In Our Strange Gardens
 

In Our Strange Gardens

by Michel Quint

Michel has a story to tell. It's about his father, an exquisitely common man whose very ordinariness is a source of grave embarrassment for the boy. It's also the story told to him by his uncle, who shared a family secret with the child in the flickering black and white images of a Sunday matinee. Years before, in the bitter years of World War II, during the Nazi occupation of France,... (read more)

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Amazon Reviews (5)
 

Most Helpful Reviews

Liked It

Mary
  • Rated 4 stars

A short (VERY short) but humbling parable. It reminds one to not judge or criticize others without first knowing their story.

If planning to read this one, however, some people might be put off by the cost of purchasing a new copy due to the small number of readable pages. Don't be fooled by the size or length of the volume; most readers can finish this little gem in about an hour. Translated into English from the original French, my edition contains both versions so the story was...

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Didn’t Like It

Sassy Librarian
  • Rated 1 stars

This World War II novel — really the length of a short story — tells the tale of a boy whose teacher father spends his off hours dressing and entertaining as a clown. The boy is embarrassed by his father’s behavior: "Of all sad clowns he was the saddest … [H]e hurt himself deliberately, made himself miserable to punish himself for some unspeakable sin." Then the boy learns the reasons for his father’s behavior. As a member of the French Resistance, he helped destroy a generator, was captured...

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Community:
  • Rated 3.5 stars
Amazon:
  • Rated 4 stars
 

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