| Title | : | The Red Notebook |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1908313862 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781908313867 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 159 |
| Publication | : | First published March 5, 2014 |
| Awards | : | Premio letterario Giuseppe Acerbi (2017) |
The Red Notebook has already been sold in twelve different languages. French TV is making a film of The President's Hat and the movie rights of The Red Notebook have been sold to UGC.
Antoine Laurain was born in Paris. He is the author of five novels, including The President's Hat.
The Red Notebook Reviews
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“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.”
The story begins with a late-night mugging that eventually lands the victim, Laure Valadier, a gilder by profession, in the hospital. Bookstore owner Laurent Letellier comes across an abandoned handbag on his routine coffee run, discarded on top of a garbage bin. Upon searching through the contents he finds a cornucopia of items (not surprising since most of us ladies carry our own little universe in our bags) but nothing indicating the identity or contact details of the owner. Among the contents, he does find a red moleskin notebook, a dry cleaners receipt, a key ring and a signed copy of a Patrick Modiano novel (I felt a bit jealous here!). The story follows Laurent as he tries to track down the owner based on whatever clues he can piece together from the contents of the handbag - an experience that impacts both his and Laure’s lives in the best ways one can imagine (notwithstanding a few minor hiccups along the way!).
Elegant prose, endearing characters, books, bookstores, literary references and Paris – what a perfect combination! Antoine Laurain’s The Red Notebook (translated by Jane Aitken and Emily Boyce) is an utterly charming and delightful story! I had been meaning to read this book for a long time and am glad that I finally picked it up! A short uplifting novel that you can easily finish in one sitting – best enjoyed with your beverage of choice ( for me it was a few cups of steaming hot cinnamon spice tea and some chocolate)! I can’t wait to read more of this author’s work! -
J'adore! Sometimes you need to read a love story. And to believe that good things can happen to good people. This is told with such beautiful simplicity. It is gentle and caresses you, like a soft cashmere sweater.
In a city of millions, are two souls destined to meet? I'm sure you've already guessed the answer to that. It's a tried and true formula. One that can either be ordinary or can lift your spirits. This is the latter.
With Parisian charm, what starts with the petty crime of a bag snatching, results in bringing two people together. Laure is the victim of this crime. Arriving home after a night out to dinner with friends, she doesn't even make it to her front door, when a hand reaches out of the darkness, and her bag is stolen.
"It would be streets away by now, snatched, flying on the man's arm as he ran; he would open it and inside he would find her keys, her identity card, her memories. Her entire life...Her hands could not seem to stop shaking from fear, helplessness and anger."
Laurent is the owner of bookstore. In search of his morning coffee at the local cafe, he finds an obviously abandoned handbag sitting on top of a bin, sans owner.
Being a good citizen, he drops it off at the local cop shop. With the police being too busy to attend to him, Laurent takes the mystery bag home. Determined to do his own detective work, with the intention of re-uniting the bag with its rightful owner, he opens the bag...
"He drank some more wine, feeling he was about to commit a forbidden act. A transgression. For a man should never go through a woman's handbag - even the most remote tribe would adhere to that ancestral rule."
Amongst other things, Laurent finds a red Moleskin notebook, filled with the innermost thoughts and jottings of the handbag's owner. Not meant for stranger's eyes. And we all have a red notebook somewhere, don't we.
"The handwriting was elegant and fluid... Laurent was fascinated by her reflections which followed on one from the other, random, touching, zany, sensual. He had opened a door into the soul of the woman with the mauve bag...even though he felt what he was doing was inappropriate, he couldn't stop himself from reading on."
What's not to love about a book featuring more books in it. And people who love books. In the city of love. Sigh.
There are some will they/won't they meet moments that made me catch my breath with how charming the writing is.
"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."
"Like catching snatches of a far-off radio frequency. The message is obscure, yet by listening carefully you can still catch snippets of the life that never was. You hear sentences that never were actually said, you hear footsteps echoing in places you've never been to, you can make out the surf on a beach whose sand you have never touched. You hear the laughter and loving words of a woman though nothing ever happened between you."
Adore, adore, adore. Yes, there is a happy ending. And this is as it should be 💗
Antoine Laurain is utterly delightful. I'm so pleased I bought a bunch of his books some time ago. They were just waiting for the right time for me to start reading them. This is the first of many journeys I'll have with him.
*** Buddy read with the delightful Collin. A change of pace and genre for us. One which I'm happy say he also enjoyed - phew! Make sure you check out his fab review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... *** -
Being some one with a rather cynical attitude to the whole idea of love and romance, I found my icy heart delightfully thawed by this book. It is poignant, touching, peppered with literary references, witty and quite simply perfect...A must read- even for old cynics like me!
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4★
Jim Nelson at Food & Wine writes that "An apéritif is an alcoholic beverage served before a meal to stimulate the appetite without overwhelming the senses and distinct from anything you have been served back home. It is light and refraissant as the French would say."
How perfectly that describes this little gem. At just 159 generously spaced pages, you can read it in one sitting.
There is lovely Laure. She is an artist, a gilder. She has been mugged and her bag stolen. There are items inside that are precious to her.
There is Laurent. He is the owner of a small bookstore “hopelessly old-fashioned, still believing in the chance encounter, the smile exchanged across a café terrace, or the book that led on to something else." He has found the bag and wants to return it. He will have to work at it because there is no identification inside. Just a small red notebook, a diary of Laure's secret self. Her identity apart from her name. Laurent reads it looking for clues. Now it's about more than just returning the bag.
I couldn’t help but think a bit of the Sandra Bullock movie While You Were Sleeping as I read this. But this is so typically European, so very French. From an American vantage, distinct from anything I would find here. Refreshing after a long book and now I'm ready for the next. Á votre santé! -
To be filed under charming little books translated from French. When Laurent the owner of a bookstore in Paris finds a handbag abandoned in a trash bin his life changes forever. Certainly no woman ever abandons a lovely pocketbook. With only the clues given in the bag's contents which includes a small red notebook of random thoughts can he ever find it's owner ?
Short, sweet, and surely soon to be film material.
KUYH Club June - 4 stars -
What do you carry in your handbag? Are the items intriguing enough to make someone want to meet you, even if they only saw the contents of your bag and knew nothing else about you?
This charming, romantic, and oh, so French, book hit the right spot after a few enjoyable (but heavy) reads. In this tale, sophisticated Parisian Laure is mugged after a late night out. Her attacker runs off with her handbag. The next morning, book store owner Laurent finds Laure's bag (minus her wallet and any ID) on top of a trash can, and realizes that the purse is not intended to be thrown away. After unsuccessfully trying to turn the bag into the police, Laurent goes through the contents of the bag trying to determine its rightful owner, and begins his quest to find her.
While not quite as whimsical as
The President's Hat, "The Red Notebook" was thoroughly enjoyable. It's a short little book which can be ready in a day or two -- perfect for the beach or when you just want a "pick me up" or "palate cleanser" after a heavier book.
Even in its brevity the story will transport you right to Paris with its descriptions of Parisian neighborhoods, cafes, book shops, and lines such as this: "Their eyes had met for that fraction of a second during which, without saying a word, a man and a woman who don't know each other signal that the night is not yet over."
3.5 stars rounded up
Thank you to NetGalley and Gallic Books for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. -
2015 F.A.B. Bookclub pick # I.❤️. F.A.B.
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بیشتر از اون که یک کتاب قوی باشه، کتابی بود که به من حس خوبی داد
عاشق شخصیت کلوئه شدم😊
بعد از خواندن این کتاب، دوباره و چندباره احساس کردم عمرم داره هدر میره چون کتابفروش نیستم -
I'm jumping with joy and exhilaration having just finished a charming and very delightful novel. Exactly what I was after! A perfect Sunday afternoon companion. Well, a perfect companion, regardless of the day of the week or season.
I loved everything about the Red Notebook. The writing is simple but has a beautiful flow. The main characters, Laurent and Laure, are well drawn and interesting. It was refreshing to read a romantic book with middle-aged protagonists. The plot was lovely and romantic, in a realistic way.
As you can imagine, since the male protagonist owns a bookshop, books and authors make an appearance. C'est incroyable! No mention of any of the Bronte sisters or Jane Austen novels, or the Great Gatsby or the Catcher in the Rye. I'll drink to that! In case you're wondering, I do not have anything against the above authors or novels, I've read and enjoyed them all, I am just tired of seeing them mentioned in so many novels. Thanks to Antoine Laurain, many known and less known French authors are mentioned. I've added a few more books to my ever growing to-be-read list.
The Red Notebook is not a literary masterpiece, but it's well written and has a huge dose of French charm. It would make for a great script for a cute chick-flick (preferably in French).
I'll be making sure to read Antoine Laurain's other novel.
If you're after something light and romantic, but not stupid, sweet but not saccharin(ny), the Red Notebook is the perfect novel.
I've received this novel via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publishers, Gallic Books, for the opportunity to read and review this charming novel.
Cover:5 stars -
This is a delightfully charming and whimsical tale, whose movie rights have already been sold to Union Générale Cinématographique (UCG). The translation of this French novel transported me to the streets of Paris, where Laurent Leteillier, bookseller and owner of bookstore, Le Cahier Rouge (The Red Notebook) has found a purse on the top of a garbage bin. Laurent is definitely a character I want to know more about. His capacity for laughing at himself, the fact that he’s taught his sixteen-year-old daughter, Chloé how to swirl her wine, appreciating its delicate aroma before taking a sip, that he introduced Chloé to literature from an early age, and the energy that he will give to the task of returning the purse to its owner; I know right away that Laurent is a romantic, but not hopeless at all (perhaps even his ex-wife would agree); he has his feet firmly planted in everyday life.
Laure Valadier is a gilder by trade, applying gold leaf to books, picture frames, glass, stone, metal, and many other surfaces. She has a cat named Belphégor, and on her bookshelves, a book by Sophie Calle, Suite Vénitienne (‘Please Follow Me’), the author's defining work, a book in which she surreptitiously follows and photographs strange men. Just as Calle explores the meanings of boundaries and surveillance, those themes will resonate in this narrative. Laure’s adventures of the lost purse are compelling, especially with the twist of Antoine Laurain’s French irony as our accompaniment.
So settle in with a chill glass of Pouilly-Fuissé with its hints of buttery hazelnuts, or perhaps, an exuberant Beaujolais Nouveau, and enjoy a stroll down la rue de la nostalgie in search of that which might have been or more perfectly, that which almost wasn’t. Enjoy! -
Let me just start by saying, and don’t ask me why, but if a book has a bookshop in it, then I nearly always like it.
Laure realises how much the little things matter in our modern world when her handbag is violently stolen from her at 2am in the morning right outside her building. She has no key to get into her apartment, she has no phone to call her friends, she has no credit card or money to pay for a room in the motel across from her apartment building. Luckily the elderly gentleman at the counter realises that her story is a truthful one and allows her to stay in a room overnight and pay for it the next day. However, when the next day comes and check out time has been and gone the staff send somebody to her room. They find her in bed, in what appears to be a coma, with blood on her pillow from a head wound.
Laurent’s biggest problem is that his electric shaver is on the fritz and the water has been turned off for the day, leaving his reflection in the mirror looking quite dishevelled. Laurent is the owner of a bookshop that he bought off an old couple when it was a café. Because there is a flat connected to the shop, Laurent makes sure that he goes for a walk each morning for exercise. This morning he is bewildered to find a stylish mauve leather handbag sitting peacefully atop a garbage bin. Because it is enigmatically sitting atop the bin rather than in it, he can not resist the urge to open it and have a quick peek inside. Realising that it is full, and that it will either end up in the garbage when it’s collected, or more likely be stolen again, he decides to hand it in to the police, whose station is only a brisk walk away. At the station he is told to hand it into Lost and Found so for the moment he keeps it.
That night Laurent ponders on whether to look through the bag or not. While deliberating he realises that he has never been through the contents of a woman’s handbag before. It just seems morally wrong, an unwritten rule, and by opening it he will have crossed a line and become one of the persons with dubious scruples.
Hours later he is still reading the red notebook that he found in the handbag. Guiltily he finds himself unable to stop, unable to put it down and stop reading. There is a great passage here,
“He had opened a door into the soul of the woman with the mauve bag and even though he felt what he was doing was inappropriate, he couldn’t stop himself from reading on.”
Amongst the belongings in the bag, Laurent finds a book penned by a reclusive legendary author, an author who hadn’t done any signings or interviews for years, personally signed to the owner of the bag. He now at least knows her first name.
Instead of losing interest in what seems a hopeless case, his obsession to find Laure grows and grows. It’s a format that has been done many times before and needs to be exceptionally written for it to rise above the other books of similar ilk. I am delighted to say that this is the case. As it is such a short novel, I don’t want to say any more for fear of spoilers, the narrative is brilliantly crafted, but to explain why would spoil the story. A thoroughly enjoyable read, which is very hard to put down once you start.
This was the fifth buddy read with Nat K and it was her pick. I would just like to thank her for introducing me to this wonderful author, I will be reading more of his work, and please check out her review when she posts it. 4 Stars! -
Preciosa y pequeña historia sobre la curiosidad, las casualidades y la literatura. Tierna hasta el punto de reconciliarte con la humanidad!
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A Fun Clean Flip
I was looking for a heavier book to read, one like what Cormac McCarthy would write, but I found this one instead. I liked the title, so settled on it. I have noticed of late that many romance books have nice titles, and titles can easily draw me to them. Of course, most of the time I am disappointed and stop reading them. This book was not disappointing; it was charming and a clean flip, as they are called here at the Tahlequah library in Oklahoma. A clean flip is a book with pages that flip and clean means no sex, no vulgar language, and probably no violence. But maybe you all know this, and I have only been introduced to it since moving here.
It takes place in the city of Paris and is sprinkled with French words, words that I don’t know how to spell, because it was an audio and had no spell check. I didn’t understand the words either, but that didn’t seem to matter.
It was also a mystery of sorts: A middle-aged woman came home one night and got mugged in front of her apartment building. She tries to fight back by grabbing her purse, but the man was stronger. I wondered why she didn’t carry a weapon of sorts. I mean, even I have an arsenal at home: pepper spray, mace, air horn, and a police whistle. The air horn wasn’t a good idea, as it will blow your socks off. I only needed the mace once, and this was when I was living in Berkeley. I drove into my apartment parking garage and felt that someone was in there, so I got out my mace and got out of the car. A man was just walking into the garage towards me, and I pulled out my mace. He left. I was lucky.
This woman, in this story, whose French name I do not know, was not lucky. He pushed her into the building where she bumped her head, and then he run off with her purse. What is more, she was without a key to her apartment.
A distinguished gentleman was walking down the street the next morning and found her purse on a bin. What is a bin? I can only guess that it is a garbage bin, and that the French don’t use the word garbage or that this gentleman refuses to use it. I don’t know. Maybe it was a potato bin.
Well, he looks inside the purse and sees that many of her belongings are gone and realizes that she had been mugged. He takes the purse home and pours its contents out on the couch to look them over for clues as to who she is. She has more things in her purse than I could imagine would fit into it. And since her phone and wallet are gone, well, that must have been a huge purse What did the thief leave? Lipstick, a bottle of perfume, a red notebook, a book that had been signed by a famous author, and some keepsakes. Now, the gentleman believes that he would really like her because of the contents in her purse, and so he wants to find her. He is in love. So, acting as a sleuth, he sets out to find her.
And when the story ended, I went back to my search for a heavier book and found William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying.” I suppose after reading it, I will be looking for another light read. -
On his customary morning walk to procure his morning coffee, Laurent Letellier finds an expensive handbag atop a trash barrel. Being of high moral character, he takes it to the police station where he realizes the bag will succumb to massive bureaucracy and become eternally lost. He leaves it at his home before he goes to work and ponders the best course of action. Thus begins Antoine Laurain’s delightful novel: what would you do if you found an abandoned handbag? How far would you go to try and find the rightful owner?
Curiosity gets the best of Laurent and he sifts through the contents of the bag. As the name of the novel implies, the handbag contains a red notebook amongst other interesting items. This tiny novel (159 pages) tells the captivating journey of a man seeking a mysterious woman. It’s an intelligent romantic story of a man who finds a woman fascinating based upon her musings written in her red notebook, along with the interesting contents of her bag. (Could a man become fascinated in you based upon the contents of your bag?) I do adore French movies and French literature. Some producer needs to get their hands on this fine novel.
This is a wonderful story and deserves more press. I highly recommend reading it. -
Laure was returning home alone late at night when she was mugged, and her mauve bag was snatched. She was later brought to the hospital suffering from a head injury from the attack.
Laurent, a bookseller, finds the mauve bag by a garbage bin the next morning as he's walking to pick up coffee at his favorite Parisian cafe. There's a long line at the police station so he looks through the bag himself to find some clues to the identity of its owner. Laurent opened the mystery woman's red notebook and started reading:
"She must have recorded her thoughts in the notebook as the whim took her, on cafe-terraces or on the Metro. Laurent was fascinated by her reflections which followed on one from the other, random, touching, zany, sensual. He had opened a door into the soul of the woman with the mauve bag and even though he felt what he was doing was inappropriate, he couldn't stop himself from reading on."(30)
Laurent did not believe in dating services, but he had been hoping for a chance encounter to meet someone to love. Thoughts of the unknown woman fill his mind, and he tracks down clues left by the items in her bag. This is a charming story to read when you're in the mood for a sweet, upbeat book to lift your spirits. -
UTTERLY CHARMING
What would you do if you found a pretty ladies handbag sitting out on top of a dust bin?
Well bookseller Laurent retrieves the handbag with the intention of turning it in to the police. It’s a fine looking handbag and someone must want to have it back.
However, as serendipity would have it that is not what happens.
Intrigue follows bringing this charming little 159 page novella to a most delightful conclusion after leading the reader on a petite mystery dusted with happenstance and advanced with sincere characters that are sure to delight.
“Are you nostalgic for what could have been?” (Pg.124)
This was just the loveliest little book to end the year! -
Que buena lectura he tenido!
El número de páginas adecuado y un estilo delicioso con la elegancia y los detalles sutiles que usan los franceses para enamorar al lector.
La historia es muy fluida y tiene unos giros inesperados que la hacen más emocionante aún, el hecho de que el protagonista sea un librero y haga alusión a otros libros y autores me encanta...me antoja.
La historia de Laure y Laurent me ha cautivado completamente, otro libro francés que me recuerda a Amélie...y esto para mi es positivo porque amo esa película. -
به نظر من داستان معمولی ای بود
یکی از همین فانتزی های عاشقانه که همیشه میشنویم و میبینیم و دیگه بنظرم سوژه لوسی شده
کتابی نیست که توصیه کنم حتی احساس میکنم بهتر بود نمیخوندمش
خطر اسپویل
یک مردی که یک کیف پیدا میکنه و بالاخره صاحبش رو پیدا میکنه و اونها عاشق هم میشن
در همین حد پیش پا افتاده -
لحظه هاي خوبي با اين كتاب داشتم.. خوندنش آرامش و لذت ��اصي داشت و شيرين بود برام.. اما توي داستانهاي فرانسوي هميشه يه چيزي هست كه من خيلي دركش نميكنم!
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اگر نوجوانی فقط یک تعریف داشته باشد، همین خنده های هیستریک است! آدم دیگر هیچ وقت در زندگی این گونه نمی خندد. در نوجوانی، مواجهه ناگهانیِ با این حقیقت که دنیا و زندگی کاملا پوچ و بی معنی است باعث می شود بخندی؛آن قدر بخندی که نفست بالا نیای��. در حالی که در ادامه زندگی، همین موضوع باعث میشود آه بکشی، آهی ملالآور.
#دفترچه_یادداشت_قرمز درمورد #کتاب است، دفترچه ای گم می شود، کتاب فروشی آن را پیدا می کند، نویسنده هایی نظیر پاتریک مودیانو پا به داستان می گذارند، مرد در پی یافتن صاحب دفترچه، زن به کما میرود و کسی را ندارد...
کتابهای نشر هیرمند خیلی خوب انتخاب میشن، بدون حاشیه و عالی. تا حالا از خوندن کتابهاش پشیمون نشدم و با اطمینان کامل کتابهاش روتهیه میکنم و میخونم. ترجمه خانم محب علی هم عالی بود.
داستان بسیار خوب و خواندنی ایه، اگر حوصله هیچ چیز رو ندارین این کتاب روبخونید و غرقش بشید و لذت ببرید تا حالتون خوب شه. -
A soujourn in Paris on an otherwise mundane Sunday. That was predictable but nevetheless, a whimsical palate cleanser.
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This is a lovely little book: a bittersweet romantic comedy that captivated me from the very first page.
A young woman, Laure, arrives home late at night, after dinner with friends. As she arrives at her apartment block somebody tries to snatch her handbag. She resists, but she is shoved against the door frame and her bag slips from her grasp.
She can’t get through the security door without her keys; she can’t call anyone because she relied on the mobile phone in her bag to remember their numbers; and she can’t get anywhere or do anything without the cash or cards in the purse in her handbag.
It was fortunate that the manager of the hotel across the road saw her very real distress and offered her a room and a bed for the night. Everything could be sorted out in the morning. Except it wouldn’t be that simple.
The next day a bookseller, Laurent, sees the bag sitting on top of a rubbish bin. He recognises that it is a very good bag, not the kind of bag that would be casually discarded, and so he picks it up to hand in at the police station. But he found it wouldn’t be that easy. He was too early and would have to wait for an hour, and then there would be forms to complete and questions to be answered. Laurent couldn’t wait; he had a shop to open and so he left, intending to do something about the bag later.
In the end he decided that he would examine the contents of the bag and see of he could find the owner himself. Of course the purse, the keys and the phone were gone but there were things that could be helpful; a keyring with a hieroglyph, a dry-cleaners ticket, and a novel, personally signed to ‘Laure’ by the author.
And he found a red notebook, that the owner had used to scribble all sorts of notes. He felt rather guilty, reading something so personal, but he hoped that he might find a stronger clue to the identity of the bag, and the more he read the more he realised he really wanted to now her.
Laurent’s efforts to find Laure had results; he found her home, he met her cat, but Laure wasn’t there.
There are more twists in the tale – some predictable and some not – before it reaches exactly the right ending.
This is a story that screams ‘FILM ME!’ I can see it, I really can.
The setting, a lightly romanticised Paris – including a lovely, lovely bookshop – is lovely.
I liked the people. The two leads were nicely balanced, and they were well supported by a jealous girlfriend, an opinionated teenage daughter, a helpful colleague …. It’s a very well balanced cast.
There are lovely details: literary references – that I must confess I didn’t know well enough to know how significant they were; Laure had an interesting occupation; and she had a lovely cat who had a small but significant part to play.
The story is a little contrived, of course it is, but it works well and it does come from the characters; their actions and their emotions.
It works beautifully, as the most charming of entertainments.
I was engaged, and I cared, from start to finish. -
A great story reminiscent of Sleepless in Seattle and Goodnight Tweetheart with a beautiful French setting. The main characters are well developed and intertwine through a stolen purse. The adolescent daughter, Chloé, is my favorite because she added humor and sensibility. One sees the conclusion but enjoys the ride, nonetheless. If you are looking for a short, sweet, unique story, read this one with possibly a café au lait and an èclair.
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Re-read
Is there anything better than to spend a whole Saturday morning reading a charming story? The premise is so simple and yet so engrossing. Laurent, a bookshop owner in his 40s, finds a ladies' handbag one morning and decides to find its rightful owner. Little by little, he becomes fascinated by the mysterious woman, imagining her from the eclectic mix of possessions found in the said bag, and the reader follows, willingly in my case. After the first few pages, I was sold. The book is pure whimsy, merging romance with a kind of detection, and casting eccentric bibliophiles, opinionated teenage daughters, jealous girlfriends, caring friends, and two fine specimen of the feline kind.
Funnily enough, a helpful bookseller while recommending me
The Reader on the 6.27 mentioned
The Red Notebook. That piqued my interest since I was looking for something 'not too demanding' to get me back into reading in French. And it did it beautifully - I ate the book in one sitting. Now where do I go? :O) -
Part a charming love story written with characteristic parisian charm, part an enthralling mystery about the nostalgic for what could have been and chasing the unknown, “The red notebook” is an endearing fairy tale.
This is not your typical love story. Laurent falls in love with a woman he creates in his head through the objects she keeps in her handbag. He’s never met Laure. He doesn’t know her name, where she lives or what her job is, but he knows he has to find her no matter what.
Beautifully written, with lots of literary references, it’s a light and charming read that leaves you with a smile of satisfaction at the end. 😊 -
Agradable, tierna y encantadora lectura y muy original ..💯👌
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Intrigued and incensed in equal measure, as a notebook toting woman myself, I wanted to know more of this story centred around a character whose red notebook, containing handwritten thoughts and random PRIVATE jottings, has fallen into the hands of the curious bookseller, Monsieur Laurent Letellier.
Recognising it as a handbag of quality and not something intended to be thrown out, when Monsieur Letellier comes across the abandoned handbag on a Parisian street early one morning, he picks it up intending to hand it in at the police station, which he almost succeeds in doing, except, you know, French bureaucracy, it will require a one hour wait and he has a shop to open up, so plans to return later. Only later becomes much, much later and the police station is not where he will return it to.
The bag belongs to Laure, a woman we meet in the opening pages as she clutches her handbag to her detriment, metres from her apartment, only to be shoved against a metal door frame, losing the bag anyway. Without keys, and despite it being 2am, she manages to check into the hotel opposite, promising to pay in the morning, by which time she will have fallen into a coma.
Once the bag comes home with the bookseller, it becomes a major temptation and much of the book is spent on various dilemmas arising as a consequence of his inaction, which in turn provoke memories of past events. The longer it stays with him, the more trouble it causes and the more intrigued he becomes by its owner, despite recognising his chances at redemption grow slimmer as each day passes.
One of the items the bookseller discovers is a signed copy of Accident Nocturne by Patrick Modiano which leads him to track down the reclusive author, known to frequent Luxembourg Gardens most mornings. As a bookseller, he knows how rare book signings by this author are, so hopes the author may lead him to the woman.
The Modiano cameo intrigued me, particularly as he'd just won The 2014 Nobel Prize for Literature, was that the reason to mention him, I wondered? And then I read Helen's Mad About The Books review of Dora Bruder and found an even better reason for the reference to this esteemed author.
In
Dora Bruder, Modiano tells how in 1988 he stumbled across an ad in the personal columns of the 1941 New Year's Eve edition of Paris Soir. The ad had been placed by the parents of 15-year-old Jewish girl Dora Bruder, who had run away from the Catholic boarding school where she'd been living.
It set the author off on an obsessive quest to find out everything he could about Dora Bruder and why during the most dangerous period of the German occupation of Paris, she had run away from those protecting her. But that's another story and book, so see Helen's review below for more on that extraordinary tale.
The Red Notebook has little of the hardship and tragedy of Dora Bruder, it reads more like a book that could be made into an entertaining romantic comedy, it has all the ingredients, the streets and bookshops of Paris, an artists' workshop, handbags and their intriguing taboo contents, a jealous girlfriend and a lippy adolescent daughter. Watch this space I say!
Personally, I found it wonderful to discover an author who can do uplifting, feel good stories that push the right buttons for booklovers without becoming sentimental or too romantic. Of the ending isn't realistic, but it was fun getting there.
If you like a glimpse of local life in Paris, characters who observe bookshelves and mention what others characters are reading, people who write in notebooks, the short form novella and an uplifting story, that could quite likely turn into a beautiful film, then keep an eye out for The Red Notebook. -
Oh!!! What a charmer of a little book! I was swept up in a modern love story with all the classic elements steeped in the tradition of courtly love. How Laurain takes his reader at a rapid pace of a story without the feeling of rushing the story... I can't explain. I have never encountered a story telling style of this manner. My little copy is dog eared with pages for me to go back to to mull over sentences that struck me and I even underlined a few with pencil that especially stood out. I completely fell in love with this book and am eager to read more of Laurain's work.
I won't rehash the book because, well, you can read the synopsis on Goodreads or the back of the book for yourself. I was entranced with reading about people who were deeper thinkers than most, more observant than most, more self aware or committed to the journey towards self awareness, philosophers, and overall appreciators of all sizes of life's joys. It was a lovely reminder to journal one's thoughts, even if brief sentences highlighting likes or dislikes in the manner of Laure. The sincere, sweet manner Laurent begins his search for the mauve bag's owner was touching and very much inciting of a deep sigh of appreciation for this gentlemanly conduct. Overall, a touching story.
Sidenote- I was jotting down so many French authors names that Laurent, Chloe, and Laure mention throughout the book. I'm keeping my fingers crossed there will be English translations of their works. First and foremost on the list,
Villa triste by the very much mentioned
Patrick Modiano. I read an interview with Laurain and he mentioned Modiano as being a favorite author of his.
