Rachel Reviews: The List of My Desires by Grégoire Delacourt
A book about life and its value and whether having money is a route to contentment
My Kindle died and I needed a short paperback to read. This book fitted the bill, having fallen behind the bookcase and been discovered during some long needed Spring cleaning. Dusted off, I started reading and found a little piece of treasure.
What would you do if you won the lottery? That's essentially what this book is about: a fictional character who decides, on a whim, to buy a Euromillions lottery ticket and Fortune decides that she should be the winner.
Set in the French town of Arras, Jocelyne is our narrator, a haberdasher who feels nondescript: a little lumpy, a little old, a little average. She is married to Jocelyn, her husband and they have two children who are grown and pursuing their own lives. Jocelyne's shop does a fair trade and her blog has some followers. She is, for the most part, content.
This has not come easy though and we learn of her past and the tragedies that she has weathered to reach this plateau of calmness and she quite rightly does not want it disturbed.
Persuaded by the twins in the shop next door to buy a ticket, Jocelyne, who wins, must now decide what to do with her "good fortune", 18 million Euros of it. Should she tell her husband? Should she change their lives? Should she blow up the peace that she has gained for the "good fortune" she has acquired?
This was a light read in terms of its brevity but there was a lot of thought-provoking content which did make me question how winning the lottery might be the emotional equivalent of setting off a grenade in the suddenness of the change that descends and the damage that it may cause.
Delacourt shows the delicate nature of a marriage and how balance obtained for one of the people in the relationship might be hard won. There is one particular moment for Jocelyne which is heartbreaking although perhaps not entirely unexpected and it is that that changes the book from what life is to what life must now become.
It's funny in places; it's sad; it's wistful; it's touching. It is also an exploration of whether money can bring happiness and a reminder that perhaps we should seek less the lure of wealth and what it offers and instead, look at what we have and hold already and its non-monetarial worth.
I would recommend.
Rachel Rating: 5 out of 5 blooming stars!
*This is also published as The Wish List in America.
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Comments (5)
Nicely reviewed. Your introduction to the story reminds me of "Babette's Feast", though it's a very different take on winning the lottery.
Woo 5/5-Rachel a book written in I think 08 by a Canadian that you might like is-Lullabies for Little Criminals. Think author Heather O' Neil
5 out of 5 stars!? Whoa, Rachel! From you that’s high praise! The premise of the story reminds me of a movie made in the 1930s called If I had a Million. A wealthy man is dying while his family greedily awaits his demise. He decides to give his money away to random people, a million each. It’s essentially broken into 4 or 5 separate tales, some comic, some tragic. This film was made and released during the Great Depression. The cast included the great actor Charles Laughton and the comedian WC Fields.
Jocelyne. And her husband is Jocelyn. You've gotta be kidding me. Like come onnnn, it's not that difficult to come up with a name. Bro just took off an E at the end and decided that's the husband's name. Like whattttt???
Very interesting aritlce, good work