It was the beginning of the Gulf War. I watched it on TV and did little else. I was doing badly, you see. Everything was going wrong. I just awaited the end. But then I met Victorien Salagnon, a veteran of the great colonial wars of Indochina, Vietnam and Algeria, a commander who had led his soldiers across the globe, a man with the blood of others up to his elbows. He said he would teach me to paint; he must have been the only painter in the French Forces, but out there no one cares about such things. I cared, though. In return, he wanted me to write his life story. And so he talked, and I wrote, and through him I witnessed the rivers of blood that cut channels through France, I saw the deaths that were as numberless as they were senseless and I began finally to understand the French art of war.

The French Art of War

Literature & Fiction

Jenni, Alexis

Literary

ATLANTIC BOOKS *

1991. A young man is mesmerized by the rolling coverage of Desert Storm. Forging sick notes to avoid work and feigning reasons to avoid his girlfriend, he gradually destroys his whole life. Then he meets Victorien Salagnon, an elderly artist and a veteran of countless wars. Together, they strike a bargain: Salagnon will teach the young man to paint and, in return, he wants his memoirs written down, a ranging, bloody life story of being a teenage résistant in Nazi-occupied France; of hunting rebels in Indochina and engaging in torture in Algeria; of the deaths that were as numberless as they were senseless; of the killing fields on which the modern world is built.

The story begins with the first Gulf War: the narrator, in the middle of a personal crisis, makes the acquaintance of an old serviceman turned painter, Victor Salagnon. Across the memories of Salagnon march fifty years of French history seen again across military fact: World War II, Indochina, Algeria... Beyond the story of a friendship between two men is a questioning of contemporary France.

L'Art Francais de la Guerre (French Edition)

Contemporary

Editions Gallimard

L'art français de la guerre

Фоліо

Féroces infirmes

Les Mémoires dangereuses: Suivi d'une nouvelle édition de Transfert d'une mémoire (French Edition)

Business & Money

Stora, Benjamin

Economics

ALBIN MICHEL

Inventeur génial dès son plus jeune âge, amoureux de la nature, grand marcheur, il sillonna le monde à pied et fut le premier à percevoir les dangers de l'exploitation de la nature. John Muir aurait pu être millionnaire, il a choisi d'être vagabond. Il a inspiré Alexis Jenni (prix Goncourt 2011).
" C'est l'homme le plus libre que j'ai jamais rencontré ", disait de lui Theodore Roosevelt. Né en Écosse, débarqué à dix ans aux États-Unis, installé dans la région des Grands Lacs, il travaille sans relâche dans la ferme familiale, mais lève parfois la tête pour s'émerveiller de la nature environnante. Le soir, il invente des machines qu'il présente en ville, dont ce réveil qui le sort automatiquement du lit à l'heure du lever. Très vite, John Muir rejette cette existence de forçat et décide de vivre en autonomie dans la nature. Il quitte le Wisconsin et sillonne le pays à pied jusqu'en Floride, puis rejoint la Californie. Dès lors, il ne cessera de parcourir le monde. Figure mythique aux États-Unis, créateur du parc national de Yosemite, John Muir s'interrogea sur le sens de la vie dans la nouvelle société industrielle et industrieuse et y répondit tout simplement par son mode de vie. Prix Goncourt 2011 pour L'Art français de la guerre (Gallimard).

J'aurais pu devenir millionnaire, j'ai choisi d'être vagabond

PAULSEN

J'aurais pu devenir millionnaire, j'ai choisi d'etre vagabond

Le passeport de Monsieur Nansen

Travel

Travel Writing

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