alfred e. - 1

Based upon an actual reform school in mid-twentieth century Florida, the Nickel Academy is the setting of Colson Whitehead's horrifying tale of racial injustice and abuse which represents nothing less than the American counterpart to the Siberian gulags denounced by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his own writings. The reader is quickly plunged into Elwood Curtis' Kafkaesque nightmare springing from his arrest on totally spurious grounds. But beware : Whitehead does not cede to facile fantasies of black rage, for Elwood's unsinkable idealism is based upon Reverend King's calls for loving one's enemies. This moral paradox is a dual-edged sword of uncertain worth, lest one forget King's vision of the long arc of history, no matter how Elwood's companion in suffering Turner feels about the legitimacy of loving one's enemies to death. Haunting and thought-provoking, a future classic.

Dans son essai richement documenté, Anthony Galluzzo nous révèle les aspects idéologiques et scientifiques cachés derrière l'omniprésence de marchandise dans notre vie. En prenant comme point du départ le début du dix-neuvième siècle , le lecteur acquit une appréciation de l'influence des nouvelles méthodes de la diffusion des biens et d'information qui ont mené à une transformation radicale de l'identité de l'individu lorsqu'on n'est plus associé personnellement avec l'élaboration de nos biens. Une lecture stimulante avec une qualité d'analyse et d'écriture très limpide aussi.

Susan Choi's 'Trust Exercise' is that rare novel which keeps the reader guessing in terms of plotting and character depiction in her story of high school pupils in the Deep South of the 1980s. Under the iron rule of the charismatic yet intimidating Mr Kingsley, the various teen protagonists find themselves propelled into trajectories beyond their control leaving indelible marks on their future lives far away from the Citywide Academy for the Performing Arts. 'Trust Exercise' calls into question with conviction the trust young people are expected to place in adult mentors and instructors who themselves have failed to transcend certain foibles of their teen years. A worthwhile and mesmerizing read.

Reading Barry Cohen's fall and fall again story is reminiscent of an episode of Larry David's 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' television sitcom. There is a similar tone of derision and absurd in the depiction of Cohen's impish flight from adult responsibility in New York City when a business scandal and a seemingly irrecuperable marriage with a status-minded spouse sends him on Greyhound road trip to the Deep South in order to accomplish what ? Common wisdom says that it is impossible to run away from problems, yet the American 'Dream' has always dictated the possibility of reinventing oneself when life's challenges require radical change. A fun read for the holidays, full of comic escapism.

'Lost Children Archive' is a road trip of a most haunting and melancholic kind. There is a mixture of idealism and futility in a New York couple's voyage towards America's southern border undertaken for divergent reasons which will ultimately undermine their relationship. The interplay between their seemingly programmed separation and their children's unique sense of wonder evokes the ticking of an infernal time bomb set to reveal irreconciliable truths which threaten to tear them asunder.... a pathetic counterpoint with the fate of Mexican refugees unaware of the dangers facing them as they head northward towards refuge in America. Vital reading for dangerous times.

Nous sommes tous concernés par la biologie. Mais parfois le lecteur quidam se sent intimidé par les complexités intrinsèques des explications scientifiques où il est question de l'emploi de jargon obscur ou des formules chimiques étourdissantes qui n'avancent pas les choses pour autant. 'La Biologie en BD' propose une solution ludique à travers les dessins humoristiques qui émaillent les textes concis et clairs du livre, permettant même aux individus sans formation scientifique formelle une compréhension basique de la biologie aujourd'hui. C'est un livre qui incarne d'une manière formidable l'expression marier l'utile à l'agréable puisque les images rendent même les concepts les plus complexes plus faciles à comprendre et retenir.