Guys Like Me
3.5/5
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About this ebook
"Fabre is a genius of these nuanced, interior moments ... The story Fabre tells is that of every one of us: looking for meaning in the mundane, moving through our lives, our interactions, as if through the fabric of a dream ... How do we live? it asks to consider. And: What does our existence mean?"--Los Angeles Times
"Guys Like Me is a short, arresting tale that ...not only offers keen insights into the mind of its middle-aged protagonist, but also provides the reader with a unique tour of what everyday life in the low-key suburbs of Paris must truly be like."--Typographical Era
"Readers will take pleasure in this well-told tale with a satisfying ending."Publishers Weekly
"The setting may be Paris, but it’s not the Paris of grand avenues and pricey cafés. In fact, Fabre’s hero is a recognizable everyman, from any country."Library Journal
A smile like a soft flash of light . . . travels through this moving novel and tells, in words that are muted and profoundly humane, of life as it is."Le Monde
"Fabre speaks to us of luck and misfortune, of the accidents that make a man or defeat him. He talks about our ordinary disappointments and our small moments of calm. Fabre is the discreet megaphone of the man in the crowd."Elle
"In this novel one finds the intimate geography of an author who lays bare the essence of Paris and its outskirts."La Quinzaine littéraire
Dominique Fabre, born in Paris and a lifelong resident of the city, exposes the shadowy, anonymous lives of many who inhabit the French capital. In this quiet, subdued tale, a middle-aged office worker, divorced and alienated from his only son, meets up with two childhood friends who are similarly adrift, without passions or prospects. He's looking for a second act to his mournful life, seeking the harbor of love and a true connection with his son. Set in palpably real Paris streets that feel miles away from the City of Light, Guys Like Me is a stirring novel of regret and absence, yet not without a glimmer of hope.
Dominique Fabre, born in 1960, writes about people living on society's margins. He is a lifelong resident of Paris, France. His previous novel, The Waitress Was New, was also translated into English.
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Reviews for Guys Like Me
15 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I am so glad that I purchased this book. I heard about the author and read a review of this book. It was enough for me to take a chance on not only a new author, but also a translated book. Reading a translated book, I believe you must trust that the translator was able to capture the spirit of the book in its original language.
This book was quick and enjoyable read. The only thing I will about the plot is that is the story of a middle aged man, living in Paris, France and how he tries to find new meaning in his life. - Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I did not finish this book. I stopped 49 pages in.There was some interesting atmosphere in the beginning and a couple of quotes that verged on elegant. However, it was also repetitive. I think it was intended to be poetic, and there is a poetic way to have a recurring phrase in a book. It was not achieved in this instance though. It also had a rambling sort of quality that I associate with my pre-coffee morning shower thoughts. There is some potential here, but I think it needs a good editor and some skilled and brutally honest beta readers. Or maybe it's better in French? The problem here could be a translation issue. Or a cultural difference? Maybe I would like it more if I were French.I received a complimentary copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway. Many thanks to all involved in providing me with this opportunity.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A slow, musing, sweet read. I have come to the conclusion that all novels set in Paris require that the reader keep a street map of the city at hand, as the geography is always detailed: streets, avenues, train stations, parks, squares... Fabre gives us other neighborhoods many Parisian novels do not: the 17th arrondissement, not the 1st or the 7th, peopled by ordinary working folks - office workers, nurses, students, middle-aged divorced people living - and trying to make sense of - ordinary lives. There is little Drama with a capital D here: an aging single man, trying to figure out whether the curtain is coming down on his life, while wondering if F. Scott Fitzgerald was right about there being no second acts. Online dating, a young adult son about to fly the coop, and a couple of friends with whom he shares some history of a deteriorating neighborhood, downsizing, divorce, depression. That's about it. But it turns out to be enough, after all. One friend - the one they worried about - makes it out in one piece. The other is stable and content. He and his son talk. A date grows into friendship and more. And yes, they still live in Paris where you can find a bar for a coffee or a drink within a few steps almost anywhere. Another little gem from New Vessel Press.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guys Like Me is Dominique Fabre's second novel to be translated into English. Like 2008's The Waitress Was New it is immersive and satisfying.There is a different experience this time around. Fabre drops us into the mind of his protagonist...I never noticed a name for him...in a first-person, stream-of-consciousness narration. All of us have a lot going on in our minds most of the time; I've noticed about five different topics flit through my mind in the last minute. So, too, in a half a dozen sentences our narrator will comment on the state of the Seine, reflect on the need to have a meal with his son, remember places he had lived, talk about filling out a landlord's social security paperwork, only to return to talking about the Seine and how it makes him feel good. Pronouns switch their targets, sentences change subject and/or predicate partway through. It struck me as exactly how our internal monologue runs when we don't have to organize it for the consumption of others.Yet, somehow, Fabre takes this and molds it into an impressionistic discourse on middle age, loss of hope, loneliness and trying to recover a life that, somehow, got away from one. A bad divorce years ago left our narrator in a state where, as he says of himself, "That day, without knowing it, I'd signed up for years of not living." That condition might have lasted the rest of his life had not events caused him to notice the "few million guys like me" who messed up their lives without meaning to and who believed, as he did, that you only got one shot at life, that there was no second act. “But I still believe there are, from time to time," he muses and, because of that little measure of hope still remaining, he starts to open himself to the possibility of living and loving again.It's a story where very little happens and, yet, there's such a genuine quality to the thoughts of this ordinary, middle-aged man that I think many of us will find it easy to relate to him and be satisfied with watching the slow shift of his life.Recommended.