Giono the writer is not interested in reality, regional or otherwise, until it becomes mythological. This virtual event is part of New York Review Books’ ongoing series with Brooklyn’s Community Bookstore. On November 11, 2021, Paul Eprile discussed The Open Road and Jean Giono's life and work with fellow Giono translator Bill Johnston and author Edmund White. As always in Jean Giono, the language is rich in natural imagery and as ruggedly idiomatic as it is lyrical. But it is ultimately an exploration of the tensions and boundaries between affection and commitment, and of the competing needs for solitude, independence, and human bonds. While The Open Road can be read as loosely strung entertainment, interspersed with caustic reflections, it can also be interpreted as a projection of the relationship of author, art, and audience. He himself is a curious combination of qualities-poetic, resentful, cynical, compassionate, flirtatious, and self-absorbed. Everything is told in the first person, present tense, by the vagabond narrator, who goes unnamed. He also picks up a problematic companion: a cardsharp and con man, whom he calls “the Artist.” The action moves from place to place, and episode to episode, in truly picaresque fashion. He picks up work along the way and spends the winter as the custodian of a walnut-oil mill. The south of France, 1950: A solitary vagabond walks through the villages, towns, valleys, and foothills of the region between northern Provence and the Alps.
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