Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Saint-Exupery


Absolutely thrilled to come across the new Hebrew translation of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Pilote de guerre and Lettre a un otage.

When I was a kid my mother figured out that the way to bridge the gap between my love of all things aviation related and her love of French literature was to introduce me to St-Exupery's writing, and boy did she hit the nail on the head.

Once upon a time I would have read this in the original French, but sadly it's become so rusty over the last decade that I can't even really enjoy Le Petit Prince in the original anymore, which is a crying shame, but I just haven't had much reason to use my French in such a long time.

I think it's a generational thing, parents and family who went through WWII, all their stories so vivid in my mind, I think that's why I seem to read so much about WWII. I just heard so much about the Battle of Britain and the Blitz growing up. Maybe that's why I read so many aviation related WWII books. Maybe I was just born old too, would explain a lot as well.

Saint-Exupery just does it so well, so painfully, tragically, heart-breakingly well.

Finding this book is like holding treasure in my hands.

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