First off, this one is a serious contender for the Best Read of 2010 and it’s only April. Think about the title, what a delicious image. Then later one of the characters talks about it but by then you have already caught on to the metaphor.
Moving on- the characters. Renee, the concierge who is not what she seems or pretends to be. Please, please don’t indulge in common –place thoughts like lurking evil or a double life. She is simply pretends to live up to the stereo-type the residents carry in their heads of a concierge- crass, illiterate and stupid. In reality she reads Kant and Tolstoy, listens to Mozart and can tell you why she prefers the Dutch painters to the Italians.
Then there is the off- the chart- intelligent school girl detests her shallow, empty family and is planning her death when the novel opens. The reflections of the two mirror each other in an almost expected manner. The other characters are exactly what you would expect to find in a posh building in a posh part of Paris. Except for Manuela, a cleaning lady and the only friend of Renee`, who is a closet aristocrat.
The delightful book throws up philosophies, reflections, ideas and erudition that leap off the page And wrap themselves around you and make you pause. All this while being a warm, delightful, engaging read.
Ah, what happens in the book? Well, one resident dies and new one moves in. His arrival throws the existing balance out of skelter. New relationships are formed, dormant issues are resolved and lives are changed forever.
Read- You won’t regret it. I promise.
©Maya
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