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Forever Leaving You Wanting Just One More Moment, 21 Feb 2006


"So love is just bullshit" That's it? It never works out?"
"Of course it works out. But you have to fight.."
"Fight how?"
"Every day you have to fight a bit. A little bit each day, with the courage to be yourself, to decide just to be happy"
Pierre is explaining to Chole that you need to work to make love happen.
Anna Gavalda at the age of thirty six and after a failed marriage has written her first novel. This is a beautifully crafted story of the search for happiness. The gut wrenching courage it sometimes takes to find that little bit of love and truth. She said in an interview :

"Je l'aimais [Someone I Loved], was a story about the courage it takes to be happy. I seem to like characters who are fragile, wounded, adrift. I think most people are like that. The ones that aren't are either hiding it or are utter fools. I think our sensitive side is the essence of being human. Between those who never doubt their situation on this planet and those who ask themselves every day why they're here and how it all makes sense, of course I prefer the questioners."

Chloe is dumbstruck, her husband, Adrien has left her and their two daughters for another woman. He was not happy. She is bereft. Her father-in-law, whom she called "the old bastard", comes to her aid and insists that she and the girls accompany him to his mother's country home. There she makes several discoveries. Pierre is not the man she thinks he is,, and maybe, just maybe this terrible tragedy might have a silver lining.She learns over the days that Pierre is an unhappy man, that he has allowed his happiness to slip through his fingers. He has allowed this to happen, understands why it happened, and that he was powerless to move on. Pierre had met the love of his life after he was married with children. He lived the secret life of an adulterer, and was too weak to change his circumstances. This he examines with several bottles of good wine through out a night when Chole was at her most miserable. "Regrets he has a few, a few too small to mention", but that has changed the direction of his life. The years he spent in happiness that he gave away; that he did not try and change. Yes, we all have regrets, we are all looking for that elusive crumb called happiness, and we may find it but for a small moment. Anna Gavalda reminds us that life is too short, we must search for what eludes us. And as Scott Peck tells us
"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers."

'Someone I Loved' ends like most great love affairs, forever leaving you wanting just one more moment. --Gisele Tough " Highly Recommended, prisrob
2-19-06