The Girl at the Lion D'Or

This library copy was published by Vintage.

Title: The Girl at the Lion D'Or
Author: Sebastian Faulks
First Published: by Hutchinson, 1989
Audience: 15+
Rating: 3.5 stars
About: Set in France in the mid-1930s, the novel follows a young woman, Anne Louvet, as she takes up a new post as a waitress in a small town hotel: The Lion D'Or. It soon becomes apparent that Anne is keeping her past secret, a secret she might be willing to reveal once she gets involved with a local, and married man, Charles Hartmann.

The Girl at the Lion D'Or was recommended to me by my sister, who'd recently taken it out of the local library. She'd described it as 'decent' and 'pretty good', so my initial impression wasn't overwhelming, but being a fan of Sebastian Faulks' work, I was eager to read another of his classics.

The pace of the novel was much slower than of those I'd been reading lately, but this was mainly due to the attention to detail contained within the description. The novel opens with a beautifully illustrated scene of a train station in the pouring rain, which immediately places the reader within the character's world. Faulks' unprecedented skill of being able to paint a scene then progresses throughout the narrative until a thoroughly depicted atmosphere of the entire town and the characters within it are created. This is what sucks the reader into the book, not the drama or twisting storyline, but the realistic nature of the place the author has created. There is also a constant political undertone which adds another dimension to the story, developing realism and a distant sense of foreboding which was incorporated into the main story.

What I enjoyed most about the novel was it's simplicity. The story follows the lives of people living within the town, mainly that of Anne and Hartmann, and it is the engaging nature of their characters which moves the story along. What is also unusual about this book is the lack of a villain. There are several characters such as Mattlin and Roland who are less likeable and untrustworthy than the protagonists, but there is no good versus evil battle. What drives the story is the accentuated importance of love, however fleeting, amongst the vastness and grandeur of everyday life. Essentially, this is a complicated, yet uncomplicated, love story between two adults as they plod through their unremarkable lives, and it is the love and lust between them which gives them the opportunity to be remarkable, even for a little while.

All in all, I felt that this novel was nice. It was beautifully written, and a captivating love story, but I didn't feel entirely blown away. That isn't to say I didn't like it, I thoroughly enjoyed it for various reasons, but I don't feel like it's a novel I'd read twice. For that reason, I'd give it 3.5 stars out of 5, but I also definitely encourage others to give it a go.