The Slow Waltz of Turtles

It's been a while.
A lot has happened in the meantime. I've abandoned a book.. The Wind-up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Set in a dystopian future, I felt I had read better dystopian novels than this one. It just was a bit too asian, and a plot that didn't make sense. Maybe I would've had an Aha-Erlebnis if I had continued but I didn't feel like it. So many books, so little time..

So, that brings me seamlessly to the book I did finish. The Slow Waltz of Turtles is a sequel to The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles also by Katherine Pancol. The main characters that I've gotten to know through that book, come back to live in this second installment. I felt like I had never left the particular ban lieu  where Josephine, Zoé and Hortense lived, although it has been five years since I read the first novel.

Josephine has become rich, but she hasn't gained much confidence from that fact. Almost forced by her eldest daughter she moved to a better part of Paris, where she and her youngest daughter don't feel at home. Even with living between the rich she can't help but hand out help to the needy she encounters on her path.
The tone of this novel is quite different from the previous one, where Jo was depicted as a insecure woman ruled by those she admired. When Hortense, her eldest daughter reveals the fact that the book Jo had written wasn't in fact from the hand of Iris, Jo's sister, Jo begins to feel an inkling of confidence from the fact that her daughter stood up for her.
In this novel that confidence only grows. Don't misunderstand me, Jo stays the same ever-doubting woman who doesn't see what she has to offer,but although she is afraid, she does have the courage to stand up for herself and take the things she wants.

Another part of the novel circulates around a few violent events, that seem indirectly to be revolving around Jo, where her imagination fills in most of the blanks.
The emotional depth and brilliant scenery make this 600+ page novel a treat to read. I felt somehow connected with Jo, because I can relate to her insecurity. I might be a bit louder and have quite a dirty mouth, in the end I am as insecure about giving or receiving love or kindness.

Review of The Yellow Eyes of the Crocodiles

I've bought this novel just a few weeks ago, in the beginning of August. I was on a date with my husband, for the first time without our daughter, and we were treating ourselves to a little shopping spree with dinner afterwards.
Me, always caught in a bookstore, let my eyes wander and they fell on this very one. Not hard to do, seeing the intensily bright cover, but still, I do read the back of the book and as it didn't give me any clue to what the story was about, it was mysterious enough for me to take it home with me.

Originally written in French, this novel isn't yet published in English. I've read it in Dutch, my native tongue and I liked it a lot.
It's the story of a family - two sisters, their mother and the people surrounding them, like planets circling three suns - in decrepit, even if not all is aware of it.

The main character, Joséphine, is a quite unstable, emotional, insecure but above all a giving woman, who in the very beginning of the novel is facing the fact that her husband has left her.
Iris, her older sister, apparently happily married to a well-established man, but a marriage devoid of any mutual feeling.
Jo's mother, Henriette, a vixen of a woman, cold in heart and venomous in thought.
Jo's two children, Hortense and Zoë, one coldly and attached and the other sweet and innocent.
Further we've got friends of Jo, friends of Iris, Henriette's husband and other small characters passing the revue.
All in all a whole room full of people, which I don't complain about since this is a novel of almost 600 pages long. The novel, chuck full of different story threads, make it a joy to read. I read it quite quickly, and it lends itself superbly to that. An easy flowing story that almost never gets dull. It's proof that not every succesful book is made of unexpecting turns of event. With a cliffhanger or two, this novel got me not so much on the edge of my seat, but very comfortable in my sofa reading sometimes an hour on end (which isn't that common lately due to my 9month old munchkin).

I'm hoping it will be translated in English soon, because this is a novel you wouldn't want to miss if you like reading about regular people doing regular things but doing so might accomplish greatness from that. What isn't to like about a story set in Paris, where love seems to have been born?

Personal rating: 4 stars
Thickness: 500+ pages
First published in 2006