Anyone read this book Belle Famille by Arthur Dreyfus?

by Guest 06.01.12 19:19

Belle famille by Arthur Dreyfus

Can anyone here read French

From Wiki..........

Gallimard announced in January 2012 a second novel, inspired by the case of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann , "Good Family

From twitter......................

already! Wow reviews. #McCann

27 minutes ago

LOL, no speculation, read the files! Have u read Arthur Dreyfus's new book, Belle Famille? OMG, #McCann will SO hate it!

29 minutes ago.

http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23mccann

by russiandoll 06.01.12 19:21

I should be able to help you.

by Guest 06.01.12 19:30

russiandoll wrote:I should be able to help you.

Merci russiandoll. From what I have been reading it is almost identical to the disappearance of Madeleine. It would be good to hear from someone who has read it. thumbsup

by russiandoll 06.01.12 19:34

I thought you wanted me to translate something from this book for you, I have not read it. Only just heard of it, will try to get hold of a copy.

by Shibboleth 06.01.12 19:34

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/2070136531/ref=cm_cd_asin_lnk

A strange, silent and solitary child, Madec, lives in Granville with her parents and two brothers. While the family is on holiday in Tuscany with a couple of friends, Madec almost drowns in the pool. He is saved by an Englishman, Ron Murdoch, an ex-convict who served a long sentence in England for pedophilia. One night, while her parents dined at a restaurant with friends, Madec is accidentally killed in the kitchen of the bungalow. Returning to the apartment in the middle of the meal, Laurence found her child dead on the floor. Without thinking, she takes the body and makes it disappear, before joining the others in the restaurant as if nothing had happened. Back in the bungalow, the disappearance triggers a general alarm. Searching, police investigation, paparazzi: after a few days, the parents are becoming stars. The uncle of the child orchestrates a media campaign that moves the world - until Pope John Paul II. The Italian authorities expedite, and the investigation is followed up by France instead. The Englishman Murdoch is swiftly accused of kidnapping and killing Madec. His past goes against him ... Inspired by a recent news story, Arthur Dreyfus describes an often cruel irony of that family frozen in silence and cowardice, and with the solitude of poetry involved Madec. Gradually they are moved closer to a climate of insanity, in which the mother, enigmatic and silent, plays a central role . it will be understood why she gradually hides the death of her child ... "

This book is available to buy on Amazon, and will be placed in the libraries of France tomorrow. Elle magazine have placed it on the 10 top books to read.

by Shibboleth 06.01.12 19:36

Slicha, I just made a new thread about this book, could a moderator please combine them. There is a synopsis of the plot, translated from the French, on my thread - it is not my translation. But I know some French and it appears to be accurate.

by Guest 06.01.12 19:37

Shibboleth wrote:http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/2070136531/ref=cm_cd_asin_lnk

A strange, silent and solitary child, Madec, lives in Granville with her parents and two brothers. While the family is on holiday in Tuscany with a couple of friends, Madec almost drowns in the pool. He is saved by an Englishman, Ron Murdoch, an ex-convict who served a long sentence in England for pedophilia. One night, while her parents dined at a restaurant with friends, Madec is accidentally killed in the kitchen of the bungalow. Returning to the apartment in the middle of the meal, Laurence found her child dead on the floor. Without thinking, she takes the body and makes it disappear, before joining the others in the restaurant as if nothing had happened. Back in the bungalow, the disappearance triggers a general alarm. Searching, police investigation, paparazzi: after a few days, the parents are becoming stars. The uncle of the child orchestrates a media campaign that moves the world - until Pope John Paul II. The Italian authorities expedite, and the investigation is followed up by France instead. The Englishman Murdoch is swiftly accused of kidnapping and killing Madec. His past goes against him ... Inspired by a recent news story, Arthur Dreyfus describes an often cruel irony of that family frozen in silence and cowardice, and with the solitude of poetry involved Madec. Gradually they are moved closer to a climate of insanity, in which the mother, enigmatic and silent, plays a central role . it will be understood why she gradually hides the death of her child ... "

This book is available to buy on Amazon, and will be placed in the libraries of France tomorrow. Elle magazine have placed it on the 10 top books to read.

Thanks Shibboleth thumbsup

CR are going to be busy laugh

by Guest 06.01.12 19:56

russiandoll wrote:I thought you wanted me to translate something from this book for you, I have not read it. Only just heard of it, will try to get hold of a copy.

Thanks russiandoll, it would be good to hear what you thought of it thumbsup

by finch 06.01.12 23:27

1 used from £45.00 ???

by Shibboleth 07.01.12 0:43

finch wrote:1 used from £45.00 ???

€16,76 from Amazon France

http://www.amazon.fr/Belle-Famille-Arthur-Dreyfus/dp/2070136531/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325896942&sr=8-1

by russiandoll 07.01.12 10:16

I said weeks ago I would like to see a work of fiction published with this case as inspiration! I joked about writing a book myself. This book is published I believe by Gallimard. A well-established famous French publisher is not going to let a book go to press which might be incendiary and open to legal challenge. I therefore believe that their legal department will have gone through the manuscript with a fine-tooth comb and checked for anything which could be deemed libellous and had it removed.
I doubt that if CR look at this, they will have a leg to stand on as this is a work of fiction. I have read only a couple of resumes so far and see nothing yet which suggests that this novel could be deemed libellous. I have not yet read it, but will try to read a few more resumes and reviews of this novel.
There are throughout publishing history novels which have been inspired by real events and an unsolved case of a missing child seems to me to be a legitimate basis for a work of fiction. I am not a lawyer, but very much doubt that this book would have seen the light of day if a publisher like Gallimard had advice from its lawyers that the McCanns might have grounds to sue.

Below is a brief resume of this illustrious 100 year old publishing house. I doubt they would publish anything deemed "dodgy" !

Éditions Gallimard is the third-largest publishing group in France. It
consists of a number of imprints, including Éditions de la Pléiade, NRF,
Denoël, Mercure de France, the Du Monde Entier imprint of foreign
authors, and its paperback imprint Folio. The company publishes
approximately 750 new titles every year. Gallimard's backlist catalogue
of 17,000 titles includes most of the great French and international
authors of the twentieth century, including Marcel Proust, Jean-Paul
Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Genet, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Ernest
Hemingway, William Faulkner, Franz Kafka, James Joyce, Jack Kerouac,
Philip Roth, Sigmund Freud, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Michel Foucault.
Gallimard's reputation also rests on the Pléiade collection of classic
authors and Gallimard-Jeunesse, its renowned children's book division.
Gallimard distributes its books through La Sodis, its distribution
company. Gallimard also operates a handful of bookstores, including
Schoenhof's Foreign Bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

by rainbow-fairy 07.01.12 11:18

I wonder if this will be translated and re-printed in English at some point - I'd love to read it. As it stands, my French is O level only, conversational obviously, I'm not sure it would stretch to reading a novel!
I have started to write my own, its on ice at the mo as I can't decide which direction to take it in - but I'll get there! Maybe I'll post or publish it on-line - apres 'lawyer tooth comb', obviously!

by Cheshire Cat 07.01.12 12:00

rainbow-fairy wrote:I wonder if this will be translated and re-printed in English at some point - I'd love to read it. As it stands, my French is O level only, conversational obviously, I'm not sure it would stretch to reading a novel!
I have started to write my own, its on ice at the mo as I can't decide which direction to take it in - but I'll get there! Maybe I'll post or publish it on-line - apres 'lawyer tooth comb', obviously!

They say everyone has at least one novel in them. Anyone who has followed this case from day one has an incredible story to tell!

by aiyoyo 07.01.12 13:52

New fictional book based on the McCann case

Belle famille, Paris, Gallimard, coll. « Blanche », 2012, 244 p. (ISBN 978-2-07-013653-7) de Arthur Dreyfus http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Dreyfus

Dans un registre moins tragique, Arthur Dreyfus s'attelle, avec Belle famille, à raconter ce qu'un fait divers dévoile de la société où il se produit en s'emparant d'une histoire récente et retentissante, celle de Maddie McCann, petite Anglaise de 4 ans disparue de son lit, pendant un séjour au Portugal, alors que ses parents dînaient à quelques dizaines de mètres. Arthur Dreyfus prend bien sûr soin d'invoquer en préambule "les droits imprescriptibles de l'imagination" chers à Aragon et transpose l'histoire dans une famille française passant ses vacances en Italie. Il ne dissimule pourtant rien de son inspiration en appelant son personnage d'enfant Madec, par exemple. Mais il laisse de côté la dimension mystérieuse de la disparition : page 80, Madec meurt d'un stupide accident domestique et sa mère, trouvant son corps, décide de le faire disparaître. Le véritable sujet de l'auteur, avec cette histoire où nul n'est réellement coupable, c'est la manière dont naît un fait divers hypermédiatique. C'est la frénésie qui s'empare des journalistes, des politiques, de tous ceux qui peuvent tirer profit d'une manière ou d'une autre d'une histoire comme celle-là. Emouvante, forcément émouvante, puisqu'il s'agit de la disparition d'un enfant. La distance qu'introduit la fiction par rapport aux faits réels tels qu'ils sont connus permet de prendre de la hauteur, de rejeter le tire-larmes au profit de la réflexion. En puisant aux sources d'un cas aussi sensible pour livrer un roman grinçant et souvent drôle, le jeune Arthur Dreyfus, 24 ans, fait un pari gonflé, et le remporte. La lecture de Belle famille pousse à s'interroger sur ce qui nous passionne tant dans la mise en récit de faits divers à sensations. Dans son bel essai Un jour, le crime (Gallimard, 2011), le psychanalyste et écrivain Jean-Bertrand Pontalis expliquait : le goût de ces histoires où se satisfont nos pulsions violentes rappelle notre nature de "criminels innocents".» http://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/20 ... _3260.html

.
"Beautiful Family" - fiction by Arthur Dreyfus, published by Gallimard.

Gallimard is a famous publisher in France, probably more so than UK Tranworld.

Though I have never heard of the Author, Arthur Dreyfus,
I've heard of the name Dreyfus of the famous L'affair Dreyfus (Dreyfus Affair) where a French Army Officer named Alfred Dreyfus, French of Jewish descent, was tried in 1900s for treason (a scandal that divided France) but later exonerated.

rough translation of the bits in blue italics
.......... he produced by taking a recent sensational story, that of Maddie McCann, little English 4-year old (girl – as indicated by “celle-de” – "that of" in feminine form) [who] disappeared from her bed during a stay in Portugal while her parents dined a few tens metre away.
Arthur Dreyfus takes care in the preamble to invoke "the inalienable rights of the imagination" dear to Aragon, and transforms the story into a French family on holiday in Italy. Yet he does nothing to hide his inspiration for his character by calling the child “Madec” for example. But he leaves on side the mysterious dimension of the disappearance: page 80, Madec died in a stupid domestic accident, her mum found her body and decided to make it disappear.

Can anyone sees mccanns' lawyer in French Court arguing this case...no way hosey I think?

by jd 07.01.12 14:00

The mccanns lawyer might do.....incorrect fact. The parents did not dine tens of meters away, it was exactly 49.2 metres away!!! confused

by rainbow-fairy 07.01.12 14:05

Cheshire Cat wrote:
rainbow-fairy wrote:I wonder if this will be translated and re-printed in English at some point - I'd love to read it. As it stands, my French is O level only, conversational obviously, I'm not sure it would stretch to reading a novel!
I have started to write my own, its on ice at the mo as I can't decide which direction to take it in - but I'll get there! Maybe I'll post or publish it on-line - apres 'lawyer tooth comb', obviously!
They say everyone has at least one novel in them. Anyone who has followed this case from day one has an incredible story to tell!

by rainbow-fairy 07.01.12 14:10

Cheshire Cat wrote:
rainbow-fairy wrote:I wonder if this will be translated and re-printed in English at some point - I'd love to read it. As it stands, my French is O level only, conversational obviously, I'm not sure it would stretch to reading a novel!
I have started to write my own, its on ice at the mo as I can't decide which direction to take it in - but I'll get there! Maybe I'll post or publish it on-line - apres 'lawyer tooth comb', obviously!
They say everyone has at least one novel in them. Anyone who has followed this case from day one has an incredible story to tell!

Indeed they do, Cheshire Cat - maybe we all should write one, with our own unique take on the case! With the sheer wealth of information and disinformation out there I'm certain every poster could write a different novella...

by Guest 07.01.12 14:12

jd wrote:The mccanns lawyer might do.....incorrect fact. The parents did not dine tens of meters away, it was exactly 49.2 metres away!!!

It may have been as the crow flies, but actually walking it to check on the kids was a lot further, as Martin Brunt paced it out himself.............

From the video ......

(Martine Brunt walking from the Tapas bar to the apartment)

"Going to check on the kids wasn’t easy."

(standing at the gate at the foot of the steps leading up to the apartment)

"Well, 80 paces as far as the gate, the distance between the Tapas bar and the apartment, not quite as Gerry McCann described it."

http://littlemorsals.blogspot.com/2009/09/gerry-mccann-and-blue-tennis-bag.html
************************

What is the average length of a human step?

[snipped]
But for now, I can tell you that I am a middle-aged white male who is nearly six feet tall, and my normal stride is almost exactly 36 inches, which is close to

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_average_length_of_a_human_step#ixzz1imVssddu

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_average_length_of_a_human_step#ixzz1imVefV6T

Rather more that 49.2 metres. 80 paces at 3 feet - 240 feet = 73.15 metres

by aiyoyo 07.01.12 14:18

jd wrote:The mccanns lawyer might do.....incorrect fact. The parents did not dine tens of meters away, it was exactly 49.2 metres away!!!

49.2 is still a few 'tens".- four "10" to be precise (nearly five "10" if you round it up) - ..anyway, that is the french way of expression.

Anyway if the mccanns were to take this to Court it wont be about how many "10s" metre away they were from the apt , which incidentally according to them about 5 tens and according to the exact distance probably 7 tens more like if report is to be believed.

If they do take it to court, it will be because the author wrote Madec died in the Apt in a domestic accident, about her parents involvement, and all the rest of it which we will have to read the book to find out. What's betting it going to be close to investigators version.

by jd 07.01.12 14:20

I hope kate is reading this....

by **PeterMac** 07.01.12 14:21

A British army marching pace is exactly 30 inches, 2 foot 6.
Marching at 120 paces to the minute, as most regiments do, you cover 300 feet, = 100 yards in a minute. (Kilted regiments do 100/min., which allows the kilts and sporrans to swing properly. Faster than that and they get wrapped up round your knees, !) Air Force, Navy, and Police follow the 120/min.
This is how Ceremonial Marching events are calculated. You know exactly how many paces it will take, and therefore how many bars of music you will need.
If you have been in the services, pacing is a very accurate way of calculating distance.

by **PeterMac** 07.01.12 14:24

aiyoyo wrote:But he leaves on side the mysterious dimension of the disappearance: page 80, Madec died in a stupid domestic accident, her mum found her body and decided to make it disappear.
Can anyone sees McCanns' lawyer in a French Court arguing this case...no way [José] I think?

Clearly not, since it bears no relation to what the McCanns know happened, and is therefore clearly a work of fiction !

by aiyoyo 07.01.12 14:33

jd wrote:I hope kate is reading this....

Well....... Isabel Hudson of CR is, isn't it?
CR must be rubbing their hands in glee....more money for them!

by jd 07.01.12 14:45

There is a "small window of opportunity" they might be, but gerry did say that he doesn't have a problem with anyone purporting a theory and believes in freedom of speech

by aiyoyo 07.01.12 14:47

PeterMac wrote:
aiyoyo wrote:But he leaves on side the mysterious dimension of the disappearance: page 80, Madec died in a stupid domestic accident, her mum found her body and decided to make it disappear.
Can anyone see McCanns' lawyer in a French Court arguing this case...no way [José] I think?
Clearly not, since it bears no relation to what the McCanns know happened, and is therefore clearly a work of fiction !

Mais, the mccanns took Amaral to Court for writing differently to what the they know happened.

by jd 07.01.12 15:20

Arthur Dreyfus can argue he took inspiration from another book of fiction "Madeleine' by kate mccann!

by Guest 07.01.12 15:23

I wonder if he will be offered a film deal thinking

by aiyoyo 07.01.12 15:32

jd wrote:Arthur Dreyfus can argue he took inspiration from another book of fiction "Madeleine' by kate mccann!

Really?

Is kate's character in the book a victim of domestic accident who died in her holiday apartment ,and her mum found her, then decided to make her disappear?

by aiyoyo 07.01.12 15:34

candyfloss wrote:I wonder if he will be offered a film deal

I thought about that too. It will be irony if he does get offers for film deal.

If he makes more money than mccanns, they are going to be so jealous, they wont let him off.

Ha Ha I am liking it so far.....how are they going to sue him for writing a fiction.

by russiandoll 07.01.12 16:00

the remainder

Le véritable sujet de l'auteur, avec cette histoire où nul n'est
réellement coupable, c'est la manière dont naît un fait divers
hypermédiatique. C'est la frénésie qui s'empare des journalistes, des
politiques, de tous ceux qui peuvent tirer profit d'une manière ou d'une
autre d'une histoire comme celle-là. Emouvante, forcément émouvante,
puisqu'il s'agit de la disparition d'un enfant. La distance qu'introduit
la fiction par rapport aux faits réels tels qu'ils sont connus permet
de prendre de la hauteur, de rejeter le tire-larmes au profit de la
réflexion. En puisant aux sources d'un cas aussi sensible pour livrer un
roman grinçant et souvent drôle, le jeune Arthur Dreyfus, 24 ans, fait
un pari gonflé, et le remporte. La lecture de Belle famille pousse à
s'interroger sur ce qui nous passionne tant dans la mise en récit de
faits divers à sensations. Dans son bel essai Un jour, le crime
(Gallimard, 2011), le psychanalyste et écrivain Jean-Bertrand Pontalis
expliquait : le goût de ces histoires où se satisfont nos pulsions
violentes rappelle notre nature de "criminels innocents".»

translates as follows :

The author's true subject, in this tale in which nothing is really to blame, is the way in which news items are created all over the media. It is the frenzy which takes over journalists and politicians, everyone who is able to profit in some way or other from such a story. Moving, deeply moving, since it deals with a child's disappearance. Fiction gives a distance from the facts as we know them and allows us to rise above things, to reject the pull of tears in favour of reflection. Taking as his source such a sensitive case in order to create a dark and often dry novel, the 24 year old Arthur Dreyfus has taken a huge gamble which has paid off. Reading " Lovely Family " forces one to ask oneself questions about what it is that arouses our emotions in the telling of sensational news stories. In his essay "One day, a crime" the wirter and psychoanalyst Jean Bertrand Pontails expalins it as follows: the liking for these stories where our violent impulses are satisifed, reminds us of our nature, that of " innocent criminals".

I have done this translation in a couple of minutes, but that is in essence what has been said here.
Sounds like a darned good read to me.