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.
About the author
Ed Sikov is the author of 7 books about films and filmmakers, including On Sunset Boulevard:; The Life and Times of Billy Wilder; Mr. Strangelove: A Biography of Peter Sellers; and Dark Victory: The Life of Bette Davis.
