{"product_id":"forever-valley-9780803289512","title":"Forever Valley","description":"These three short novels are the first works to appear in English by a remarkable contemporary French author, Marie Redonnet. Born in Paris in 1947, Redonnet taught for a number of years in a suburban \u003ci\u003elyc e\u003c\/i\u003e before deciding to pursue a writing career full time. Since her volume of poetry \u003ci\u003eLe Mort \u0026amp; Cie\u003c\/i\u003e appeared in 1985, she has published four novels, a novella, numerous short stories, and three dramatic works. \u003cp\u003eIn translator Jordan Stump's words, these three novels, unmistakably fit together, although they have neither characters nor setting in common. Redonnet sees the three novels as a triptych: each panel stands alone, and yet all coalesce to form a whole. Each is narrated by a different woman. \u003ci\u003eH tel Splendid \u003c\/i\u003erecounts the daily life of three sisters who live in a decrepit hotel on the edge of a swamp; \u003ci\u003eForever Valley \u003c\/i\u003eis about a sixteen-year-old girl who works in a dance-hall and looks for the dead; \u003ci\u003eRose Mellie Rose\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of another adolescent girl who assembles a photographic and written record of her life in the dying town of  at.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRedonnet's novels have been compared to those of Annie Ernaux, Alain Robbe-Grillet, and Samuel Beckett. She has since acknowledged the crucial influence which Beckett's work has had upon her literary work. And yet she is also notably different from the great master of modern literature. Where Beckett's characters slide almost inevitably toward extinction, resignation, and silence, Stump points out, Redonnet's display a force for life and creation that borders on the triumphant. . . .  They] retain even in the darkest situations a remarkable persistence, openness, and above all hope, a hope that may well be, however unspectacularly, repaid in the end.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Bison Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/01\/1994\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780803289512\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 117\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.46h x 4.75w x 0.37d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/15\/1994 pg. 403\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/01\/1994 pg. 1157\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Marie Redonnet","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36643712729244,"sku":"9780803289512","price":11.86,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_2834820f-b4cb-49dc-aa04-422324f2fb9c.jpg?v=1603857125","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/forever-valley-9780803289512","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}