BOOK: The Reinvention of Love by Helen Humphreys

The Reinvention of Love by Helen Humphreys, 309 pages

5th Canadian Book Challenge; 2nds Challenge

When I saw that Humphreys' book was being released so soon after I has just finished Coventry, I jumped in line at the library to read her latest book. Alas, to Humphreys credit as a writer but not mine as a reader, this book was quite different. Coventry was England during the wars, this was France in the 1800s. I am clearly an anglophile. I'll be wishing I read this during Paris in July, and I may have enjoyed it more then. Coventry also seemed to have much more action and plot. Perhaps since Reinvention of Love is based on real characters (Victor Hugo, his wife Adele, writer Charles saint-Beuve) Humphreys was committed to actual events and words already spoken by her characters. Also, in the French literary tradition, it seemed to ponder more philosophically about ideas of love and existence. Too bad for this book that after my past two months of mystery and mayhem reading for RIP the lack of active plot was too slow.

I'll try another book by Humphreys and mark this one down as wrong book, wrong time.