We all hide parts of ourselves from the world, concealing our petty jealousies, our foolish grudges and our overpowering desires in an attempt to seem, to those we know and love, halfway normal. And why not? If conformity breeds success, as it so often seems to do, what's to be gained by putting oneself fully, intensely on display? Ms. Barbery deftly deploys this potent theme to drive her captivating, philosophical novel.
In an upperclass apartment building, nestled in Paris' elegant Left Bank, two remarkable souls abide in the midst of a crowd of self-important, elites. The homely Rene is the building's 54-year-old concierge. A 27 year veteran of the building, she disguises her keen intellect and her extraordinary erudition behind a bland mask of polite detachment. Recently widowed, she has only one friend in whom she shares any measure of her true self. The rest of the building's privileged occupants she holds at arm's length, petrified that they might catch a glimpse of the volcanic spirit which burns beneath her cultivated dullness. Little does Rene know that she has in the building a kindred spirit in Paloma, a 12-year-old girl with a formidable mind, a powerful will and a terrible secret. For having investigated the world around her and found there only vacuousness, Paloma has decided that, unless something interesting happens in the next few months, to convince her that life has meaning, she will kill herself on her thirteenth birthday. Though the lives of Rene and Paloma have almost nothing in common, and though each is barely aware of the other's existence, their orbits are about to collide, throwing their steering their destinies onto entirely new courses.
The narration of Ms. Barbery's compelling tale is handled equally by Rene and Paloma. Each philosopher has a distinct voice. Rene communicates her thoughts and beliefs in the present tense, intermingling her love of classical literature, her scorn for her fellow residents and her dismay over her various day-to-day chores. Paloma's voice, meanwhile, takes the form of sharp, declarative journal entries which both communicate her frustration at life's banality and convey her eagerness to find something to hook onto, to believe in. While both characters can be witty and caustic, expressing appreciation for intellectual pleasures and disdaining the superficiality of those around them, they are on distinctly different journeys. While Rene is quietly yearning for love and understanding, to find someone to see through her walls and meet her on her lofty level, Paloma is trying to pull meaning from a seemingly meaning-less universe. "Why am I here?" "What is all of this for?" Like a lonely intellect combing the stars for other intelligent life, she is waiting for a sign, a connection, from out there, to let her know that there is a purpose to existence.
This was the most difficult, but also the most rewarding of the philosophical novels I've embarked upon. Though I've never come as close as Paloma to giving up the ghost, her journey has a decidedly atheistic tinge with which I deeply empathize. When one cannot fall back on the Divine to provide meaning and order to ones existence, then one has to extract it from their surroundings. Given how banal our culture can be, how, like water, it seems to find its lowest level, extracting meaning from it can be decidedly challenging. Rene, meanwhile, evokes a wonderful sympathy. A self-taught and wholly misunderstood creature, she flourishes in private, away from a world that would misunderstand and judge her. She's confident enough to want nothing of the external world's affirmation, but lonely enough to need a connection, with someone. And when that connection comes, she blooms, escaping her scalding self-criticism for a kind of happiness that smooths out her rough edges. Ms. Barbery has painted portraits of the lives of two humans enduring life, puzzling out its cryptic messages while maintaining the reader's attention with a series of incisive criticisms of our culture and the depths to which it sinks. And though it starts slow, it comes home with a power that makes the journey all the more rewarding.
Not a perfect piece; I'd have liked to have seen Ms. Barbery engage a third protagonist who was less like her two pompous, privately suffering intellectuals. And certainly Rene's near obsession with putting herself down grew tiresome after awhile. But these are but two small flaws in what is a challenging and edifying read. (4/5 Stars)
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