El verano en que mi madre tuvo los ojos verdes
Published February 28th 2019 by Impedimenta (first published 2017), Paperback 256 pages
Plena de emoción y crudeza, Tatiana Ţîbuleac muestra una intensísima fuerza narrativa en este brutal testimonio que conjuga el resentimiento, la impotencia y la fragilidad de las relaciones maternofiliales. Una poderosa novela que entrelaza la vida y la muerte en una apelación al amor y al perdón. Uno de los grandes descubrimientos de la literatura europea actual.
Aleksy aún recuerda el último verano que pasó con su madre. Han transcurrido muchos años desde entonces, pero, cuando su psiquiatra le recomienda revivir esa época como posible remedio al bloqueo artístico que está sufriendo como pintor, Aleksy no tarda en sumergirse en su memoria y vuelve a verse sacudido por las emociones que lo asediaron cuando llegaron a aquel pueblecito vacacional francés: el rencor, la tristeza, la rabia. ¿Cómo superar la desaparición de su hermana? ¿Cómo perdonar a la madre que lo rechazó? ¿Cómo enfrentarse a la enfermedad que la está consumiendo? Este es el relato de un verano de reconciliación, de tres meses en los que madre e hijo por fin bajan las armas, espoleados por la llegada de lo inevitable y por la necesidad de hacer las paces entre sí y consigo mismos.
User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
So powerful and so beautifully written. Amazing reading!
Rating: really liked it
Devastating and brilliant. Somehow I wish it was more detailed, going even further into the depths of its characters. Great read anyway, totally recommend it.
Rating: really liked it
Finally I read this little book everybody was and is talking about. The good stuff is that there is potential about Tatiana Tibuleac. She can play with the words quite nicely. Hopefully she will use this great potential for writing real stuff.
This is a YA Novel which is sole purpose is to get those damn tears out of you. It's like:
what sells? cancer! cancer sells!
what sells better? mother with cancer. This will be a hit!
what sells even better? mother with cancer and teenager son that hates her. Jackpot!
The problem with this novel is that it could have been condensed in just 2-3 pages.
The problem is that almost all book consists of recollections. Then write it accordingly. No memory whatsoever remains so perfect, so structured, so organized.
And why on earth do you have to take a male character?????
Btw - if you want an emo-hater youngster, take a look at Cristina Nemerovski's characters. they are really cool !!!
Rating: really liked it
Small but intense, better than I expected.
Rating: really liked it
An excellent book which depicts the relationship between a son and her dying mother, (re)discovering themselves while falling into a carrousel of feelings.
Rating: really liked it
A mother dying of cancer goes to France for one last summer. The mentally-ill son who hates her goes along.
If I’d known this was what
The Summer My Mother Had Green Eyes was about, I probably wouldn’t have read it. There’s something to be said for skipping the back cover. I did read it, without much preamble, as it has been a sleeper success in Europe. It isn’t published in English but seems widely loved elsewhere, with translations into many European languages. I came across it on Sant Jordi, when the author’s second book was in the Top 10 bestsellers and I looked at the cover and thought “this doesn’t look
at all like your usual Top 10 bestseller fare…”
Țîbuleac is a Moldovan-born writer living in Paris and writing in Romanian, though she seems to have been at some pains to leave all that behind in this novel, which is about a family of British-dwelling Polish immigrants. She displays control in telling the simply story simply, but not too simply. I was alienated at first by the sharp tone of the early chapters – teenage narrator Aleksy begins “Mother was waiting for me at the school gate, short and fat and stupid and ugly,” but as it progressed I found a story told without sentimentality, with moments of redemption but plenty of moments of non-redemption along the way. It helps that Aleksy has real problems, he is not a wide-eyed ingenue observing his mother's fate, but needs to come to terms with who he is and who he might be. It's told with a confident structure of short chapters and gradually unfolding depths to the narrative.
Rating: really liked it
It is an emotional book, focused on the relationship between mother and child. The communication and the feelings between them are evolving, the son get empathic to his mother feelings and life; he stops judging her and hating her. It is written in a brutal, direct way, which makes it even sadder.
Rating: really liked it
A very touching read!
Rating: really liked it
Emotion is this books middle name.
The story of a boy growing up is an old one, but the author manages to put an incredible spin on it.
A distraught boy, mad with anger and fighting mental disease each step of his life, rediscovers his mother. They spend one last summer together, a mad boy and a woman who gives in to cancer: she has nothing left to fight for.
Images by Tibuleac eat at you long after you close the book. Her characters are as honest as they get, both to themselves and to each other. From that sincerity a deep love and appreciation for each other is born.
A must read, highly recommend it.
Rating: really liked it
Short but so... I don't know how to describe this book. Intense, heart-wrenching....
Rating: really liked it
heartbreaking…broked mine into tiny little pieces. 5 stars with no doubt
Rating: really liked it
A book that has a nice idea, but is killed by the excessive use of epitets. Practically every 20 words phrase has 15 epitets. If the author would focus more on the idea and less on how to make it sound nice it would be a very good book.
Another thing that puzze me is how it is possible for a woman that sells donuts and has a very low income even for Moldavia, to spend three weeks in France and afford an above average experience.
I am not sure, but considering the amount of drugs used in the book I suspect it sells other "stuff" at granny's shop.
Rating: really liked it
Despite its tiny size, I had to read this one over several days because it was breaking my heart. My mum read it in one sitting and concluded, "yes, nice book, pain is part of life". And that was such a perfect meta commentary to the book that I stared into the distance for probably as long as it takes to read this book.
Rating: really liked it
Powerful and exceptionally well written. About trauma, and pain and mental illness and suffering in a very intimate manner. Strong, vivid images and feelings, described with accuracy and acuity. A really powerful novel, concentrated and refined, almost elegant in technique.
Rating: really liked it
The writing: amazing
The character arc: amazing
The hard look it makes you take at the relationship with your parents: gut wrenching
