English
FrançaisI am Fifteen - And I Don't Want to Die-E.P. Dutton & Company Inc
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Only fifteen when she experienced the events narrated in I Am Fifteen - And I Don't Want To Die, Christine Arnothy left Hungary four years later, in 1948. In 1949 she joined her fiancé in Paris, and was married. They worked at any jobs they could find, he as a chauffeur, she as a governess and chambermaid. Just before her daughter was born, both were unemployed, but they found a haven in Belgium, where her husband got work as a translator. While she was writing this book from the diaries kept during the siege of Budapest, Christine Arnothy was working in a bookshop. "No one knew", she writes, "that I would rather write books than sell them." It won the French Prix Vérité and was a great success in Paris, where one reviewer wrote : "It is modern war seen through the eyes of a young girl of 15, and that is at once moving and terrifying." E. Arnot Robertson calls her "a born writer". Miss Arnothy has written a second book, a novel, which will be published in 1957. |
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© E.P. Dutton & Company et Christine Arnothy
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San Francisco Chronicle, 6 juin 1956 "In an extraordinary little book, I Am Fifteen - And I Don't Want to Die, Christine Arnothy has put down her memoirs of the siege of Budapest as seen through a young girl's eyes. (…) It is no merely a horror story; it is a story of suspense told with a narrative power that suggests this young lady may be a major new writing talent if she can make her way beyond recalling an enormous personal experience. (…) Christine Arnothy writes of this time in a detached style, half melancholy dream, half astonishing realism. It is well worth reading." The New York Times, 10 juin 1956 "This astonishing tale always rings true and it is not surprising that in the original French it won the Prix des Vérités. Christine Arnothy writes with compassion, economy and reticence." Herald Tribune, 10 juin 1956 "The juxtaposition of tender youth with war's brutality gives any book an irresistible poignance, and when the narrator has so marked a flair for writing as Christine Arnothy, the story can hardly fail to move." San Francisco Examiner, 11 juin 1956 "Seldom have horror and tenderness been more effectively juxtaposed." The New York Times, 15 juin 1956 "A powerful and pathetic narrative of the horrors of war as seen by a 15-year-old girl. (…) Told with enormous skill. (…) Extremely well written." Miami Herald, 24 juin 1956 "Even in these days of heartrending war books this short diary (…) is more than usually poignant." Chicago Sunday Tribune, 8 juillet 1956 "The incidents recorded by Miss Arnothy set the book apart from other such records. As in the diary of Anne Frank, such a story becomes more tender, yet richer, because of the point of view. (…) It is a book believable and intense, with a "you are there" quality that makes the ultimate fleeing from the city and then from the country a great relief." Nashville Tennessee, 8 juillet 1956 "I Am Fifteen provides one of the most vivid first-hand accounts yet published of the entrance of a Red army into a Western European city - if Budapest can rightly be regarded as Western." L.A. Herald Express, juillet 1956 "The effect of war's brutality on tender youth gives this book an especially irresistible poignance, coupled with the fine flair for writing by the author and central figure." Christian Herald, août 1956 "A small but terrifying classic (…) a veritable masterpiece of mental and physical torture that moves steadily toward spiritual fulfillment." Long Island Newsday "One of the most touching stories of the year. (…) This is a segment of life, and a touching one." |
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© Christine Arnothy |
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