Customer Reviews

Someone I Loved (Je l'aimais) (English and French Edition)

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

 

 

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

I liked the way this book explored the motiviations, consequences, and aftermath of puruing or not pursuing romantic love. Like all French thinkers on the subject, the effects on the children are glossed over in the selfishness of pursuing personal fullfillment of romantic desires. Yes, there is some courage to pursuing romantic love and ditching your family, however why can't people wait until the kids are grown?

I read this book after seeing the move with Daniel Auteuil. I read it in French with
frequent peaks into the English version. Interestingly the author has Pierre consistently
use the familiar "tu" form when addressing Chloe while Chloe consistently uses the
"vous" form when addressing Pierre. On the one hand this simplifies the job of the
reader in keeping track of who said what. On the other hand I would have thought
that this asymmetry in formality was more from an era that has long passed. Maybe not.

While I agree that the book is worthy from the point of view of packing a lot of
material in a short space, from the point of view of spinning an elaborate tale,
and from the interesting use of language, and finally by the ability to create
interesting atmospherics (which the movie faithfully rendered), in the end I find
myself not liking the book.

Maybe it's just me but I find a tawdry undercurrent of incestuousness in the way
Pierre relates to Chloe, in many, many ways. The whole premise of the book is
a bit questionable to me - would a father-in-law really spirit away a jilted
daughter-in-law to some country retreat where they would sit by the fire while
he gets drunk and tells her about his past romantic life? Not bloody likely,
in my opinion.

Also Pierre's self-pity on the one hand, and passivity on the other hand, are
things I find myself really not liking.

You don't have to like the characters in a book in order to like the book, but
it certainly doesn't hurt.

Basically if you accept all the premises and promises the book makes, it's a fine
effort, but that's a big "if" in my opinion. I found myself wanting to take a shower
after reading it. Maybe I'm just too prudish to appreciate such fine literature, but
I don't think so. I think this might be a triumph of form over substance.

As much as I liked Gavalda's first short stories book (I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere - a great great book), I didn't feel this one contained enough material to make one single short story...which it unfortunately wasn't. A book perfectly adapted to speed reading, emptier than a book by Marc Levy, with less reflexions about love than you could get by - for example - watching a documentary on the reproduction of oysters in captivity. Too bad with such a title. Neeeext.

"Every thought drew me closer to the bottom. I was so tired. I shut my eyes. I dreamed that he had arrived. There was the sound of the engine in the courtyard, he sat down next to me, he kissed me and put his finger on my lips in order to surprise the girls. I can still feel his tenderness on my neck, his voice, his warmth, the smell of his skin, it's all there.

It's all there...

All I have to do is think about it...

How long does it take to forget the odor of someone who loved you? How long until you stop loving?

If only someone would give me an hourglass."

- from Someone I Loved

Anna Gavalda is one of those fantastic writers no one seems to know about. Maybe that's because not all her novels are translated from her native French into English. But in France she's certainly well-known.

Her short novel Someone I Loved is poetic, gorgeous, all those words of praise reviewers use, yet also a bit unexpected, with a surprising revelation that adds so much to the plot. The novel is of course heart-wrenching, something the French do well.

Main character Chloë and her two little children go to stay with her father-in-law after Chloë's husband walks out on her for another woman. At first seeming like a strike out of the blue, in hindsight Chloë sees all the clues were there: the late nights at the office, the vacancy and pained looks on his face, the withdrawal, etc.

Presuming his distant attitude and quick anger, Chloë had never been comfortable with her father-in-law, and it isn't clear why, exactly, she's gone to live with him rather than someone in her own family. Perhaps it was because he was the closest link to Adrien, her estranged husband. But as the days go by he begins to open up, sharing his own life story with Chloë, in an effort to prove to her she can survive this, and can go on, for the sake of her daughters.

The result, a resoundingly beautiful novel.

I've discovered Anna Gavalda when I received "Ensemble, s'est tout" as a gift a few years ago. I was mesmerized by the poetry of words and the depth of feelings expressed through a simple dialogue. "Someone I loved" was another pleasant surprise that left me wanting to read more by Anna Gavalda and try to refresh my French enough to read the stories in the original language. There is a touch of melancholy but also hope and love for each character where the reader has a chance to see their perspective and try to understand them. I think quite a few of my friends will be getting this book as presents.