Hunting and Gathering

A complete delight of a story, filled with delicious, well-drawn and complex characters, the scent of Paris, the light that filters in through old windows in ancient apartments in an arrondissement tucked somewhere near the Eiffel Tower…

It made me miss Europe with an ache that I haven’t felt in a while- missing the scenery, the civilization, the subtle differences between vous and tu and all that that means. The food. The art. Sigh.

I’d like to read this in French someday, should I ever be able to drag up my schoolgirl French to anything approximating coherence. I feel reading it in the original language (though the translation is excellent) would bring even more of these feelings to the reader- and they are so pleasurable I had show more to immediately tell people about how lovely this book was.

A delight only spoiled by its ending- I miss the characters already. Read it. It’s a happy book. Nice nice people. show less

When I finished this book I felt like the world can be a wonderful place, there is still hope for the human race and that love actually does conquers all. That’s a lot of responsibility for a book and yet it manages to do so without being cheesy or corny but well written heartwarming story of 3 misfits who find themselves under one roof and discover that being together makes all the difference. smart dialogs, characters that stay in your heart and let’s not forget Paris, this book is all about love and I loved it.

The original French title of this novel is Ensemble, C’est Tout, which is a much more fitting name for a book about a group of lost souls who eventually find happiness with each other. Camille is literally a starving artist, wasting away to skin and bones while working a completely unfulfilling job as an office cleaner in Paris. One day she falls ill and is rescued by Philibert, a sweet-natured but socially awkward aristocrat who is living in his family’s decaying ancestral home. Philibert also has a roommate named Franck, a talented chef whose filthy language is only matched by his even filthier lifestyle. Initially, the three of them living in one house seems like a recipe for disaster; but as they learn more about one another, show more they slowly build an unconventional family.

I think this is a perfect cold-weather book; it just begs to be read while snuggled up in a blanket and sipping something warm. At its core, it’s a fairly simple and predictable love story, with the hero and heroine hating each other at first, then slowly changing their minds. But Gavalda’s dreamy, transparent prose helps it to rise above a stereotypical chick-lit or romance novel. There’s something very thoughtful and smart about the book as a whole; I especially loved the descriptions of Camille’s art. The only thing that bugged me about the book is that sometimes the dialogue was hard to follow — there aren’t a lot of tags to indicate who’s saying what. There’s also a lot of jumping around between different characters’ perspectives, which can be distracting. Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to fans of love stories or French literature. show less

The concept behind Hunting and Gathering is super simple. Bring four very different people together and tell a story about how they coexist. Each has a personal tragedy; a difficulty finding solid ground either mentally, physically, or financially. For some, all three imbalances exist. Philibert is the understated hero who brings anorexically malnourished Camille to his barely furnished apartment. He is already sharing the space with overworked and underemotional Franck, a chef with very little time or patience for anyone except an ailing grandmother. Philibert is not without his own issues. He suffers from debilitating social anxiety. To compensate for a stutter, he dresses outrageously and is excessively polite. They all share common show more issues of loss, an inability to cope with family, and an undeniable fondness for one another. When Franck brings his grandmother to the dilapidated apartment as the fourth roommate the relationships grow deeper and more meaningful. show less

This is a gem of a story about four misfits or “broken toys” as I like to call them, who somehow come together and help each other heal and find love and happiness, each in their own way. There’s a young girl who is an artist and by all accounts anorexic and alcoholic with an incredible gift for drawing, a French aristrocrat from a very ancient lineage who is socially retarded (if not outright autistic), a young chef who is a brute and a womanizer along with his sweet old granny who has alzheimer’s and is prone to falling and knocking into things. Somehow, they all manage to heal each other, just by “being with each other, that's all” which is the direct translation of the original French title. One of my favourite books of show more all time. show less

This was a frustrating read for me. By turns, I couldn't stop reading and was somewhat bored. Telling the story of three people who have had difficult relationships with their parents but who find a tentative happiness as roommates in an enormous old Paris apartment. The three main characters were interesting enough. There's Philibert, the stammering, history-obsessed postcard seller, who has the apartment while his family fights over a will, Camille, the sensitive artist who has given up art and is working as a cleaner in an office and Franck, the tempestuous sous-chef who is run ragged between his arduous job and his grandmother, who lives hours away and may not be up to living on her own any more. Predictably, they become stronger as show more a group of misfits forming a sort of family.

There's a lot to like about this book. The setting is Paris and Camille, Franck and Franck's grandmother are quirky, endearing characters. The third resident of the apartment remains thinly drawn, to the point where his transformation and independence occur entirely off the page. And it's sometimes self-consciously quirky, as though the characters' actions and traits are there more for the effect they will have on the reader's heartstrings than fully realized parts of themselves. I like that in the aftermath of the success of The Elegance of the Hedgehog, more books seem to be making the leap from French into English translations. I just wish a better book had been chosen, but much of my dissatisfaction with this book is my dislike of whimsy and charm. Not everyone dislikes a happy ending. show less

I'm a sucker for French fiction because of their amazing character sketches and this one does not disappoint. Usually I hate when authors wrap up their novels nice and neat without any room to question what the hell just happened, but I can forgive Ms. Gavalda for it because this book is just so damn wonderful.