The Way I Found Her (Paperback)

The Way I Found Her is the first-person narrative of Lewis Little's rite-of-passage from the world of childhood to the world of the adult. Rose Tremain has done such a masterful job of bringing Lewis to life, one would almost think The Way I Found Her was a memoir rather than a novel. There is a wonderful mix of the child Lewis still is and the adult he is rapidly becoming. And, this mix is not only charming and endearing...it's believable. For me, Lewis Little is far more "real" and unforgettable than many more famous (and more highly-touted) literary characters. I really felt I knew Lewis inside and out; I could feel his fear, his hope, his pain, his joy.

On its surface, The Way I Found Her may seem to be the story of a disappearance, but the disappearance itself actually plays a very small part in the story. Its importance lies in its impact on Lewis and in the way it changes him; this isn't a fun, little caper story, its definitely a portrait of one lovely and precocious boy's coming-of-age through his own "trial by fire." If there is one thread that runs through all of Tremain's novels, it seems to be one of isolation and loneliness. Lewis, like all of Tremain's protagonists is isolated and, in many respects, lonely.

Lewis Little is charming and he is forced, through no fault of his own, to give up much of the innocence of childhood during the summer we spend with him in Paris, but he still has far to go before fully entering the cynical world of the adult. This makes him a rather unreliable narrator and an even less reliable detective. He makes wild assumptions, he is led down false paths, he devises outlandish hypotheses. Sometimes these work out, but more often than not, they don't. Still, Lewis, in grand thirteen-year old fashion, is unfazed.

Those looking for a plot that races at breakneck speed should really look elsewhere. The Way I Found Her is, at its heart, an interior book. It is a chronicle of Lewis Little at age thirteen, (almost fourteen), and, as such, it is fascinating. Quite psychological and literary, The Way I Found Her bases its protagonist on an earlier one...one found in Le Grand Meaulnes, a very French book in which Lewis just happens to be engrossed. And, just as that book honored adolescence, especially male adolescence, so does The Way I Found Her.

The Way I Found Her is first and foremost a superb story, written by an author who possesses superb storytelling skills. But it is also an endearing portrait of a young boy poised on the brink of adulthood who wants to fly and yet knows that in that flying he will relinquish something precious and irretrievable.

The Way I Found Her is a book that tugs at your heart; Lewis Little is a character who burrows into your soul and stays there. This is a thoroughly enjoyable story and one that is also unforgettable.

Rose Tremain has written a formidably intelligent romantic thriller, which evokes Paris perfectly, and says something important about the pain of adolescence. My favourite character is Didier the existentialist roofer. I loved his melancholy, and the way Lewis never had the heart to tell him that 'no one is an existentialist these days'.

I also loved the neatness of the plot, in which everything seems to foreshadow later developments. It had me staying up till the small hours, unable to put the book down.

I didn't care that Lewis, or the plot, are not entirely credible as 'real'. This is a novel, for heavens sake! Like the roof of the hospital chapel, where Didier accidentally killed his father, this book is a fantastic construction, to marvel at, not to pull apart.

The first part of the book details his attachment to the author of romance novels, with whom he and his mother are staying. Just when you think that the novel is about his love for an older woman, and an interesting coming of age story, suddenly the object of his affections disappears.

He decides to take on the responsibility of finding and rescuing her.

I found this book really interesting and was fascinated by the world through Lewis' eyes. He was funny, sweet, heroic, emotional, embarrassing...everything that we all experience during puberty. I have two more of Rose Tremain's books on my shelf and look forward to reading them.