Someone I Loved [Mass Market Paperback]

This is the story of a woman who's just been abandoned by her husband, and you think it will be about that betrayal, but no. She ends up taking a trip with her father-in-law and her own daughter (who is young, and only appears once or twice) and they have a long, fascinating conversation about all the father-in-law's buried emotion for a woman he fell in love with while he was married to someone else.

The book is mostly dialogue, without tags, which sometimes bothers me, but didn't here. I loved Gavalda's short story collection, "I Wish Someone Were Waiting For Me Somewhere," and this novel displays the same gifts. She cuts to the emotional heart of the matter without sentimentality, and paints beautiful word-pictures.

That said, I thought the book ended on a flat note. After thinking about it, I knew what Gavalda was trying to express, but it just wasn't satisfying. It didn't resolve anything and it didn't make as vivid an impression as the other images and emotions in the book.

Still, it is worth reading, especially if you liked her short-story collection.

What a wonderful, piercing book. It is basically a conversation between the daughter-in-law and her father-in-law, first starting with the pain she is experiencing from the betrayal of his son. Then he unexpectedly begins to open up, revealing a most astonishing relationship that he had in his younger years. It is all the more startling because the author used the "Old Bastard" as the vehicle for this beautiful tale. There are many cautionary lessons in the narrative but, in the end, it was the emotional impact that I was left with. Very creative. Gavalda, a French woman, has such a lovely way of imbuing men with undeserved humanity. It turned out to be different than I expected. I don't think that I'll ever again mutter under my breath "Damned French". It was short. When I got half way through it, it started over again, in French! It was hard to get into at first, then it caught on. If I had not luckily first read the flaps I would not have even understood the context of the narrative. It moved me deeply. By the time I finished it I was in disarray and all choked up. I am anxiously looking forward to reading her other novels.

"So love is just bullshit" That's it? It never works out?"
"Of course it works out. But you have to fight.."
"Fight how?"
"Every day you have to fight a bit. A little bit each day, with the courage to be yourself, to decide just to be happy"
Pierre is explaining to Chole that you need to work to make love happen.

Anna Gavalda at the age of thirty six and after a failed marriage has written her first novel. This is a beautifully crafted story of the search for happiness. The gut wrenching courage it sometimes takes to find that little bit of love and truth.
She said in an interview :
"Je l'aimais [Someone I Loved], was a story about the courage it takes to be happy. I seem to like characters who are fragile, wounded, adrift. I think most people are like that. The ones that aren't are either hiding it or are utter fools. I think our sensitive side is the essence of being human. Between those who never doubt their situation on this planet and those who ask themselves every day why they're here and how it all makes sense, of course I prefer the questioners."

Chloe is dumbstruck. Her husband, Adrien, has left her and their two daughters for another woman. He was not happy. She is bereft. Her father-in-law, whom she called "the old bastard", comes to her aid, and insists that she and the girls accompany him to his mother's country home. There she makes several discoveries. Pierre is not the man she thinks he is,and maybe, just maybe this terrible tragedy might have a silver lining.She learns over the days that Pierre is an unhappy man, that he has allowed his happiness to slip through his fingers. He has allowed this to happen, understands why it happened, and that he was powerless to move on. Pierre had met the love of his life after he was married with children. He lived the secret life of an adulterer, and was too weak to change his circumstances. This he examines with several bottles of good wine through out a night when Chole was at her most miserable. "Regrets he has a few, a few too small to mention", but that has changed the direction of his life. The years he spent in happiness that he gave away; that he did not try and change. Yes, we all have regrets, we are all looking for that happiness, and we may find it but for a small moment. Anna Gavalda reminds us that life is too short, we must search for what eludes us.
And as Scott Peck tells us:
"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers."

'Someone I Loved' ends like most great love affairs, forever leaving you wanting just one more moment. --Gisele Tough " Highly Recommended, prisrob
2-19-06

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