The yellow eyes of the crocodiles
The yellow eyes of the crocodiles (2006) is a novel bestseller from the French writer, journalist and teacher Katherine Pancol. In turn, this book is the first installment of a homonymous trilogy continued by The slow waltz of the turtles (2008) and Central Park squirrels are sad on Mondays (2010)
In addition, the tremendous editorial success of The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles —Original name in French— has made Pancol internationally known. In fact, this title received, among others, the Maison de la Presse Award. Likewise, her story was brought to the big screen in 2014 under the direction of Cécile Talerman; starring Emmanuelle Béart and Julie Depardieu.
Summary of The yellow eyes of the crocodilesby Katherine Pancol
Initial approach
Josephine is a 40-year-old woman who lives in Paris with her husband Antoine and their two daughters, Hortense and Zoe. At first, Despite the obvious failure of her marriage, she is unable to make a conclusive decision due to her insecurities. In any case, the breakup is inevitable, because her husband looks pathetic after being fired from the armory where he worked.
For more inri, Antoine has been in that situation for a year and, instead of shaking himself, he begins to be unfaithful to his wife. Then comes the final discussion with the logical separation. From that moment on, a series of somewhat surreal and interlinked events are unleashed. One of them is the job that Antoine takes in Africa as the manager of a crocodile farm.
The secondary characters
The other strange events involve the secondary characters. Firstly: the enigmatic Shirley, a peculiar neighbor; and second: Josephine's cold mother Henriette. The latter married the magnate Marcel Gorsz in a second nuptials, which has allowed her to have the glamorous life she always wanted.
The inflection point
The course of events takes a radical turn when Iris, Josephine's attractive sister, He claims to have written a novel, although, it is a lie. What's more, he prefers to keep the deception until the end, to the point that he asks his sister to write the text. Although Josephine does not like the idea, in the end she agrees to elaborate the text in exchange for receiving most of the money (and paying off her debts).
A Pair of months later the book appears published, the content of which is based on the vast historical knowledge by Josephine about the XNUMXth century. The launch became an editorial success; Iris gets all the fame; Josephine, the earnings. However, the historian's friends suspect that she is the true author of the book and this ends up affecting the relationship between the sisters.
Meta
Theme
The plot contains the circumstances that surround the daily life of ordinary men and women in a metropolis like Paris. There, the female members of the story manifest (each in their own way) their unfulfilled wishes in the middle of a story full of lies. But not everything is tears and disappointment, there is also room for love, laughter and dreams.
Symbolism
The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles It is a book loaded with a lot of symbolism. To get started, the yellow eyes of reptiles represent various forms of fear: of death, of life, of becoming oneself, to get lost, to be honest ... All the characters are quite frightened by something.
Similarly, Pancol contrasts the qualities of his characters through apprehension. For example: Henriette Gorsz is afraid of nothing, only not having enough money. Accordingly, he despises his youngest daughter, Josephine, who is sensitive and generous. Instead, her eldest daughter, Iris, transmits to Henriette (an image of) everything she admires: strength and power.
Conception of the work
Katherine Pancol detailed how put together his story during an interview granted in 2015 to Sophie Mason of the Australian portal Feathers of the firebird. Then, the French author alluded to Isak Dinesen's phrase that reads: “it begins with a perception, a kind of foreboding of the play… Then the characters come, take the scene and make the story”.
Influences
The yellow eyes of the crocodiles evidences the variety of themes and styles that Katherine Pancol has read since she was a child. Well, in various interviews she has claimed that she enjoyed reading tales of Egyptian, Arabic and Scandinavian mythology. Similarly, the French writer mentioned The Karamazov brothers (Dostoevsky), Father Goriot (Balzac), and even David Copperfield.
A protagonist based on a real character
Pancol explained to Mason that his protagonist is based on a real person. “She and I talked, she had a certain old-fashioned look, a little charming and as I listened, I felt that familiar feeling! Josephine was about to be born ”. With those words, the French writer described a researcher she met on a Normandy beach.
As well, Pancol mentioned that the CNRS researcher (National Center for Scientific Research - French acronym) had been focused on a single study for 30 years: The sellers of travel newspapers of the XNUMXth century in France. From that point on, the author developed a world around Josephine, who, unlike the real character, analyzes characters from the XNUMXth century.
The birth of a trilogy
At first, the Gallic writer did not think of developing a trilogy. However, at the end of the first book, Pancol continued to think about the characters ... "What happened to their lives? Were you sad or happy? In this way, the two successive installments appeared in which the different perspectives of the other characters are exposed.
About the author, Katherine Pancol
He was born on October 22, 1954, in Casablanca, Morocco; at that time this city was still part of a French protectorate. When she was five years old, little Katherine moved to Paris with her family. Later, During her youth, she trained to become a French and Latin teacher.
A whole life linked to letters and journalism
In the mid-70s, Pancol completed his doctorate in Modern Letters at the University of Nanterre and began his journalistic career. After publishing his first novel, Moi d'abord (I first, 1979), he moved to New York. There, he enrolled at Columbia University to take a creative writing course and then continued working at that university.
Starting in 1981, the French writer began working as an editor for novels and as a columnist in the magazines It y Paris Match. In the aforementioned media, he gained considerable notoriety due to the style of his interviews. While in the Big Apple, Katherine Pancol married and had two children (a female and a male). She is currently divorced and lives in Paris.
Katherine Pancol's books
Eugene & Myself (2020) is the twenty-second book signed by Pancol, who treasures a literary career spanning four decades. It is a career that began in 2006 thanks to the launch of The yellow eyes of the crocodiles. Not surprisingly, this text has been translated into almost a dozen languages; among those: Chinese, Korean, Italian, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.
Bibliography
Apart from those mentioned Moi d'abord, The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles y Eugène & Moi, Pancol's book list is completed by the following titles:
- The barbarian (The Barbare, 1981)
- Scarlet please (Scarlett, yes possible, 1985)
- Cruel men don't walk the streets (Les hommes cruel ne circulant pas les rues, 1990)
- From outside (Vu de l'extérieur, Seoul, 1993)
- Such a beautiful picture: Jackie Kennedy (1929-1994) (Une si belle image, Points reissue, 1994)
- One more dance (Encore joins dance, 1998)
- Et monter clearly dans un immense amour ... (2001)
- A man at a distance (A man from a distance, 2002)
- Hold me: life is desire (Embrassez-moi, 2003)
- The slow waltz of the turtles (La Valse Lente des Tortues, 2008)
- Central Park squirrels are sad on Mondays (Les écureuils de Central Park are sad, 2010)
- Girls [Episode 1: Dance during the day] (2014/XNUMX/XNUMX)
- Girls 2 [Episode 2: Just one step away from happiness] (2014).
- Girls 3 [Episode 1: Come headlong to life] (2014/XNUMX/XNUMX)
- Three kisses (three baisers, 2017)
- Bed bug (2019)