Antoine Laurain

I'm in two minds about this book. I loved it at first: the slightly whimsical 'French' voice of the narrative, for instance. The plot line was promising. A middle aged doctor has a letter delivered 33 years too late. It's from a record company interested to talk to him and his then-fellow band members about a demo tape they'd sent for consideration. Alain has lost touch with them all, but his interest piqued, he hunts them down and we are gradually introduced to each of them. It's only later the plot gets stretched a bit thin for me. The coincidences become perhaps one too many, the individual denouements a little extreme. Nevertheless, it's a charming book, and takes a satirical sweep at current life in metropolitan France. I'd be interested to read it in the original French, because it seems very well translated, and by a team of two, which is unusual.… (more)