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kukkamultatytto's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked the writing style and the details, it was interesting to read about France in war time. Léon and Yvonne were very interesting characters but, though she was a title character, I found Louise to be very bland and boring. I could have read a book solely about Léon and it would have been enough.
griesgrau's review against another edition
3.0
Ganz unterhaltsam, aber Louise ist für mich nicht greifbar. Ein Buch, sowie ein Blick in eine vergangene Zeit. Eine Liebesgeschichte, die eher auf dem Getrennt sein der Protagonisten aufbaut.
la_roseanna's review against another edition
4.0
Eine echte Liebesgeschichte, wie das Leben eben so ist. Unberechenbar, voller Wirdrigkeiten aber nie ohne Wunder. Nicht immer können die Menschen die sich Lieben ihr ganzes Leben miteinander verbringen und nicht immer ist der Mann (oder auch die Frau)an deiner Seite ganz der deine. Liebe ist aber soviel mehr als nur zwei Menschen "Till the end" und Wunder, Zufall, Zuversicht und Vertrauen schaffen dem Glück immer einen Weg. Das ist es was man von Léon, Yvonne und Louise lernt, in unaufdringliche Poesie.
jeanetterenee's review against another edition
3.0
The best writing here is in the long letters Louise writes to Leon. They have a liveliness and humor that is absent in the rest of the novel.
phantasyia's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.75
gerd_d's review against another edition
3.0
Ganz unterhaltsam, aber nicht so ganz was ich mir davon versprochen habe.
Erinnert ein wenig an [b:Zwei an einem Tag|8527836|Zwei an einem Tag|David Nicholls|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1343323382s/8527836.jpg|6463667] mit seiner Geschichte eines (durch zwei Weltkriege) verhinderten Liebespaares.
Die Charaktere sind jedoch zu meist sympathischer, Louise ist manchmal zu sehr Gassen Göre für meinen Geschmack, und Nazi Hauptmann Knochen ist natürlich wunderbar hassenswert böse. Die Liebesgeschichte ist dankenswerter weise weitestgehend frei von dem alles durchdringenden Egoismus der das Paar in [b:Zwei an einem Tag|8527836|Zwei an einem Tag|David Nicholls|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1343323382s/8527836.jpg|6463667] ausmacht, aber leider auch eher zweitrangig für den Storyverlauf.
Fazit: Nette Lektüre für zwischendurch wenn man keine zu hohen Ansprüche stellt.
Erinnert ein wenig an [b:Zwei an einem Tag|8527836|Zwei an einem Tag|David Nicholls|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1343323382s/8527836.jpg|6463667] mit seiner Geschichte eines (durch zwei Weltkriege) verhinderten Liebespaares.
Die Charaktere sind jedoch zu meist sympathischer, Louise ist manchmal zu sehr Gassen Göre für meinen Geschmack, und Nazi Hauptmann Knochen ist natürlich wunderbar hassenswert böse. Die Liebesgeschichte ist dankenswerter weise weitestgehend frei von dem alles durchdringenden Egoismus der das Paar in [b:Zwei an einem Tag|8527836|Zwei an einem Tag|David Nicholls|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1343323382s/8527836.jpg|6463667] ausmacht, aber leider auch eher zweitrangig für den Storyverlauf.
Fazit: Nette Lektüre für zwischendurch wenn man keine zu hohen Ansprüche stellt.
florapost's review against another edition
5.0
Wonderful. I finished it and then immediately turned back to the opening pages to relive it.
barbarahowe's review against another edition
5.0
Léon and Louise is a charming love story, but is not a formulaic romance. The book spans decades and two wars, and the two title characters spend far more time apart than they do together. They meet in the final year of World War I, and are both gravely injured in the German final offensive. Léon, believing Louise dead, goes on with his life. The story skips ahead a decade, and he has a wife and children before discovering Louise alive on a passing train in the Paris Metro. From there on, Léon’s wife, Yvonne, is as strong a presence in the book as is Louise, and it becomes a story more about three people discovering the complexities of love and coming to terms with their own and their partners’ idiosyncrasies than it is about youthful passion.
It is also a story about ordinary people struggling to carry on normal lives under extraordinary circumstances. While Louise travels to Africa during World War II as part of the Bank of France contingent safeguarding the French gold reserves from the Nazis, Léon and Yvonne remain in Paris under the thumb of the occupying Germans.
I was left with several indelible images, among them Louise, with no hands on the handlebars, pedalling a rusty, squeaking bicycle and easily passing Léon puffing away on his. Léon searching station after station of the Paris Metro for Louise while the strawberry tarts he had bought for Yvonne slowly disintegrate. Léon stuffing 100-franc notes into strangers’ letterboxes, dispersing the bribes forced on him by his despised German overseer.
Written in German by a Swiss author, based on events in his French grandfather’s life, the book has been beautifully translated into English. The story is told with a light touch, almost breezy in places, with only glancing references to the emotional weight of some of the events. Because we must read between the lines and fill in the gaps from our own experience, different readers may have widely varying perceptions of the emotional depth of the story. For example, when an SS agent coerces Léon into line through deliberate cruelty to his daughter, all we are given of Léon’s reaction is that he pushed his chair back with a jerk. Some readers may think him cold and detached. Others, like me, who have had a visceral reaction to the threats expressed in the previous paragraph and who know what we would do for our own children in such circumstances, approve of his self-control in not giving voice to the hot rage and cold horror he must have been feeling.
Like any story where there is as much going on under the surface as above, Léon and Louise benefits from a slow reading. This is a book to savour, not rush through.
This review was first published on This Need to Read
It is also a story about ordinary people struggling to carry on normal lives under extraordinary circumstances. While Louise travels to Africa during World War II as part of the Bank of France contingent safeguarding the French gold reserves from the Nazis, Léon and Yvonne remain in Paris under the thumb of the occupying Germans.
I was left with several indelible images, among them Louise, with no hands on the handlebars, pedalling a rusty, squeaking bicycle and easily passing Léon puffing away on his. Léon searching station after station of the Paris Metro for Louise while the strawberry tarts he had bought for Yvonne slowly disintegrate. Léon stuffing 100-franc notes into strangers’ letterboxes, dispersing the bribes forced on him by his despised German overseer.
Written in German by a Swiss author, based on events in his French grandfather’s life, the book has been beautifully translated into English. The story is told with a light touch, almost breezy in places, with only glancing references to the emotional weight of some of the events. Because we must read between the lines and fill in the gaps from our own experience, different readers may have widely varying perceptions of the emotional depth of the story. For example, when an SS agent coerces Léon into line through deliberate cruelty to his daughter, all we are given of Léon’s reaction is that he pushed his chair back with a jerk. Some readers may think him cold and detached. Others, like me, who have had a visceral reaction to the threats expressed in the previous paragraph and who know what we would do for our own children in such circumstances, approve of his self-control in not giving voice to the hot rage and cold horror he must have been feeling.
Like any story where there is as much going on under the surface as above, Léon and Louise benefits from a slow reading. This is a book to savour, not rush through.
This review was first published on This Need to Read
canadianbookworm's review against another edition
5.0
This novel follows the two title characters from before the met during World War I to decades later. Léon is from Cherbourg and when he determines that he doesn't wish to continue his schooling, finds work in a small town on the Marne as a Morse code operator at a railway station. Certain quirks of his character are already set, like his love for odds and ends, developed in Cherbourg when scouring the beaches for flotsam and continued throughout his life. In this small town, Léon meets Louise, a young woman similar in age to himself and also a war worker. Louise works as an office girl for the mayor. Slowly the two develop a friendship, one that looks to endure. But one day, when they are bicycling back from an excursion they are caught in German shelling and air attack and both are injured. After being treated for his wounds, Léon tries to find her, but cannot. It is only a decade later when a chance encounter connects them again. But Léon is married and Louise will not intrude upon that situation. When World War II comes, Léon is forced to do work at the behest of his SS superiors despite his best efforts, and Louise is shipped off to Africa on secret duties. It is several years before she returns to Paris and the story of the two continues.
Told by one of the grandsons of Léon, as a look back following Léon's death, the story shows two good people, connected in a way few are, and determined to do the right thing. An absolutely charming novel.
Told by one of the grandsons of Léon, as a look back following Léon's death, the story shows two good people, connected in a way few are, and determined to do the right thing. An absolutely charming novel.