Published By: Gallic Books
Pages: 192
Released on: 28/03/2024
Translated By: Polly Mackintosh
Clara is a hairdresser at Cindy Coiffure, a sleepy French salon with an identity crisis. Her relationship is fizzling out. Her tanoholic boss Madame Habib worships Jacques Chirac and talks longingly of her days in Paris. The highlight of the week was when the dishy technician came to repair the display cabinet. And now Madame Lévy-Leroyer wants to go blonde. Clara can’t help but wonder if there’s more to life . . .
Everything changes when a customer leaves behind the first volume of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. As Clara reads, she discovers a whole new world, leading her to strike up an unexpected friendship. And slowly but surely, she will work out who she wants to be.
*****
Thanks to Gallic Books for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I am a big fan of translated fiction, mostly Japanese fiction, but I don’t think I’ve read a translated French book outside of school before, so I was eager to see how it came across.
It is very slow to begin with. The first quarter of it is just introducing the characters. That’s fine, I like to get to know the characters, but in a book this short I would say it is too long and detrimental.
I read reviews that praised how life affirming and positive this book was and so I was keen to feel that myself, but unfortunately I didn’t get that at al.
It is a perfectly fine book, very quick to read, but I can’t say it made me feel anything. It was just okay, and I’d rather really love or really dislike a book than just feel a bit meh about it. I don’t think I could have persevered with it if it had been any longer.
It’s very rambling, with no real direction. How much of it is due to the translation, with it making more coherent sense in the natural French, I’m not sure, but there wasn’t much direction. I don’t mind a book with limited plot if there’s plenty of character development, but there wasn’t that either. It was like Stéphane didn’t know which angle to write from.
I thought it was going to be about the importance of reading books, and how books can change your life, and I suppose there are elements here but it isn’t explored enough for me. It isn’t one thing or another. I appreciate being sent the book to review, but this isn’t one I would recommend.
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