Bookshots: 'The Age of Reinvention' by Karine Tuil

Bookshots: Pumping new life into the corpse of the book review

Title:

The Age of Reinvention

Who wrote it?

Karine Tuil, translated from the French by Sam Taylor

Plot in a Box:

A French-Arab Muslim moves to New York and recreates himself as a Jew.

Invent a new title for this book:

The Great Gatsby Goes French

Read this if you like:

…lengthy French novels

Meet the book’s lead(s):

Samir Tahar, a Muslim, aka Samuel Tahar, a Jew

Said lead(s) would be portrayed in a movie by:

Tony Shalhoub

Setting: would you want to live there?

I already live in New York City, and I’d love to live in Paris, though not the Paris described in this novel.

What was your favorite sentence?

Any guy who takes you to see A Clockwork Orange on a first date is either a movie buff or a psychopath.

The Verdict:

If you can get beyond the author’s tendency to use forty words when five or six would do, this is a great novel – The Great Gatsby reimagined for the terrorist era. Sami, the Gatsby character, is handsome, charming, smart, sexy, and overly fond of tightrope walking through life. He practically dares himself to fall from his soaring height. He’s shocked when he does. And he almost deserves it. But not quite.