French novels/stories

Hi,
Just wondering if anyone can recommend any French novels containing a decent amount of modern slang and regular, everyday conversation?

I’m kind of imagining something written in the style of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting or something like that (butin French obviously).

I find the current issue I’ve got with comprehensible input is that although I’ve got a pretty wide ranging French vocabulary I often end up using rather literary words which despite being correct, are not widely used.

Cheers in advance for any suggestions
Conor

6 Likes

It’s not what you are requesting except that it is about everyday liffe in Paris:

It has subtitles in French.

2 Likes

That´s funny, I think Trainspotting must have been translated to French and I´ve just seen there is an German edition on buecher.de, there must be an equivalent French site. I´m still waiting for it to be translated into English though!

3 Likes

I don’t use novels for that sort of language, i watch TV. Serge le Mytho and Bloques were my favourites, along with reality TV (Cherie c’est moi le chef) and things like Le Pire Stagiaire.

1 Like

Cheers! I’ll check those out

Check out the novels of Virginie Despentes! For instance “Baise-moi”. Lots of drugs and slang.

Well. I think it’s a hard video. They speak fast. Their vocabulary is not what you will study first.

Do you have a French bookshop nearby? I was in London yesterday, and popped in to a French bookshop in South Ken. They recommended some novels to read.

It’s an online bookstore:

https://www.fnac.com/livre.asp

“La tête en friche” by Marie-Sabine Roger uses many colloquial expressions. The hero is an uneducated young man who can’t express himself in any other way.

1 Like

I live in France actually, so I shouldn’t have any issues with accessing decent books. I just find myself using obscure vocabulary in conversation which although correct; is a little too literary sounding. I’ve had a few funny looks lol

Interestingly though, it has helped when speaking with older people. I secretly congratulated myself when my neighbour was talking about her ‘mansarde’ and I didn’t need to ask what she was talking about. Not a word that you’d hear many younger people using though

That sounds interesting. I’ll check it out!

Is there a French equivalent to “Has tha swallowed dictionary lad?”. That is what some relatives would say to me if I used a word with two or more syllables.

1 Like

Thank goodness I didn’t see that before restarting my French studies, I would have chosen Spanish. I do understand most of the French, but some words are new for me, so mean nothing.

“parler comme un livre”

2 Likes

I have fun learning from American fiction translated into French. Artémis by Andy Weir had a bunch of slang (and swears) in it and is a good read!