246
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #117,021 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★★★☆
To understand old men and women is to understand ALL OF LIFE! This book helps do that.
This is quite a story of an UNSTOPPABLE FORCE butting against an IMMOVABLE OBJECT. The first is the women (and girl) who intrude into immovable 83-year-old Ferdinand Brun’s life. Not much of a life for him, no family, no hobbies, no social life. But there is his Great Dane, Daisy, cooped up with him in a tiny apartment on Eight Rue Bonaparte Street in a French town. He also has his radio and TV, listens to game shows and crime drama. Thus he shelters himself, especially from the intrusive and gabby women in the apartment complex.
To his neighbors, Brun seems to become more peculiar, unable to take proper care of himself. So his daughter Marion, who lives in Singapore with her son, tries to have him move to a retirement home. The caretaker of the apartment complex also wants him out. She manipulates to get him to move. Much of the plot revolves around this conflict.
We get humorous and revealing mini-stories of the mostly old women who live in the complex. Most interesting is 92-year-old Beatrice Claudel who still lives life to the full. Next is 10-year-old Juliette, a precocious child who thinks and talks like a 30-year-old psychologist! Sandwiched between these two main forces is the unbendable Brun, who starts to bend a little here and there. The caring shown by these two opposites—young and old—makes this story pop!
I wish I could give this book 5 stars. But at times I was left confused with the chronology and credibility of some events. It seems the author invented these to progress the story, without prior planting of clues. For instance, the dog story at the end was too much of a surprise to be believable. Also, I wish more of the French flavor and setting had been kept intact. But the translator made the book too American in language, idioms and references.
Still, as an “old man” myself—75 years next week—I enjoyed this book, sympathized with its characters, cheered for Ferdinand Brun, and picked up on some pointers on living out my old years with joy, friends and joie de vivre!
