3.5 Stars

I don't remember crying when my marriage broke down and I was left to bring up my small son on my own. This was many years ago but I can't remember endless weeping or depression. I remember feeling very relieved and getting on with clearing up the debris. And it was hard but not impossible because where there is life there is hope.

Even in the face of marital breakdown.

I admit I am a rather peculiar person and it isn't that I wasn't heartbroken, but I am well aware that life is short and I want to live abundantly everyday and explore all life has to offer even in the face of heartbreak and disappointment. I guess for me the need to live abundantly and the need to care for my small son very soon outpaced the sorrow and regret. So because of my own experience I was really interested when I saw this book on NetGalley. I thought it would be good to read about someone else's experience. I think it was well written, very emotional, very sad with lots of weeping and very unlike me.

Obviously.

I later found out that this story was actually inspired by the breakdown of the author's own marriage and perhaps that is what gives the story such a raw and jagged edge. The emotions, the pain, the anger and the questioning all feel very real. Translated from the French version the story is about a woman who is utterly devastated and bereft when her husband leaves her and their two little girls for another woman. He tells her the marriage was a mistake.

A mistake?

In any case the story is quite melancholy. Chloe is in total shock and cries an awful lot. It is her father - in - law who provides her with support, not really a shoulder to cry on, but company. Company for her and the two young girls as they try to come to terms with the dissolution of their supposedly safe family unit.

Chloe grieves for the loss of her marriage and her dreams. She grieves for all that she gave up for married life - her studies (that I cannot imagine), her youth (she got married at 20) and she supported her husband and helped him shake off the shackles of his father. She grieves for her two little girls and the strangeness of the broken family that they now are but even in the midst of grief there is hope.

The question is will Chloe recognise this hope?

There is hope because Chloe's father-in-law shares his own stories about loss, grief and life. He shares with her about the death of his brother, his childhood and his parents. He shares about his own marriage which isn't to the love of his life. He tells Chloe about his own married life which was lacklustre and suffocating for both him and his wife, and how he met his true love and had an affair but eventually lost this true love. He couldn't leave his wife because of his responsibilities and so he stayed in a marriage that stifled him and his wife stayed with him even after finding out about the affair simply because the upheaval would have been too much.

So both of them settled for less and he regrets it.

He shares his own failings and disappointment with Chloe in order to encourage her and in doing this he somehow steps into the breech for Chloe and becomes the bearer of her grief, the sounding board and the shoulder to cry on because he tells her the truth.

He tells her that her life will be better without his son. She now has an opportunity to live and to flourish.

And she is surprised but still cries because she is still grieving. She actually cries a lot because she is at the beginning of her grief and we never see her coming to terms with her grief but what we do see is the love and compassion her father-in-law has for her and the way he opens up his own life and shares his story with her. He tells her the story of how he didn't walk away from his marriage and the way this cast a shadow upon himself and his children because no one was happy. He tries to show her that although weeping endures for the night, joy comes in the morning.

We don't know what Chloe will do with this support from her father-in-law. We can only hope that she is able to go on.

And so this story is a very powerful and poignant reminder that we all have our own images of what marriage should be and perhaps if these images conflict with reality the marriage may encounter difficulty and start to go wrong but we do have choices.

Perhaps the marriages that survive are those that can weather reality and unmet expectations. Perhaps the marriages that survive are also those that have managed to find true love in some way.

Who knows?

I can't say I enjoyed this story because marital breakdown is sad but the writing was really poignant and very French if that makes sense. The writing reminds me of some of the french films that I have seen: very artistic, dramatic, food and wine, and real feelings.

So it was somehow sad, somehow beautiful and also somehow hopeful.
A great book to read and reflect on. I read somewhere that this book was actually made into a film. That's really great but alas I won't be watching it.

A good read but a melancholy one with lots of crying.

Copy provided via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

"So love is just bullshit" That's it? It never works out?"
"Of course it works out. But you have to fight..."

Probably the best lines in the book. Other than that, too much dialogue for my taste. And I have to admit I don't enjoy French writers that much.

Beautifully written novel about love and loss and the meaning of happiness.

Chloé was left by her husband 2 weeks ago. Hurting and brokenhearted, she just follows the sudden decision of her father-in-law to take her and her little children to the family cottage in the country to have a break from her pain. There, accompanied by some nice wine, the unlikely pair discuss about deep topics of heart. Pierre, who is generally considered being an "old bastard", cold inquisitor without any real interest in others, is much more like that. Trying to help his daughter-in-law, whom he considers closer to him than his own daughter, he is sharing his deep secret about his past secret love affair.

Truly beautifully written! No wonder Anna Gavalda is considered a star writer both in her native France and worldwide. The novel consists of mostly conversations with occasional descriptions and it gets you "there" immediately. You are hurting with Chloé and sharing feelings of embarrassment with Pierre, who tries to overcome his shyness and to express his feelings and secrets. This novel is mostly about him, who attempts a little awkwardly to console his daughter-in-law by sharing his true sentiments. And I like that he is not your schematic hero, more a man who has made a lot of bad choices, he knows about them and is trying to share his experience.

I understand this novel is influenced by the Gavalda´s own divorce, maybe that is the reason for the very authentic feeling.

As for the morale of the story - I like that it is not schematic. It goes for the aim of personal happiness, but not by black and white way. What I find missing is to emphasize the communication as a cornerstone of a successful relationship. Yes, Pierre can´t communicate, and this is addressed - but maybe Chloé could communicate with her husband more? I do not look for culprits, but personally I see a good, in-depth communication as an indispensable basis for lasting relationship.

Having said that, read the book for yourself, just for the beauty of the words there. And think of the issues adressed, as it is truly a good food for thought.

I actually really struggled to read this book and didn't finish it.
I felt like i had read this story a hundred times before and was really disappointed.

This book is a story of love gone wrong but also a look at love of family and building relationships. Chloe is abandoned by her husband for another woman and she and her two daughters are distraught and in shock. To her amazement her father in law comes to the rescue. He watches and plays with the children saying he plans to get it right this generation, not to be so critical and strict. He tells Chloe stories from his own past that enlighten her to his and her husbands behavior. Nicely written.

This is a novella and it is translated from French to English. The story takes place in Paris just after Chloe has received news that her husband has left her. She is distraught and very surprised when her father-in-law bundles herself, and her two young daughters, into his car. He takes them to the family holiday home in Paris for a few days. Her father-in-law Pierre is normally silent, solemn and morose. He is not someone Chloe has interacted much with. Pierre talks non stop about himself and his son and the real love of his life. He also believes that his son is not good enough for Chloe. She listens to Pierre and asks questions and finds that talking to him gives her strength to carry on with her life.