Customer Reviews

Hunting and Gathering. Anna Gavalda

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hunting and Gathering is a novel where people are the story. There is no bombastic action or elaborate plotting. It is simply the tale of a group of people all suffering from our common affliction: human frailty. Significant past events are relayed by the characters in their own unadorned words and the novel is all the better for it. It has all of the beauty, all of the tentative nature and all of the base human fear and stupidity that characterize life.

My favorite character was Philibert. An unpretentious intellectual with an enormous inferiority complex, he is also the simplest and kindest of the main characters. I loved his sincere and deep-rooted sweetness and tenderness. I think Gavalda also uses him to make something of a point; that strange person that so many of us do our best to avoid may be one of the best human beings we could ever hope to meet.

Camille is nicely drawn as a woman most afraid of her own wants and needs. She can be highly irrational and irritating but she's always sympathetic because she acknowledges her own flaws and doesn't try to justify them. I loved the vivid descriptions of her drawings. Gavalda phrased them so beautifully that I could see the drawings and paintings in my mind's eye.

The character I found most surprising was Franck. He was initially so unlikable and. once again, Gavalda doesn't try to pretty up or excuse his behavior. There are reasons for it but not justifications and Franck grows a lot over the course of the novel. He's something of a foil for the other two due to his noisy and dramatic initial decline--a great contrast to the gentleness and passivity of Camille's and Philibert's.

Paulette was a rather more interesting character than I expected and a late revelation about her past paints a very detailed portrait of her as a woman.

Gavalda is a very gifted writer and the translation of her work was nicely done. I found her work to be exactly like her characters: beautiful in its simplicity. Her writing is so beautiful and her characters so real and though the work has a great deal of import, the reader never feels as though Gavalda is boasting of its import. This was a truly lovely novel.

Fun, captivating story about three otherwise isolated Parisians tied together sharing an apartment, who are eventually joined by one of the character's aging grandmother. Poignant insights into the basic social breakdown, and heart-warming praise forthe triumph human compassion and kindness.

I don't know how else I can describe this book except to say that I disliked absolutely nothing about it. Except that it had to end.

These last few weeks have been enjoyable, and thought provoking, getting to know these strangers as they met and came together, all of them sad and yet hopeful in their own ways.

The Parisian setting had its own appeal, but that was not the story. The story was these characters, their journeys and growth. The story came alive through these characters and their ability to continue existing and enduring.

I felt happy and hopeful upon finishing their story. I'm only sad that it had to end.

Even before I started reading, I had the feeling that I would really love Hunting and Gathering. And I was right. I believe it very quickly joined the list of my all-time favorite books, one that I will gladly read again in the future.

Anna Gavalda has a great talent that truly took me by surprise, and I look forward to reading her other novel and short stories. Hunting and Gathering was a journey well taken and one I will encouragingly recommend to others.

I loved this book. The novel is contemporary, and unfolds almost entirely in dialogue. It took me a while to adjust to this, but then I was hooked. The characters are eccentric and charming and the dialogue invariably sparkling and surprising. (And, of course, it doesn't hurt a bit that it's set in Paris and the Loire Valley, and that one of the characters is a chef.) This was a novel I ended up carrying with me everywhere, chatting about to strangers, and lost sleep finishing.

I really liked everything about this book down to the pages it was written on. They are really nice pages! I felt all warm and fuzzy after reading this book and can't wait to read her other book I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere. I didn't want to put this book down and was upset when I was forced to. I would definitely recommend this book to my friends. I usually give books about 100 pages to spark my interest, but this book did so immediately.

This book will stay with me a long time. I wish I could read it in French, but assume that the translation was done well, as it is a joy to read. If it is even more eloquent in it's original language that would be incredible. The characters that Anna Gavalda created are so unforgettable. In it's simplest form, it is a story of abiding friendship, but it is so much richer and deeper than that. Don't we all know people that come along with unwieldy baggage from their childhood and rather different and strange characteristics? This story unfolds as the layers of each individual are peeled away and, as acceptance and understanding grows, so does the depth of their love for one another. A beautiful read that you won't forget. Merci beaucoup, Ms. Gavalda!

I find myself coming back to this book every couple of months. I cant't seem to let go of the story, the characters are so alive and palpable, yet completely out of the ordinary. They bring out their personalities in the most trivial situations and just jump off the page. you want to know them, you want to know what's behind the pain that brought them together inside that weird, fancy apartment.

I'm into stories that narrate how people heal together. This book takes its own pace to show the evolution in their feelings toward each other; I love Philou's growth of confidence and Franck's growing warmth towards Camille. it's real, visceral, absolutely adorable but not excatly cheesy. it's as simple as the man he thinks he is, but as big as his own heart.

Paulette's character is fully known towards the middle section. I wish Gavalda would have written a little more about her. The dialogues between her an Camille are beautiful; actually all the dialogues in this book are excellent, I think it's it's strongest point. Even as a transtation, I don't think it misses out on anything.

Now here comes the downfall; I didn't give it 5 stars because of the ending. Perhaps most of the people rating here loved it, but I felt it was too rushed, too patched up and not entirely plausible. Of course that HAD to be the ending, otherwise millions of readers would turn this book to shreds. I just think these characters deserved an outcome that wasn't a reminiscence of your typical american chick-flick. It seemed unreal (not the way it ended per se, but HOW it was plotted by the author), especcially the epilogue. it bothered me a little. but that's just me. If you like these sorts of endings, ignore the missing star.

Just read this book. It will make you cry, laugh, and hope. We do need that around more often.

This book is wonderful. I haven't even finished it yet, and I'm already thinking how sad I will be when it ends! It's just beautiful. So enjoyable and stunning.

I ordered this book for a Christmas gift exchange because I enjoyed this book so much. It's funny because once it was opened almost everyone wanted to see it. It does have an interesting cover and the texture of the pages are very different. When I gave a short review of the book, a lot of the members decided they wanted to borrow it from the person who had gotten it. Anyway, it was in excellent condition and it came faster than it was expected. No complaints at all. Thank you.

I had to read this book for a college course I was taking. I ended up really enjoying it. It is unpredictable, but very interesting.