The Life Before Us by Romain Gary/Emile Ajar

The Life Before Us

by Romain Gary/Emile Ajar

Hey, hope you're all doing great :) Today I'm going to review a book that has been recommended to me from my French friend that also recommended me Purple Hibiscus and Ten Days in a Madhouse.  (Check out my recent reviews of them both :) )

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The book of today is The Life Before Us (originally in French: La Vie Devant Soi) by the French author Romain Gary, with the pseudonym of Emile Ajar. 

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The novel was really easy to read, even though I read it in French. It was way easier than the Purple Hibiscus, because it's not so full of slang words, but mostly the "school French". 

It's the story of Momo, a Muslim boy of around 10 years old of age, who lives under the roof of Madame Rosa, an Holocaust survivor Jewish woman. Momo's parents abandoned him and this Madame is being a sort of babysitter for orphan and abandoned children of parents that can't take care of them anymore, or don't have a place for them to live. 

The book revolves around him and the strong relationship she has with Madame Rosa that even though was just doing her job, will end up by being as a mother figure to him. 

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This one has been one of my favourites for this year because it has been a really enjoyable reading. 

I'm looking forward to see the new movie too, with Sophia Loren in the role of Madame Rosa, but I'm so afraid that it won't be as good as the book. 

The only part that really made me sad about it, was the ending, which of course, I'm not going to spoil, but it's totally unexpected :)

Ten Days in a Madhouse by Nellie Bly

Ten Days in a Madhouse

by Nellie Bly

Hi everyone :) Here I am with another review. This book has been recommended by the same friend that gave me Purple Hibiscus in the previous  review :)

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The short novel I'll talk about today is Ten Days in a Madhouse by the American journalist Nellie Bly.

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The novel was really easy to read because there weren't any hard words that could have been used in the old English of those times, or maybe I'm just to used to read classic book from those days :'D

It was published as a series of articles from the personal experience of the writer that played to be insane to show the people how the patients were really treated in those facilities and what they had to go through on a daily basis. 

She investigated the brutality on women in the Women Asylum of Blackwell's Island. 

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I must say that so far it has been my favourite of this year, also thanks to the fact that I already knew her story that was drew in the graphic novel book Brazen (Culottées in French) by the French illustrator Pénélope Bagieu, which I already did my review about. (Go check it out if you'd like to know more ;) )

Some of the scenes portrayed were, of course, disturbing, because you never realise how much can people be cruel to others until it's not shown. 

The cruelty of the doctors and nurses on the patient, which most of them weren't even really insane, was just too much too handle. 

A particularly memorable scene were the baths that the patients received. The water was way too cold for them to stay healthy, and buckets of water were literally poured over their heads while the other patients were rubbing and washed the other in the tub. The bath water was almost never changed, with many patients bathing in the same dirty water. When the water was changed, rarely, the staff didn't even take care to wash off the bathtub, but just throwing the next patient right into the filthy tub. The most disturbing part was, for sure, the fact that they all shared towels and healthy patients were forced to dry themselves with the ones previously used by others with skin inflammations, boils, or open sores.

The ending part was what I liked the least, because it made me really annoyed by how the facility acted when Nellie finally got the court to investigate into it, but I'm not going to spoil you more, so if you're interested go check this little masterpiece out :)