Do You Hear Them? by Nathalie Sarraute

Do You Hear Them? Reviews

• 
  Lee Foust

  Another lovely little gem from Nathalie Sarraute. I snagged a hardcover first edition of this one at the thrift store for only $3! Was thrilled as it's one of the few novels of hers that I own back in Florence but haven't yet gotten around to reading, so win/win, I got a nice book to add to my library and also something to read these months abroad and away from my library.
  
  Written in Sarraute's usual no exposition, impressionistic style of thoughts and dialogue attributed to nameless hes, shes, and mostly theys, Do You Hear Them? (from 1972) deals with the generation gap, pitting the seriousness of an art collector father and an unspecified number of giggling daughters, the "plot" centering around a family-owned work of Mesoamerican sculpture and the daughters' laughter--which prompts the father to exclaim the novel's title to a visiting friend. In classic Sarraute fashion, this laughter and the father's attitudes toward his daughters are spun again and again as per their intentions, exploring the dynamics between them, the love, suspicion, duty, resentment, differences, education, culture, as pivots between one generation and the other, one gender and the other, etc. etc. It drags just a bit about 2/3 of the way through, but the ending was wonderful and, by then, I'd really came to admire the concise whole of it. For me this is one of Sarraute's best novels.
• 
  Diego F. Cantero

  Con decir Nouveau roman muchos lectores huyen despavoridos y otros nos quedamos a ver qué pasa. A intentar entender qué es lo que pasa.
  En mi caso, que soy un lector sin conciencia sobre los estilos o tendencias que lee, siento atracción por estos autores complicados; te sacan a bailar toda la noche y apenas podés seguir sus pasos. Te embriagan en esas páginas donde parece no pasar nada para que pase todo. Te obligan a derrochar imaginación, a tirar de brújula.
  
  En estas 125 páginas Sarraute nos plantea una situación que parece muy concreta: dos amigos frente a frente mirando una estatua y un grupo de jóvenes riendo en la habitación de arriba. A partir de esa, toda la acción de la novela, uno se sorprenderá metido en el bucle que lo llevará a pensar en educación, en la madurez, en el valor del arte, en el paso del tiempo… En ser hijo, en ser padre, en todo lo que pensamos sin decir…etc.etc.
  Más al fondo, sin duda, viejos intelectuales franceses y Mayo del 68.
• 
  Lukas

  The kind of literature that needs to digest in your mind between readings. Fragmented sentences slowly give way to a dramatically charged whole. Having not read any of Sarrautes work before I went in expecting something completely different from what I got but somehow I came out on the other side amazed at Sarrautes feat and hungry for more.
• 
  Karl Edgar

  I imagine it as an impressionistic painting of words. I did not understand and grasp at the outlines of the narrative nor characters before I saw the full composition (or at least half of it).
  
  On page 20 I wanted to smash the book and rip it apart, because I did not understand and I thought that it’s pointless, weak. After I finished the book, my feelings had transformed into the opposite. For me, relevant themes took shape and were much clearer to me by the end.
  
• 
  Geoffrey

  I read this, and there was an extent to which I appreciated it, and especially the obvious influence on Christine Brooke-Rose, but ultimately it felt a little hollow to me. It might benefit from rereading, or it might just be a bit arid as radical stylistic experiments sometimes are.
• 
  Doruntine Aliu

  So bad. Couldn't even finish it.
• 
  Amari

  beh.
• 
  anon

  Blogged about our creative engagement here:
  http://www.5cense.com/13/devotion.htm
  (lets see how long Amazon allows us to put outside links in these reviews...)
• 
  Uladzislau

  Бред сивой кобылы!
• 
  Wim

  meer gemompel en gedachtenkronkels dan gebeurtenissen. plot komt niet ter sprake. moeilijk om te concentreren bij het tramlezen. net de juiste lengte en maakt me benieuwd naar meer boeken van haar