The Red Notebook

My last post to this blog (embarrassingly long ago) was about lovers in the City of Love: Paris.  Let's just stay in Paris for awhile. Why not?

The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain, translated from the French by Emily Boyce and Jane Aitken, could not be more opposite from the previous novel I last posted. The setting is in common yes, but that's about it.  While Lovers at the Chameleon Club was dark, brooding, turbulent and perhaps some might say, slightly twisted, The Red Notebook is whimsical, lightly philosophical, and as several reviewers have mentioned, filled with joie de vivre.  It is warm and charming, with eccentric characters that you just know will most likely end up okay, even though life has handed them a few bumps and bruises along the way.

The story centers around a lost purse found by a French gentleman who becomes quite fixated on finding its owner.  As he delves into the items in the purse, including a red notebook which he is deeply intrigued by, he begins to imagine the lovely lady it must belong to and longs to meet her.

Charming coincidences abound.  Think Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.  You get the idea.

Something quite important to note: in addition to the lovely story, the stylish and well-structured prose adds nothing but pleasure to the experience.

"Can you experience nostalgia for something that hasn't happened? We talk of 'regrets' about the course of our lives, when we are almost certain we have taken the wrong decision; but one can also be enveloped in a sweet and mysterious euphoria, a sort of nostalgia for what might have been."

Save this novel for a time when something light and breezy and romantic is required: after a heavy read or when you just want to escape to Paris for a few hours and indulge your romantic fantasies.

My rating: **1/2