The Girl at the Lion d'Or

I have read and enjoyed a number of Faulks' novels (i.e. not just Birdsong...) and yet for some reason, after my dad passed on a 'spare' copy he had acquired somehow, I allowed it to languish on my shelves in our apartment, moved house and allowed it to languish some more (approximately one year) on my new shelves in our house. I definitely enjoyed all of Faulks' other books but this one just never grabbed me. I have no clue why. Having finally read it, I have absolutely no clue why!

There are so many reasons why this book is so much more than it seems but it largely comes down to some superb characterisation and exceptionally sensitive writing. I don't remember reading a book with characters that felt so real - I found that each show more character was a complex blend of admirable qualities and flaws, just like they should be. Take Anne, for example. I started the book feeling almost protective towards her because she appeared so frail. Her fragility is something I felt continued and yet she avoids being a stereotype because her clear issues with love and trust. There were times when she demonstrated a remarkable strength and then others when I just wanted to shake her and drum some self-awareness and self-respect into her.

The most poignant moments for me, however, were those featuring Clare, Charles' suffering wife. Her private heartbreak and stoicism are devastating to read, sidelined as they are and revealed every so often through the eyes of Clare herself. For a character who is involved so little, she adds a balance to the story that tempers the eager tone of Anne. Ordinarily in stories with love triangles, the author takes the easy route and makes 'the wife' almost to blame for some reason. You know the type: the unfeeling/absent/non-Stepford wives who are peripheral and allow us to suspend our moral fibre just enough to believe that the 'true' love of the protaganists isn't wrong, somehow, but virtuous.

Interestingly, there are also some political thoughts and historical notes intertwined too and the era shows through most in the post-war sense of life and freedom that seeps into the character of Charles. For the most part it works but occasionally I found myself reading something that I felt wasn't quite made relevant and made a conversation stilted. Its great as a support to the characters' situations though and only serves to make the story more real.

Overall: This novel is outstanding - not necessarily because of the plot but because the characters are achingly well drawn and I found myself utterly believing in them. There are entertaining moments and some heartbreaking ones. This is very much a book about people and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an intense look at shattering love. show less

An easy and enjoyable read. A love story plus a very interesting depiction of the political milieu of pre-WWII France, but with several flaws. I found the characters a bit unconvincing and their motivations false, e.g. Hartmann (a married man) takes Anne (a poor waitress) away on a weekend out of the "kindness of his heart" -- come on! There were also some undeveloped lines in the story, such as the allusions to Hartmann's Jewish grandfather by one of his supposed friends that never goes anywhere.

A beautifully written love story set in the small town of Jainvilliers in 1935-36 against a background of political upheaval as M Blum's government stumbles from crisis to crisis while Hitler's Germany reoccupies the Rhineland.
The principal characters are Anne, a beautiful young woman fleeing a tragic past and Charles Hartmann, a successful and married advocate and landowner. The novel opens with Anne arriving by train from Paris to take up a position as waitress at the Lion d'Or Inn in Jainvilliers. The bizarre and menacing concierge, Mme Bouin, tersely welcomes her and issues an extensive list of house rules and duties, and Anne is pitched in at the deep end.
She meets Charles Hartmann early on and is almost immediately besotted. He show more reciprocates her feelings, though perhaps less suddenly, and their tentative relationship commences.
Faulks captures the barrenness of a Anne's day to day routine marvellously, making the reader feel the tedium of her daily chores and the long periods of boredom attendant upon waiting tables in a small provincial inn. Hartmann takes her away from that, but only for brief periods - after all, he is married and anxious to avoid scandal within a small town.
However, Anne does come to trust Hartmann and reveals dreadful secrets from her past.
A thoroughly engrossing and engaging novel. show less

"What if all our lives are just a circle where at a certain point you cross an unseen tripwire that sets spinning the same process again?"

One rainy night young Anne Louvet arrives by train in the provincial French city Janvilliers to take up the post of waitress at the city's Lion d'Or. Anne is attractive and intelligent but there is a sense of mystery in her background as we learn early on the Louvet is not her real surname. Arriving in the city not knowing anybody Anne soon finds herself courted by local architect and playboy Andre Mattlin but instead finds herself attracted to married lawyer Charles Hartmann. Charles lives in an old mansion, which he is hoping to renovate, on the outskirts of the city with his barren and unhappy wife show more Christine. Charles reciprocates Anne's interest and takes her away for a weekend at the country house of an old friend. Once there their relationship turns sexual and Anne tells Charles the secret of her tragic life thus far in which she has been subjected to hardship and abandonment.

Charles feels himself torn by his love for Anne and the sympathy for her tumultuous up-bringing and the duty he feels towards his wife. Someone is going to be face devastation but will it be Anne or Christine?

Set in the 1930's the country is still struggling to overcome the physical and political scars of WWI and the rise of the Nazi party in Germany all add to the anxiety especially as the despicable Mattlin points out Charles is partly Jewish. The weakness of France’s governments; and the true horror of Anne’s girlhood secret all blend into a powerful story.

In truth there is not an awful lot of action rather this book concentrates on character development. It would be easy to feel sorry for Anne and that Charles has abused his position and wealth to take advantage of her loneliness but instead we end up almost palpably feeling Charles struggles with his conscience, he must decide between love,pity and duty. Any fan of John Fowles 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' will almost certainly also enjoy this as each contain certain obvious parallels.
This wasn't my favourite of Faulk's works that I've read but is a well crafted and touching read all the same. show less

Beautifully crafted with that sense of unacknowledged tragic anonymity floating throughout the book. But the peak of Anne and Hartmann's affair goes downhill rather quickly. Faulks's writing is still ~amazing~ but seeing Anne slowly being reduced to some wispy footnote at the end felt more like an anticlimax, than a touching ending.

I was asked to review The Girl at the Lion d’Or on the ‘Go Review That Book’ thread, and am pleased that this was chosen for me as I enjoyed the book a lot more than I expected from the cover blurbs. I have not read Birdsong or anything else by Sebastian Faulks, and had picked this title up from a charity (thrift) shop as it didn’t look as depressing as Birdsong. However, the quotes ‘ beautifully controlled’, ‘perfectly constructed’ in the blurbs made me think that I would be rather too aware of the author’s prose and that reading the book might be ‘hard work’ so I had put off reading it.

However, I found that I very quickly got into the book, and loved the way the author used more of a sound rather than a visual show more picture when setting the scene at the start of the first chapter. He gradually introduces the characters in the story, which suits someone like me who is sometimes prone to losing track of who is who, and the background seemed suitably French without being too much of a caricature of Frenchness. Similarly, the setting in the 1930s, gave the book substance (and indeed the experiences of some of the characters in the First World War are relevant to the story) without making the story too much set in one time and therefore more difficult to relate to today. There are not numerous subplots in the storyline (something some other reviewers seem to regard as a fault). However, I found myself interested in what was going to happen to the characters and keen to read on (helped sometimes by supposedly ‘throwaway’ lines that suggested that there was more behind what was happening than you had been told so far). show less

I do enjoy a good Faulks melodrama. I just made the big mistake of reading his "Birdsong" first!
But "The Girl at the Lion D'or" has its merits. Faulks sweeping, evocative prose is still there. Sometimes a girl just needs a melancholy book!
It is easier to read than "Birdsong", easier to enjoy, it's just easier to forget. I never felt for Anne the way I felt for Birdsong's Isabelle, and certainly Charles was nothing in comparison with Stephen.
Ah well. It was a good story with good characters in their own right, now on to "Charlotte Gray"...