Lire avec April

April Jensen, who has been the college’s Executive Vice President for nearly nine years, finishes out our week of National Library Week Read posters. April has chosen Therese Raquin by Emile Zola. When asked why she chose this book, she explained “I was a French major in college (and beyond), and although I specialized in the language/linguistics side, I always loved 19th century novels. Emile Zola was the instigator of the "naturalism" period in France, which strove to depict the harsh realities of people's lives and their environment. Therese Raquin is a wonderfully written, but rather dismal look at human nature--a young married woman has an affair with another man, and between them they plot and kill her husband. But his mother, with whom she lived, knows what happened but has been struck unable to speak, and must witness all the horror of the murder and its aftermath. The two murderers end up being horrifically punished for their sin. Grim stuff, but somehow it has affected me for the 35 years since I read that book!”