Read a second volume of Caimh McDonnell’s first Dublin trilogy, The Day That Never Comes, which I found a huge disappointment, from mixing too many stories and situations to the slow pace of the scenario, to the annoying childishness of the main characters, to the tired jokes and idiosyncrasies, to the once again unrealistic conclusion. I am not contemplating going through the following tomes. I also read over a weekend the last volume of Pascale Quiviger’s Le Royaume de Pierre d’Angle, Courage, which concludes this (YA?) fantasy novel. A little disappointed by this very long volume, even more than little… Part of the story is very secondary, even useless, and we quickly get tired of the fights between Jacquard and Victoire, as well as of the mistreatment of the entire castle staff by both of them. The lack of realism of the Pierre d’Angle universe is even more glaring in this volume, because of its inability both to provide the resources of a court like Louis XIV’s and to hide rebel orders. The resolution of the Catastrophe is even more disappointing. Both simplistic and incomplete, with aspects remindful of Italo Calvino’s novels, but which don’t stick.
Cooked a huge cabbage curry for my week in Les Houches, with chickpeas whose water (aquafaba) I recycled into the base of a vegan chocolate mousse as earlier visitors had left a box of powdered cocoa in the flat. And cooked morning crêpes there (with a vengeance!) when the local bakery did not accept credit card payments for a baguette! Also went to a farmers’ market near the workshop hotel to buy sourdough, only to find that the dozens of loaves in the hall were all reserved but for one. But came back with a wild thyme crêpe offered by the baker.
Watched The boy and the heron, a Miyazaki anime on a fantastic quest of an orphaned boy to find a place in his recompose family. The drawings are beautiful but I alas find the story rather simplistic, with the boy’s attitude difficult to analyse and no critical position on the ongoing war (despite the boy’s father’s factory producing domes for Zero fighters).
