13, rue Thérèse by Elena Mauli ShapiroMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Glorious! This will remain a favorite novel of mine for as long as there are books. It is, in part, the story of a woman named Louise Brunet and events that take place in her life in Paris in 1928. Having lost her much-beloved fiance in the Great War when he was just 20 and she 19, Louise has drifted into a steady but passionless marriage to a man who works in her father's office.
Louise loves to get away with small transgressions like making up wild, sexual "confessions" for the parish priest, or indulging her lust for the handsome teacher and former fighter pilot recently moved into the same building as Louise and her husband. She longs for a child, but hasn't conceived. She misses her soldier fiance, who has died. She feels stifled in her marriage and so she looks for little rebellions to help her feel alive and less like a caged animal.
We find all this out in a rather remarkable way. An academic named Trevor Stratton has discovered a collection of photographs and mementos from Louise's life and has begun to study them. The photos and objects themselves are pictured in the book and are part of its interesting construction. We get to actually lay eyes on her lost fiance, her mesh gloves for church, and any number of other items. The items themselves appear quite pedestrian or only mildly interesting until Trevor begins explaining what they are and what they mean.
In the final third of the book, the story heads down some very unexpected rabbit holes, reminiscent (to me) of John Kenney Crane's excellent Boer War novel "The Legacy Of Ladysmith" except, unlike "Ladysmith" there are no monsters to be revealed. That is not to say that the the ending isn't amazing--it is! I'll say here that this is one of those books that isn't for everyone. If you like your fiction very straightforward, this one might lose you a bit. There are sexual situations that might make your Aunt Millicent tut tut. But I give it an enthusiastic 5 stars and highly recommend it.
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Spirit says “she cannot wait to read this! Just the kind of book she enjoys and is going to recommend to her book club (when it’s safe to meet again.)
ReplyDeleteWonderful! I think it's an ideal book club book!
ReplyDeleteSituations that would make Aunt Millicent tut tut? Hilarious.
ReplyDeleteI'm wading through "The Overstory" right now, and have several others on my to-be-read stack, but I will keep this one in mind. You don't give too many 5-star ratings.
As always, you make the book reveal itself to us. It sounds fascinating, though not quite down my normal alley--but who knows. I feel like I might try it some day, when I've run out of mysteries and other pap. :) Great review.
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