![]() ![]() ![]() This is a moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us. Only he is able to gain Paloma's trust and to see through Renée's timeworn disguise to the secret that haunts her. They discover their kindred souls when a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building. Paloma and Renée hide both their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. In fact, when I first began reading this book, I thought Barbery might be alluding to the famous book on Tolstoy by the philosopher Isaiah Berlin, who was himself quoting the Greek poet Archilochus (Barbery’s name-dropping thing is easy once you try. Until then she will continue behaving as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocre pre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not an outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter. For the first two-thirds of this novel, I was rooting for Mme. She is the daughter of a tedious parliamentarian, a talented and startlingly lucid child who has decided to end her life on the sixteenth of June, her thirteenth birthday. Then there's Paloma, a twelve-year-old genius. With humor and intelligence she scrutinizes the lives of the building's tenants, who for their part are barely aware of her existence. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, Renée is a cultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. Outwardly she conforms to every stereotype of the concierge: fat, cantankerous, addicted to television. Renée, the concierge, is witness to the lavish but vacuous lives of her numerous employers. We are in the center of Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families. ![]()
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