Storytelling: 8 – I
had never heard of this book before I received it as a Christmas gift from a
close family friend and she (another devout reader) admitted she’d never read
it but that it just seemed to be such a “me” book. Hilariously, I opened the
exact same book 20 minutes later from her son. Ok, Fates. I will hear your
call.
This novel did indeed feel, look, and smell like a “me” book.
There aren’t too many quirky Parisan novels written by philosophy professors lying
around. The story focuses around two largely self-involved main characters:
Renee, a homely fifty-four-year-old concierge of a luxury Parisian apartment
building who lives life secretly as a prolific autodidact, and Paloma, a remarkably
intelligent twelve-year-old who lives in the apartment building with her
wealthy parents and plans to commit suicide on her birthday. These two start to
interact in the most magical of ways when Ozu, a charming and extremely elegant
Japanese retiree, moves into the building and starts to stir things up. He
uncovers secrets hidden by both main characters and then suddenly and
fittingly, the book ends in heartbreaking tragedy. It was definitely a
different sort o’ tale.
My first big complaint is how slowly the character interaction
unfolded. The solid first 65% of the book is spent deep in the psyches of Renee
and Paloma and involves very minimal outside interaction. This part read mostly
like a philosophy text (unsurprisingly), and I think at moments Barbery lost
herself too far down that rabbit hole. Once
Ozu appeared and started to reveal the meat of the book, I found myself
absolutely enchanted and feeling much closer to the characters.
My second big complaint, and this is largely preference, is
how pretentious the whole concept of the book was. Barbery’s main point is that
Renee is secretly superior to all of her wealthy tenants because she happens to
be more intelligent than them. It even says as much on the book jacket! That’s
a bit silly to me. There are plenty of
morally and emotionally intelligent people out there who might not have the
highest IQ, and I’d like to think they’re superior to me. Get off your high
horse, Barbery. Sheesh. Then again, I imagine this book might have had more of
an impact in Europe, where class structure is still a bit old-fashioned. I was
raised to believe we’re all equal.
I will say, however, I have to give Barbery’s storytelling a
fairly high score because the ending with Renee’s death was so perfect, I literally
said “Ah of course” out loud while I read it. It fit so perfectly with the
story without being predictable…truly magnificent. This book was filled with other
elegantly crafted tidbits that were wholly unlike any author I’ve read before.
It was sad and magical, and entirely unique
Writing: 8 – The writing
here was absolutely wonderful and very intellectual, but again I have to dock a
point or two for the fact that it read largely like a philosophy text. Perhaps
this was the point, but if you’re going to call something a ‘novel’, you can at
least warn your reader that it’s also going to be an adventure into phenomenology
and meditations on aesthetics. I love this stuff (well, when I can understand
it…) but your Average Jane doesn’t, so I can see why several people who
approached this book got scared away quickly. I do appreciate that this book
forced me to think deeper-than-average thoughts, because I believe we all need
a good dose of that every so often.
I also wonder what part of Barbery’s writing was lost in the
translation. I can’t imagine much, because it was superb, but I did feel a
certain disconnect between the cultures. I think the implications of some words
would have been much more telling to a French reader. Ah well.
Characters: 6 – I
really truly wanted to like these characters more than I did, mostly because
they were so incredibly flawed and pathetic, but in the end they just ended up
feeling a bit stale. I appreciated their diversity and how cleverly they were
crafted, but beyond that I didn’t feel myself compelled toward any of them.
Renee’s grudge against the rich seems to have started as a child
when she saw a wealthy young man (and his family, presumably) kick her pregnant
sister to the curb, which lead to her demise. This big reveal fell pretty flat.
It all didn’t suddenly fall into place for me, as I wish it had. I felt myself
thinking “That’s it? Really?” Meanwhile, Paloma I found to be insufferable. I
don’t quite believe that a twelve-year-old can be that amazingly intelligent and
somehow keep it hidden. Barbery gives details about how Paloma does this, but it’s
not like the signs of her vast brain could have been hidden throughout her younger
years? How old was she when she started to hide her smarts? 3? It all seems
rather unbelievable to moi.
I did like Ozu, but that’s because everyone is supposed to
like Ozu. He’s the Jesus figure in this book since he seems to be the only one
without an overly-inflated sense of self-importance and he can see through
everyone. I suppose I am being rather harsh on Renee and Paloma, but I just
wish Barbery would have just provided a touch more realistic complexity and
then it would have all been just right.
Best part: How
Renee’s death unfolds as she is hit be a truck while stepping out into the
street to help a drunk homeless man. You’d have to read the book to truly grasp
how perfect this ending was, or how excellent Renee’s post-death ruminations
were. It all just played out so perfectly to me.
Recommend to: I want to say my fellow philosophy minors,
or anyone who likes to dabble in philosophy but still gets wee headaches
grasping the deeper portions.
Reminded me of: No one! This book was out of left field
and I liked it that way.
How I would murder
the main character: Well seeing as Renee does sort of get murdered, I’d
have to say I’d stick Paloma in a beige, upper-middle class suburban home in
America and force her to watch reality TV. I’d also feed her Taco Bell beef.
Sexy parts: When
Renee first starts to realize that Ozu has romantic feelings for her, I did
feel a bit of a happy flutter inside. I enjoyed their intelligent and
flirtatious encounters, but would have perhaps liked if that went into more
depth…
To sum it up: A
thought-provoking and tragically magical look at dormant secrets and
observations of the rich and poor
Overall: 7
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