La Fortune
by Catherine Safonoff, released by Editions Zoe is a splendid memoir. The author, starting the tale with the decision of her ex husband B. of selling their house, remembers the importance of that house in her existence, like when, at Geneve with a friend, sat outside a café smoking a cigarette and reading The New Yorker, she admits that not having anymore a house means to her having lost her objects, her habits, her books, her routine, or when she describes the beginning of her love for B. and parties they attended when they were very young. To the USA because of the work of her husband, and back, with a depression that constricts Catherine to read compulsively without to write anymore anything: the description of little roads, and landscapes; but also her parents and the freedom that they had given her, leaving her with cousin Pierre and granny Marie. Oh, her granny, a lady with an endless patience, a skinny lady kind and nice with her. There is the description of the nuptial trip with B. in the Queen Mary. Her husband's numerous betrayals, with a lot of other women. After the first child, Catherine wants another baby. There will be difficulties during the labour: after a while her request for a divorce, rejected at firstby B. Fragments and episodes of her existence sometimes starts with the use of pictures that will explain people, relatives, feelings, the importance of family.
A description of a party organized by Les Editions Zoe, and her books, her observations, her world and much more in this little book of 175 pages but truly precious.
An intimate book written with candor and harmony without to forget anything.
Highly recommended.
Anna Maria Polidori