Book Review: Suspended Sentences by Patrick Modiano
For my February read, I've chosen Patrick Modiano's Suspended Sentences, mainly to quench a growing curiosity about France's 'best kept secret' ever since he was announced as 2014's Nobel Prize winner. And as with the many books that I've picked, I was enticed by the blurbs and author endorsements on the back cover. Suspended Sentences is a compilation of three short novels; each can stand alone, though together the three can be a seamless read because of common elements linking them like style, theme, character quirks, and nostalgia (such that the book is almost like reading Paris in sepia). All three are similar in their tapping of seemingly dormant memories and how these continue to cast shadows into the present. Here are my thoughts: 1. Afterimage , the first novel, is the pursuit of an elusive photographer Francis Jansen. The narrator has volunteered to catalogue Jansen's work and in the process learns about Jansen's history and his r...