Marcel Ayme's "The Walker Through walls" is fantasy: humoristic
fantasy even, from what I recall, as he's quite adept at giving
the darkest situations a light touch - sometime too much so,
bearing in mind his french butchering (the term 'translation'
doesn't even apply) of Tennessee Williams' beautiful "Night Of
The Iguana".
"The Walker Through Walls" (Le PAsse-Murailles) remains a
terrific collection of short stories if you don't mind that
genre. One that stands out in my memory (read it when I was ten)
is "Les Sabines" about a housewife who discovers she has the
power to multiply herself ad infinitum - thus enabling her to
live several lives, most of them as a slut to anything on two
legs while remaining technically faithful to her husband. Ayme
was not the most politically correct character (I think his
conduct during WW2 left a lot to be desired) but his fiction
makes for a very light and pleasant reading if you're not
looking for 'real' horror.
Supernatural fiction is relatively a 'lightweight' genre in
France, a country which prided itself for centuries on its
reasonned approach to things ("cartesianisme"). Some gems are to
be found here and there, even though most french horror has a
strong hold on reality. Among the notables exceptions are Gaston
Leroux (The Phantom Of The Opera) though his writing is a bit
dated, and Jean Ray (the 'Harry Dickson' series, featuring a
Sherlock Holmes-like detective of the occult: "The Singing
Vampire" being one of his best outputs.)
More recently, Emmanuel Carrere released "La Classe De Neige"
(Class Trip) a masterpiece of subtle horror which was turned
into an excellent (and much underrated) movie by Claude Berri.
Slightly reminiscent of Henry James, the short novel is seen
through the eyes of a 10 years old boy on a trip to snow class,
while a child abducter roams the country...
--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] a �crit�:
> how does marcel ayme hold up? i've seen his "the walker
> through walls" cited in at least one best-of (possibly in the
> back of stephen king's "danse macabre")
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