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| Source: Amazon |
M. Carmen Papagni's contribution
REVIEW
HOLD YOUR TONGUE
Tenir sa langue (French Edition)
This is the first novel written by the Russian-French author Polina Panassenko, where she tackles with a dazzling vivacity the issues of the exile of her Hebrew family and those of her own identity and how she had to sue legal action against the French government to be restored her original name Polina in official papers. She had a visceral need but French justice considered it was unacceptable because that would lead to losing integration. She had got the French nationality consequently it should be turned into Pauline.
She was born in Russia just before the Soviet Union collapsed and in 1993 her family moved to France. However, her grandparents remained in Moscow, so she spent the first years of her life between community housing in France and the Datcha (small land plots widespread in most parts of the former Soviet Union for gardening or growing vegetables for personal consumption.)
Her beginnings in the maternal school are of anthology. She depicts with a very subtle humour how she had to cope with the issue of a new language. She puts in words her intimate story of perception and experience in a text as profound as hilarious.
She gradually learns to separate be Russian inside and French outside. In a very sensitive way, questions identity through language.
Highly recommended!
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| Source: News in France |