Podcast
Rumpus Events
Rumpus Book ClubWilla A. Cmiel: The Last Short Story I Loved, “The Boy Who Had Never Seen the Sea”
I read J.M.G Le Clézio’s “The Boy Who Had Never Seen the Sea” over the course of an average day—during meals, on the subway, during slow periods at work—and was afraid to let it end. When it did, I read it again.
Deborah Treisman’s lovely translation appeared in The New Yorker in October, perfectly timed to Le Clézio’s Nobel Prize win of last fall. The book of stories from which it was borrowed, Mondo et autres histoires, is still not available in English and thus “The Boy Who Had Never Seen the Sea,” originally “Celui qui n’avait jamais vu la mer,” is sadly only available in English to be read online, by purchasing an entire digital subscription, or by tracking down a copy of the magazine’s October 27, 2008 issue. This seems criminal to me. …more
