This memoir was discussed several times on the New York Times Book Review podcast over the past 6 months or so and seemed to be liked by all the editors. I knew it started with the 2003 tsunami in Indonesia, but I had no idea what came after in the story. Unexpectedly, this became a very personal story for me and I never would have thought I would have much in common with a French male writer. So well-written, I never would have picked this up on my own as grief memoir is not a favorite genre, b...

Exceptionally well written! Two stories - both extremely sad.

The first fifty pages about the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami hitting an idyllic Sri Lankan beach town were riveting, harrowing, incredible reading. So good, so devastating (I don't use that word to describe books that don't actually describe literal devastation like this and create a deeply empathetic/wrecked state in the reader, the sort where you have to put the book down because it's too much). But the rest of it, about two French judges, both with paralyzed legs, one who survived cancer, one who

2.75 stars, maybe. It's a difficult book to judge; it's written by a novelist who knows what he's doing, and so, although the claim is, "Tout y est vrai," the true stories within are undoubtedly romanticized with the intention of toying with the emotions of the reader. The romanticism - and this book might as well be the ultimate definition of the word; all the unbearable tragedy, all the applauding of the perseverance of the human spirit and the depth of love, and so on and on - is, yes, very w...

A succession of grief and suffering as seen through two unconnected experiences in the authors life. The Sri Lankan Tsunami leads to the death of a young girl, leaving behind a devastated family left to wonder the question which has no answer: "why us?" The narrative then pivots to terminal diagnosis from cancer of the authors sister in law. Written in the authors voice, the writing is emotive yet chilly - like a journalist reporting on a story than a participant in two tragic events that remind...

I read « D’autres vies que la mienne » because the renowned Belgian writer Amélie Nothomb recommended that book. Despite the fact that the topics he deals with are true and depressing (the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka and a death in the family), I enjoyed the book and liked the human, honest, and touching way Carrère was able to tell the stories of these other lives. The second part of the book was a bit longer and more technical as Carrère gets passionate about the topic of debt burden that involv...

"I prefer what I have in common with other people to what sets me apart from them" (242). This is one conclusion of Emmanuel Carrère's deeply affecting narrative "Lives Other than My Own" (D'autres vies que la mienne). Within a few short years, Carrère, a French writer and cineaste, experienced the death of a friend's young daughter in the Sri Lanka tsunami and the death of his companion's sister, a mother of three young daughters, from cancer. These events constitute the heart of a writing proj...

The first third of the book (a description of the aftermath of the tsunami is Sri Lanka and its effects on a family who lost their child) was really compelling, but as soon as the author got into the story of his sister-in-law and her death from cancer, my interest waned. The author's egocentrism and self-congratulation were kind of funny at first, but soon got really, really old. How much can you insert yourself into the story of someone else's death when you barely knew her? And what is the po...

I have only just finished this book and am perhaps reviewing too early as I haven't had time to fully reflect yet. My initial thoughts are that the stories are well written and easy to read. I couldn't put it down at first, the retelling of the tsunami was terrible but gripping. I found it amazing how one side of the road could be untouched while the seaward side was devastated. How lucky was the author and his family to have changed their plans. Unfortunately the writing style and subject matte...

I remember I was a bit surprised about the tsunami part. It is a bit disconnected from the rest of the book and make it as succession of misfurtune, which is not what is interesting in this book.What marked me a lot is the second part when they are back in France. The story of how Juliette handle her cancer, the friendship and family relations the characters have together. We feel close to the characters and they are truthfully? authentic? persons that endure life but take care of each other. It...

I read "The Adversary" a long time ago and remember being so perplexed by the story that the writing kind of faded into the background.I was perplexed by the author this time - an egocentric sensationalist with zero fantasy and limited writing skill. Maybe I am doing him injustice, and he has written some great fiction that doesn't center around real life mass murderers, tsunami victims and people dying of cancer, but I don't think I will ever find out. And somehow, I have a sneaking suspicion t...

If it's possible to be a compassionate cynic, Emmanuel Carrère manages it beautifully.

Something about this book felt slightly different and strange, offbeat, innovative, perhaps just "French"? Carrere simply sets out to tell the stories of a few other human beings whose lives intersected with his own around the mid-2000s. They aren't biographical accounts at all - it reads more like a memoir, although Carrere doesn't divulge all that much about his own life. Another Goodreads reviewer thought the author's egocentrism and self-congratulation were a problem. I disagree and didn't s...

Familiar with the phrase 'truth can be stranger than fiction'; here I am left with the feeling that 'truth can be as compelling as fiction'.Emmanuel Carrère was on holiday in Sri Lanka with his girlfriend when the tsunami struck, they had been considering separating and then found themselves in a whirlwind period where the relative significance of these reflections was crushed by that incoming wave and the devastation it wreaked on others."Everything that has happened in those five days and was