The House I Loved

Picture in your mind a woman who is not mentally healthy.  She keeps secrets and allows those secrets to burn in her soul.  She doesn't accept reality.  She despises change and refuses to adapt.  She is stubborn to a fault.  That is the story of Rose Bezoulet in The House I Loved by Tatiana de Rosnay.   Rose, she is a stubborn one. She lives in Paris in the 1850's and 60's - the time of the  American Civil War.  A Paris city planner, named Hausmann plans to change Paris to allow for traffic, rid the Paris inhabitants of the danger of cholera, and enhance the city with wide boulevards threatens Rose's house.  Hausemann is a real person and the changes he made were real.  Yes, he took people's homes but he had a larger public welfare in mind.  Rose can't adapt.  She can't accept the change. She can't see the good.  She clings to her house which actually is the house of her husband, Armand.  I understand that property means very much to people.  But when it comes to life or death. property doesn't mean so much to me.  I loved Rose as a person. Maybe she didn't connect with her daughter (which I don't really get because my daughter is above average) and maybe she wasn't the most adaptable person but I grew to love her. I, too, once lived on Saint Germaine.  My Saint Germaine was in Saint Cloud and underneath an antique shop, but it was Saint Germaine nonetheless.  Although this story doesn't rank up there with Sarah's Key, it was an enjoyable story.