Indeed an elegant tale. With its refined taste and political perspective, this is an elegant, light-spirited and very European adult fable. (Kirkus)
Funny, poignant, incisive. Renée Michel is concierge in an upper-crust building whose tenants are all wealthy, some socialists, some not, and all are oblivious to what goes on under their very noses. What they see is what they know, what they expect to see, and all else is dismissed as irrelevant before being even seen. A proletarian autodidact, she ponders Kant, enjoys Tolstoy (her cat is named Leo), and considers the films of Ozu and Wenders sublime. Paloma Josse is the overly-smart 12 year-old younger daughter of a Socialist minister (government and watching rugby and drinking beer, along with entertaining seem to be his interests; nothing can be called a passion for him) and his wife (the only things that approach being passions for her are her psychotherapy sessions and her devotion to anti-depressants). Paloma has a cold war with her parents, and a hot one with her university-aged older sister. Already aware of the vacuity of life, she has scheduled her suicide for the day of her 13th birthday.
Renée and Paloma alternate narratives. Each observes the absurdity and predictability of the other tenants, and keep her interests, intelligence and passions secret. Each delves into her interests. Paloma dissects the emptiness of schooling, both hers (uninvolved teachers, students involved in drugs and sex) and her sister's (predictable pseudo-intellectualism).
When a tenant dies, his family sells the apartment, and the buyer is a Japanese man who immediately sets to remodel the flat. Both his project and his person set tongues a-wagging, and despite their purported lack of interest, many of the tenants are aching to see what is being done inside the 4th floor flat, as well as get to meet the new tenant.
Kakuro Ozu is an elder Japanese man who exquisite manners and mysteriously sublte nature excite the interests of so many of the residents of 7, Rue de Grenelle. In a chance meeting with the concierge, he asks her if she knew the former tenants of his flat. In answering in what she hopes is a disinterested manner, she inadvertently quotes the opening line of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina (all happy families are alike) . Monsieur Ozu catches it, and supplies the ending of the line (Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way). Renée is aghast that she has, perhaps, given herself away. Indeed, she has, and it is the beginning of an elegant, beautiful, exquisite set of relationships between three kindred souls: Kakuro, Renée and Paloma. Add Marcella, Renée friend, and the story sparkles.
A gem.
No comments:
Post a Comment