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Madame Michel has been the concierge of an exclusive Paris apartment building for nearly thirty years. She has managed to avoid making any ties to the families who live there by presenting to the world a facade of the stereotypical French employee- an uneducated, mean-tempered oaf who watches t.v. all day.
Paloma is a twelve year-old of one of the privileged families in the building, a girl whose IQ exceeds her family's understanding and whose anger at her isolation causes her to hide.
Monsieur Oz ...more
Paloma is a twelve year-old of one of the privileged families in the building, a girl whose IQ exceeds her family's understanding and whose anger at her isolation causes her to hide.
Monsieur Oz ...more
I was not sure if I liked the book or not when I started reading because it is so philosophical at first. So it took awhile for it to grow on me, but once I got into it I couldn't put it down.
We follow the life of Renee, a 54 year old concierge of an upscale Parisian apartment building. She hides who she really is behind a little sloppy facade. She philosophises about life and know a lot about art and literature. The other main character is 12 year-old Paloma. She is brilliant and has suicidal ...more
We follow the life of Renee, a 54 year old concierge of an upscale Parisian apartment building. She hides who she really is behind a little sloppy facade. She philosophises about life and know a lot about art and literature. The other main character is 12 year-old Paloma. She is brilliant and has suicidal ...more
After reading one-third of this book, I came close to giving it up entirely. The author uses the characters as mouthpieces for her ideas in a manner that doesn't feel organic. I often found myself musing that my time could be better spent with other books on my huge TBR pile. Interesing comparison with another recent read, The Plague, in which Camus used the characters to express his philosophy but in such a deft way that these thoughts truly seemed to be their own.
Barbery critiques a social or ...more
Barbery critiques a social or ...more
It's hard for me to rate this one. For the first 100 pages I thought it was fantastic. Somewhere along the way it started to irritate me - pretentious ramblings about Art (yes, with a capital A). Overall, though, it was an original book with a big heart and I recommend it.
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I've had this book on my shelf for a long time and I just randomly picked it up. It was one of the most beautiful books I have read. It made me want to read Tolstoy and listen to great music. Wonderful read!
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May 20, 2010
Stephanie Watson
marked it as to-read
Jun 02, 2010
Kimberly
marked it as to-read
Aug 22, 2011
Johanne
marked it as to-read
Sep 18, 2011
Lisa
marked it as to-read
Oct 27, 2011
Jennifer
marked it as to-read
Jun 13, 2012
Charles
marked it as to-read
Jun 02, 2014
Tina
marked it as books-i-can-t-finish
Aug 30, 2014
Mary
marked it as to-read
