Underground Time: A Novel
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Review
`One of those books that grabs you and demands to be read' ----Clare Morrall
`What's most startling about this novel is how de Vigan makes the mundane come alive. She's an expert in detail, charging even the most ordinary situation with emotion, which makes for a massively affecting read' ----Psychologies Magazine
`Delphine de Vigan is a sensation' ----Observer
-`Sympathetic, compelling, enjoyable' ----Guardian --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
`What's most startling about this novel is how de Vigan makes the mundane come alive. She's an expert in detail, charging even the most ordinary situation with emotion, which makes for a massively affecting read' ----Psychologies Magazine
`Delphine de Vigan is a sensation' ----Observer
-`Sympathetic, compelling, enjoyable' ----Guardian --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
PRAISE FOR 'NO AND ME' 'This novel is a thing of poetic beauty' The Times 'Bittersweet...delightfully depicted...there is no doubt all ages will find much to relish in this deceptively simple tale that is touching and enlightening' The Herald 'One of those special stories that everyone should read - and then think about, often and deeply' Eileen Battersby, Irish Times
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I enjoyed "No and Me" a huge amount when I read it sometime last year, so I was delighted to find this new book by Delphine de Vigan. This book is wonderful! I picked it up and did not put it down until I had finished reading it - I just did not want to break the spell! The action all takes place in Paris on a single day in May and it follows the lives of two interesting, but deeply unhappy people, Mathilde and Thibault. These two have never actually met but at times during this day their paths come very close to crossing until.....read it and find out!!
Poor Mathilde is a single parent who is being horribly bullied by her boss for reasons only he knows about and her unhappiness at work is starting to affect her home life too. Emergency doctor Thibault has just decided to give up on an unsatisfactory, one-sided relationship and on this day everything, particularly the Paris traffic, seems to have taken sides against him. Both of these good people deserve more from life. They deserve to be appreciated, properly rewarded and most of all - they deserve to be loved.
Paris is one of my favourite cities and I had no trouble visualising Mathilde's journey on the Metro and the RER and the kind of cafes they, separately, frequent. It all seems so real, I felt I was sat next to them. My only complaint is that I did not want this to end. I want to know what happens to them tomorrow, the day after, next week.... I want a happy ending!!!
This story is beautifully,elegantly and sensitively written - huge praise must go to George Miller for the wonderfully sympathetic translation. This really is a joy to read. There are no car chases, or towering infernos, this is a book about real people in the real world.
Does anyone remember "The Naked City"? In both the film and the subsequent TV series a narrator says "There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them". I felt that quote should have been at the end of this story as there must so many more Mathildes and Thibaults in Paris and in every other city in the world. I wish them all a happy ending.
Poor Mathilde is a single parent who is being horribly bullied by her boss for reasons only he knows about and her unhappiness at work is starting to affect her home life too. Emergency doctor Thibault has just decided to give up on an unsatisfactory, one-sided relationship and on this day everything, particularly the Paris traffic, seems to have taken sides against him. Both of these good people deserve more from life. They deserve to be appreciated, properly rewarded and most of all - they deserve to be loved.
Paris is one of my favourite cities and I had no trouble visualising Mathilde's journey on the Metro and the RER and the kind of cafes they, separately, frequent. It all seems so real, I felt I was sat next to them. My only complaint is that I did not want this to end. I want to know what happens to them tomorrow, the day after, next week.... I want a happy ending!!!
This story is beautifully,elegantly and sensitively written - huge praise must go to George Miller for the wonderfully sympathetic translation. This really is a joy to read. There are no car chases, or towering infernos, this is a book about real people in the real world.
Does anyone remember "The Naked City"? In both the film and the subsequent TV series a narrator says "There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them". I felt that quote should have been at the end of this story as there must so many more Mathildes and Thibaults in Paris and in every other city in the world. I wish them all a happy ending.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was my first book from the author, hence I cannot compare with previous novels. It is a tale of loneliness, ignorance and of gradual giving up on humanity. How many times we have felt what heroine Mathilde feels how many times we have been surrounded ...with masses of people and we never felt more alone and unhappy? I have been totally drawn to the story and I have finished the book in one go and just like our heroine i have gasped for air......Just like her i have told myself how would it be not to wake up, not to have to go to work and face the world and just like her i have picked up the pieces of me and i carried on as if nothing happened. I loved it, I loved reading it i loved talking about it with my friends and most of all i loved its literal style. short simple sentences, harsh truth co responded with the blankness of the language. However, like a true romantic or a believer in 'happy endings' I was disillusioned with the ending. Was this the end of it all, is it never gonna get better ?? is life really so static and empty? are those two loners ever gonna get together? How come they met and it meant nothing? How many people i have met like that and only if i behaved differently they could have enter mylife and it could have been better....or worse.....
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this in my (intermediate level) French, with the English translation to guide me. I thought the translator did an excellent and very faithful job!
The story is an interesting, parallel description of Mathilde and Thibauld and their rather unsatisfying but qiute separate lives.
Mathilde becomes the victim of her boss at work, who takes an implacable dislike to her and hatches a relentless and very cunning plan to destroy her.
The later stages of this scenario seemed a little unrealistic to me. Her boss reminds me a little of the crazy truckie in Spielberg's Duel - his motives and thoughts are hidden from us. On the other hand we are privy to Mathilde's (and Thibauld's ) thoughts in great detail. And like a lot of French nihilistic writing, they are rather depressing thoughts.
Thibauld is a doctor who does nothing but house calls around Paris, driving himself! He is rather affected by the pathetic or arrogant patients he encounters, and he is unhappy with his girlfriend, who seems to have her own inadequacies.
The ending, as alluded to by other reviewers, is indeed not made for a Hollywood treatment.
The story is an interesting, parallel description of Mathilde and Thibauld and their rather unsatisfying but qiute separate lives.
Mathilde becomes the victim of her boss at work, who takes an implacable dislike to her and hatches a relentless and very cunning plan to destroy her.
The later stages of this scenario seemed a little unrealistic to me. Her boss reminds me a little of the crazy truckie in Spielberg's Duel - his motives and thoughts are hidden from us. On the other hand we are privy to Mathilde's (and Thibauld's ) thoughts in great detail. And like a lot of French nihilistic writing, they are rather depressing thoughts.
Thibauld is a doctor who does nothing but house calls around Paris, driving himself! He is rather affected by the pathetic or arrogant patients he encounters, and he is unhappy with his girlfriend, who seems to have her own inadequacies.
The ending, as alluded to by other reviewers, is indeed not made for a Hollywood treatment.
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