go and find it. I have a deep love for French literature dating from my A'level, and, like you, read several books that have stayed with me for life. Top of that list is Saint Exupery's Vol de Nuit.

[sartorias]

Oh, that sounds terrific. The story of its writing reminds me of Clavell writing SHOGUN--he was a POW in a Japanese camp, where the prisoners were brutally mistreated. He came out with such a hatred of Japan and the Japanese that he first wrote King Rat, then he studied Japan to try to exorcise the hatred, and came up with SHOGUN.