La délicatesse (original 2009; edition 2011)

I think this book thinks it's charming, but it just left me feeling gross. The main character is this woman who is barely even a person, just a beautiful face with vaguely strange habits. Of course, everyone loves her for no special reason. It just seemed like the author really wanted to fuck Audrey Tautou and decided to write a book about what he would like her personality to be, but he didn't even care that much and just put in a bunch of random crap to make it sort of like Amelie.
Also, don't put in the book who you think should be in the movie. It's tacky. You know who else does that? Dan Brown. ( )

Ugh- just bad. ( )

I recently discovered Amazon's list of 100 Best Books 2012 and ordered six of the novels cited. Delicacy is a very nice romance. It takes place in Paris. It's very French, so some of the behaviors are rather odd, but I liked it anyway. It's short, but it has some 115 chapters, several of which are ultra brief, clever and amusing, e.g., Chapter 38 "Code for the Door to Markus's Building

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There are a number of very nice romantic moments, a number of funny ones, a few tragic ones. Altogether a nice story. It has won a number of French awards and sold a ton of books there. ( )

Really liked it, specially loved the ending. French is not my first language but it was a comfortable read. ( )

I started this book in much the same way as the main character - hopeful. It seemed so full of promise. Unfortunately, I very quickly found myself becoming irritated by the writing style, which reads like a cross between a movie script and a Twitter feed. Is it really necessary for a 250 page book to have 115 chapters? - Especially when some of them are made up of only three or four words. I should have been forewarned by the footnote on the first page, where after saying "But she never ever felt nostalgia. That was something that was quite rare for Natalie" the author feels compelled to add a footnote saying "There's often a clear tendency for nostalgia in Natalies".

Even though the story is quite slight, there are plus points. The two main characters are quite well drawn, and the writing style is such that not only do you get to see their back story and motivation, but you get to see their thinking. Unfortunately, there are other characters who, for me, actively detracted from the book. Natalie's boss, Charles, in particular is supposed to be holding down a responsible position but acts in such a way that in real life, he would be in industrial tribunals and police investigations so fast his head would have been spinning. Considering the book is set within the last decade, he seems to have been drawn from the 1950's.

If you can put up with the staccato style, and are looking for something light and frothy to read on a weekend break, then this may be very much for you but if you are looking for a literary romance then, alas, you may be in for a disappointment - much in the style of a collapsed soufflé. ( )