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YA Review: No and Me by Delphine de Vigan

10/22/2012

13 Comments

 
No and Me cover
No and Me
Author: Delphine de Vigan
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Publication Date: 8/3/10
[Goodreads|Amazon]

Blurb(GR):
 The international award-winning story of two girls from different backgrounds, united in friendship

Parisian teenager Lou has an IQ of 160, OCD tendencies, and a mother who has suffered from depression for years. But Lou is about to change her life—and that of her parents—all because of a school project about homeless teens. While doing research, Lou meets No, a teenage girl living on the streets. As their friendship grows, Lou bravely asks her parents if No can live with them, and is astonished when they agree. No’s presence forces Lou’s family to come to terms with a secret tragedy. But can this shaky, newfound family continue to live together when No’s own past comes back to haunt her?

Winner of the prestigious Booksellers’ Prize in France, No and Me is a timely and thought-provoking novel about homelessness that has far-reaching appeal.


Review:

One of my most vivid memories from childhood is the first time I realized that homelessness is a regularly occurring thing.  I think I was about five or six, and as my parents and I were climbing into our old car, a man came up and asked my father for some spare change so he could get something to eat.  My father gave him some coins but I was so shocked and devastated.  It didn’t seem like enough.  Surely this man needed immediate help!  When we got home, I went to the plastic jar where I’d been storing up loose change for months, hauled it out, and demanded that we go back and find that man so I could give it to him.  In my child’s mind, that jar was a vast fortune, capable of solving the whole situation.  My mom brushed it off and demurred, but I didn’t understand.  There was a man out there who didn’t have enough to eat and obviously that was an emergency that needed to be dealt with.  I felt anxiety for that man for months afterward, wondering where he was and what happened to him. 

In later years, when I didn’t have enough to eat, I learned that poverty is something that most people don’t want to hear about or acknowledge unless they’re living it.  I learned that it should be a source of shame for those who experience it first-hand.  I learned to hide it and pretend as much as I could that it wasn’t happening.  Now, when I’m driving in my closed up, air-conditioned car I often pass by people on the street, holding up signs asking for help.  And maybe I feel a stab, but I don’t stop.  And I try not to think about them after I’ve passed.

This book so artfully encompasses both of those points of view: the child’s and the adult’s.  Lou, the thirteen year old narrator, is a child prodigy wise beyond her years in some ways but still very immature in others.  When she begins interviewing eighteen year old No, homeless and abandoned by everyone she ever counted on, she wants to save her.  She’s old enough to know that saving No is not something that she should wish for or attempt, but she’s young enough to try to do it anyway.  She still has a bit of that belief left – that a jar of coins or a bath or a home or unconditional acceptance could solve everything. 

I think that what hits me the hardest about this story isn’t so much that Lou would try to save No, would believe that she could save No, but that No so obviously wants to be saved.  Despite knowing deep down that no amount of Lou’s help will save her, No wants it to be true.  Not just for herself, but for Lou too – it’s as if she wants to give Lou the gift of her rescuing.  And despite my years and years accrual of denial and apathy, these girls got to me too.  Even though I knew that nothing in this world is ever solved that easily, I desperately wanted it to happen.  As the story progressed and the slow but inevitable intrusion of reality set in, the sense of doom I felt really turned this quiet little book into something substantial and powerful for me.

No and Me has the kind of narration that I love best: a deeply personal voice with a narrow focus that feels all-consuming.  Lou is the very real, flawed, sympathetic person who gets to tell this story, but No is always very much there.  She may be in the background but her actions – both on and off-stage – are a huge presence in the novel.  If you’ve ever been a square peg/over-thinker/misfit (as I believe many of us readers are) then I think you’ll probably really relate to Lou:

“I’m not too keen on talking.  I always have the feeling that the words are getting away from me, escaping and scattering.  It’s not to do with vocabulary or meanings, because I know quite a lot of words, but when I come out with them they get confused and scattered.  That’s why I avoid stories and speeches and just stick to answering the questions I’m asked.  All the extra words, the overflow, I keep to myself, the words that I silently multiply to get close to the truth.”

No’s story hit me the hardest, but I loved Lou’s as well.  She’s a very closed-off and fearful person and her relationship with No (and with sweetie/layabout classmate Lucas) leads her to a very grey but fulfilling ending, which I needed after No punched me in the gut.

Delphine de Vigan’s writing is clean and subtle but powerful and I am completely impressed by the translation.  I’ve read a few translated novels this year and this one really stands out.  Every word just feels right.  That being said, this book also feels absolutely Not American which I LOVED.  I hate it when translated books are stripped of everything uniquely foreign during translation – what’s the point?  I read French and German and English and Australian and etc. books because I WANT to experience something non-American. 

This book reminds me quite a lot of Antonia Michaelis’ The Storyteller, but it’s much less brutal and much more quirky and sad.  Apparently there’s also a film!  But it’s only available overseas.  Boo.

Perfect Musical Pairing
Brand New – Sowing Season

Noelle from Young Adult Anonymous gave me this song and I matched it up with this book for her in one of our challenges.  I still think about this book every time I hear this song, which to me is about  slow healing and recovery and about inner strength.

But, while I was listening to this song (over and over, naturally) I started thinking about how much I love songs in general that have delayed and sudden crescendos (and books too...kinda like this one, for example).  And that made me think of this song:

Jimmy Eat World – Invented 

Which I think is my song for Lou and Lucas and that ending which was just perfect.

4/5 Stars
Readventurer C Signature
13 Comments
Maja
10/21/2012 10:47:55 pm

I can just picture a six-year-old Catie determined to save the world! It' sad, devastating really, that we all grow out of it sooner or later. I wish we didn't.

I guess the adult version of this book (I mean with adult characters, not FOR adults because YA is for adults too, duh :)) would be The Soloist by Steve Lopez. Remember that? They made a movie with Robert Downey Jr. and I watched it about five times because OBVIOUSLY a girl can't get enough of Robert.
Although I tend to shy away from such books, this is one I have to read. Added to my tbr.

Reply
Catie (The Readventurer) link
10/22/2012 06:56:14 am

Oh, I saw that movie! It was good. I think this book is a bit more realistic and sad...and it has a grey ending. (Of course it does since I liked it! Ha!) I'm so glad you're going to try this out. It's very short - it won't take you any time at all.

Reply
Stepping Out of the Page link
10/22/2012 02:34:23 am

Such a fantastic review, Catie - I am so glad that you enjoyed this book so much! I actually read this when it was first published - I can't remember much about it other than the fact that I absolutely loved it. You've certainly persuaded me to pick it up again for a re-read. Beautiful review!

Reply
Catie (The Readventurer) link
10/22/2012 07:03:49 am

Thanks Stephanie!

I know this one's been around for a while and gotten a few awards. I'm glad I had a few international friends to alert me to its presence, otherwise I might not have read it.

Reply
Keertana link
10/22/2012 07:26:37 am

Catie, I know EXACTLY what you mean! In India, poverty is everywhere. Even in the big cities, there are always homeless people on the street and like you, I wanted to help them so desperately when I was young, so I'd keep my spare birthday money with me in the car as they knocked on the windows and open the windows, only to learn the hard way. In India, they all thrust their hands in the car and practically steal your glasses, your earrings, everything! It breaks my heart that they're forced to resort to those means because of how poor they are, but really, can you do? I hadn't heard of this book before, but I think I'll have to pick it up for sure now. It seems like such a beautiful, poignant, and moving tale. Wonderful, wonderful review, Catie! :)

Reply
Catie (The Readventurer) link
10/22/2012 09:02:34 am

Thanks Keertana. Yes, even if you wanted to try, it would be impossible to magically fix everything, even for one person. You can take small steps (and so can those who need help) but it takes a long time to recover from anything.

Reply
Maggie, Young Adult Anonymous link
10/22/2012 08:30:33 am

Well, this review was just perfect. As a child, it seemed so simple -- if someone's homeless, give them a home. There are plenty of empty apartments and houses. As an adult though, you realize so many more factors are at play and you can't save the world, and yet... you could do more. Unless you're Mitt Romney.

Great musical pairings. I am DYING for you to read Friday Brown, Catie!

Reply
Catie (The Readventurer) link
10/22/2012 09:05:53 am

DYING?!! I really want to read it soon too. I am very convinced that it will be something I'll like. If only I hadn't requested so many ARC's. Bah!!

Oh, Mittens. I really hope I don't have to say "President Mittens."

Reply
Christina (A Reader of Fictions) link
10/23/2012 03:28:43 am

Wow, I'd never heard of this, but it sounds remarkable and so incredibly different from anything I'd encountered before. The only (sort of) young adult book that I've read that really tackled homelessness was The Glass Castle, which I know everyone in the world loved, but which I personally did not care for. Your description of the narration and the quote make me think I might really enjoy this.

Adding to my tbr. So glad to have discovered this!

Reply
Christina (A Reader of Fictions) link
10/23/2012 03:30:35 am

Ack! Forgot to comment on the translation, which I meant to do. I love when translations aren't clunky but do retain their foreign feel. The sentences shouldn't awkward because they were poorly translated, but should still be slightly differently phrased than they would be had they been composed by an American author. I'm glad you drew attention to that, because that's a huge plus.

Reply
Heidi link
10/24/2012 05:53:50 am

Awe, poor little Catie! I remember that feeling as well. We didn't see a lot of homelessness where I grew up. It existed, but mostly in those passing through, and so I never really saw it unless I visited the cities. I didn't really develop that apathy toward it until I moved to NY and see it every time I visit the city. This book sounds simultaneously lovely and very hard to read--but the good kind of hard that makes you think.

Reply
Anna link
10/25/2012 09:08:05 pm

Fantastic review Catie. I don't think I've ever read a translated book *hangs head in shame* but this will definitely be my first.
I know what you mean about homelessness - feeling like you have to either accept it or become consumed with solving a problem that doesn't have an easy solution.

Reply
Reynold Bassant
1/19/2022 04:59:06 pm

Oh Catie! Have a heart! Its the profundity of your reality in reviewing No and Me. You don't offer us fool's gold.You so generouly offers us the real thing. Its a reality awakening. We can't give the wretched all they need.But, as you infer, we can share what little humanity we have and give some away.I think No was doing that..

Reply



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