The Moustache (French: La Moustache), or The Mustache in the United States,[1] is a 1986 novel by the French writer Emmanuel Carrère.[2]

AuthorEmmanuel Carrère
LanguageFrench
PublisherÉditions Gallimard
Publication date
1986
Publication placeFrance
Pages182

Plot

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In Paris, a man shaves off his moustache for the first time in ten years. He is baffled when his wife reacts by saying that he never had a moustache. His world begins to crumble when she denies the existence of several people he knows and says his father is dead.[1]

Reception

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Publishers Weekly called the book "a tense, piercing reminder that a fine and shifting line distinguishes fact from mirage" and "a keen example of how readers are necessary captives of a narrator's perspective, however skewed or surreal".[1]

Film adaptation

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The novel is the basis for the 2005 film The Moustache, directed by Carrère and starring Vincent Lindon.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "The Mustache". Publishers Weekly. 1988. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
  2. ^ Ekstein, Nina (2013). "Irony in Emmanuel Carrère's 'La moustache'". The French Review. 86 (3): 497–506. doi:10.1353/tfr.2013.0424. JSTOR 23510842. S2CID 45077621.
  3. ^ "The Moustache". Cineuropa. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
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