Like the characters themselves, this book peels back layers of deliberate facade and intellectual armor to reveal the soul underneath. Watching brilliant but lonely people come alive is the pleasure of reading this, and even though it is French, so the tragic ending is obligatory, I couldn't even be irritated about it as I wept on the couch while finishing it last Sunday afternoon. "Life is sad, but beautiful" would be the five word summary.
Granted, a book mostly written in short philosophical essay chapters is not everyone's cup of tea, and occasionally I feel that Paloma the lonely genius thirteen year old is a little too adolescently superior, and the Renee, the concierge-who-loves-fine-art is a little too smugly disapproving of her wealthy and pretentious employers. But as the simple plot of lives colliding unfolds, the characters find it is impossible to be completely jaded when there are people in the world who see who you truly are and love you for it.
Thoughtful and beautiful- and the perfect book to read alone in Starbucks in order to look quirky and hip. I mean, just look at that title.
