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A review by jmatkinson1
All Human Wisdom by Pierre Lemaitre
4.0
On the day that her father is to be buried Madelience suffers further tragedy when her seven year old son falls from a high window and is left paralysed. Madeleine must look after her son and also her position as head of an important bank. However she has little head for business and trusts the wrong people, losing her inheritance and leaving herself and her son destitute. From this Madeleine has to build her life again in the Paris of the 1930s.
This is the second book in Lemaitre's trilogy set in Paris between the wars. I found this one quite difficult to engage with for the first section but once the plot had started to kick in properly I realised what makes Lemaitre so good. In common with many classical writers he takes a cast of characters and develops them slowly and with great care. Sometimes the prose drags a little but the sly humour is always there.
This is the second book in Lemaitre's trilogy set in Paris between the wars. I found this one quite difficult to engage with for the first section but once the plot had started to kick in properly I realised what makes Lemaitre so good. In common with many classical writers he takes a cast of characters and develops them slowly and with great care. Sometimes the prose drags a little but the sly humour is always there.