Delicacy [Kindle Edition]

I haven't read a literary novel in years- literally. I almost always read non-fiction titles but felt compelled to purchase this novel after seeing the film (which I loved). I love the author's style, humour, and sense of fun. This is a sweet, feel-good delight! It is really touching, moving, and gives you the hope to love again.

Delicacy is a quirky and very French love story. It's a slim book with an even slimmer plot. It's about a woman called Natalie who marries the love of her life and then loses him in an accident. She retreats into social isolation, throwing herself into her work. Her boss Charles is attracted to her, but she rebuffs his advances and then starts a tentative relationship with one of her staff members, a Swede named Markus. And that's pretty much it.

It took me a while to adjust to the writing style. The story is relayed in a very impersonal way, almost like a documentary. There are little footnotes and pauses in the story to tell us the ingredients for the dish the characters are eating at that moment or technical details about something that has been alluded to in passing. It's unusual and could have seemed pretentious, but instead it comes across as charming. At one point we are even told in a footnote who the author imagines would be playing two of the characters if this was a movie - and indeed, they are the same two actresses who have taken on those roles in the real life film of the book.

Initially I felt that the translation was somewhat clunky , but either it settled down or I got used to the writing style. And then about halfway through I realised that I was loving it. The tone is very droll - the closest way I can think to describe it is that it reads the way that films like Amelie [DVD] [2001] and Delicatessen [DVD] felt. It's like eating a macaroon: a delicate flavour, delicious sensation on your tongue, and then crunch! it's gone.

I started this book in much the same way as the main character - hopeful. It seemed so full of promise. Unfortunately, I very quickly found myself becoming irritated by the writing style, which reads like a cross between a movie script and a Twitter feed. Is it really necessary for a 250 page book to have 115 chapters? - Especially when some of them are made up of only three or four words. I should have been forewarned by the footnote on the first page, where after saying "But she never ever felt nostalgia. That was something that was quite rare for Natalie" the author feels compelled to add a footnote saying "There's often a clear tendency for nostalgia in Natalies".

Even though the story is quite slight, there are plus points. The two main characters are quite well drawn, and the writing style is such that not only do you get to see their back story and motivation, but you get to see their thinking. Unfortunately, there are other characters who, for me, actively detracted from the book. Natalie's boss, Charles, in particular is supposed to be holding down a responsible position but acts in such a way that in real life, he would be in industrial tribunals and police investigations so fast his head would have been spinning. Considering the book is set within the last decade, he seems to have been drawn from the 1950's.

If you can put up with the staccato style, and are looking for something light and frothy to read on a weekend break, then this may be very much for you but if you are looking for a literary romance then, alas, you may be in for a disappointment - much in the style of a collapsed soufflé.