Étiquettes
Critique de livre, headline, idées de lecture, lecture, Livre, Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere, quoi lire, roman
Les premières phrases
« She had been running for four days now, a harum-scarum tumbling flight through passages and tunnels. She was hungry, and exhausted, and more tired than a body could stand, and each successive door was proving harder to open. After four days of flight, she had found a hiding place, a tiny stone burrow, under the world, where she would be safe, or so she prayed, and at last she slept. »
Circonstances de lecture
Parce que j’avais très envie de relire ce livre, en anglais cette fois.
Impressions
J’ai beaucoup apprécié cette relecture (en anglais) de ce classique de la fantasy urbaine. Neil Gaiman invente un Londres sous-terrain peuplé de rats respectés, de marginaux, d’assassins et autres personnages hauts en couleur. A commencer par Croup et Vandemar, deux assassins particulièrement malsains et drôles à la fois, à la poursuite de Door (Porte), une jeune fille dont la famille vient d’être massacrée. Lorsqu’un Londonien ordinaire, Richard Mayhew, vient à la rescousse de la jeune femme, il ne se doute pas que sa vie va être totalement bouleversée. Devenu transparent aux yeux du monde du dessus, il va devoir apprendre à vivre sous terre, dans le Londres d’en bas. A lire et relire !
Un passage parmi d’autres
« Well, » said Richard. « How do I get back to normal again? It’s like I’ve walked into a nightmare. Last week everything made sense, and now nothing makes sense… » He trailed off. Swallowed. « I want to know how to get my life back, » he explained.
« You won’t get it back travelling with us, Richard, » said Door. « It’s going to be hard enough for you anyway. I… I really am sorry. »
Hunter, in the lead, knelt down on the pavement. She took a small metal object from her belt, and used it to unlock the cover to a sewer. She pulled up the sewer cover, looked into it, warily, climbed down, then ushered Door into the sewer. Door did not look at Richard as she went down. The Marquis scratched the side of his nose. « Young man, » he said, « understand this : there are two Londons. There’s London Above – that’s where you lived – and then there’s London Below – the Underside – inhabited by the people who fell through the cracks in the world. Now you’re one of them. Good night. « .
Neil Gaiman – Neverwhere – 1996 (headline)
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