Book I recommend. Have I made you want to read it?

[Julie4]

La promesse de l'aube (The Promise of Dawn) is an autobiographical work published in 1960. Romain Gary tells the story of his life, marked by the inexhaustible and demanding love of his mother, a whimsical and passionate woman who left Russia to settle in France with her son. She passes on to him her pride, ambition and idealism, and pushes him to surpass himself in every field: art, love, war. Romain follows his path, between dream and reality, success and failure, hope and disillusionment. He becomes in turn what his mother wanted him to be: aviator, writer, diplomat, but always remains faithful to the promise of dawn: to honor his mother and his adopted country.

Here is an extract

"The night had a way of gushing out of the phosphorescent wake and up into the sky, bursting into starry boughs that kept us leaning over the waves until the first light of dawn; as we approached Africa, dawn swept the Ocean in one sweep from one end to the other and the sky was there, suddenly, in all its clarity, while my heart was still beating to the rhythm of the night and my eyes still believed in darkness. But I'm an old star-eater, and it's to the night that I confide most readily. "

[RavVid]

A biography of a polymath would be quite interesting and it does intrigue me.

Still struggling through Stalingrad and beginning a new book on effects of empire on religion as part of my Canaanite binge so might defer to next month :)

[Julie4]

Romain Gary was a great man, who did honor to France, despite the fact that he was born Russian, unfortunately he will end up committing suicide.

[RavVid]

Very sad that a person should feel that death is preferable to what torments them. Even sadder when that person has done much.

[RyanEC]

Intriguing.
I may add this to my list of books to read.