The Fairy Gunmother

the book was listed as in good condition. I thought it was in excellent condition. Very happy with service too.

I also read this in French, but have wished that an English version would come out so that I could give it to my mother! Benjamin Malaussene is the bumbling hero of this crazy, upbeat story set in the postmodern chaos of a Parisien banlieu. His mother has a habit of being carried away in a flurry of passion, only to return each time pregnant without the father. This eclectic assortment of children grows up together under the care of the big brother and a family of Arabs who adopts them as their own. The tone of the book is light and witty without being overly shallow. Pennac touches on issues that are current not only to French society but also everywhere; racism, class struggle, capitalistic values, family values. Yet this is far from a preaching or political book. We are almost far too entertained to even realize the deeper content until thinking back on it in retrospect.

As in The Scapegoat, Pennac has written a crime novel where the crime aspect isn't actually all that compelling. Pennac makes some hay with police racism, but it's nothing special in that regard. Once again, the translation doesn't really work for me and I'm sort of baffled by the notion that people found this book to be hilarious. Hard to imagine spending time on the third or fourth books in this series.

I read this book in it's original French, and then went on to read the rest of the series...Benjamin Malaussène is amazing. My favourite character to date. Worth a read, even just for Pennac's amazing style.

An amusing and well conceived novel. The characterisation is great and the voice (it's a 1st person PoV) is fabulous. I've since gone back and read the first in the series (the scapegoat) and realise he had a lot of this novel planned out as he was writing that one.

read it

This not a book, I would ever read again. It did not give me pleasure or education. I have not kept it.