Reviewed by Carrie Wallace
All Those Things We Never Said
by Marc Levy
Chris Murray (Translator)
Versilio
279 pages, May 29, 2012, ASIN: B0087WN25I
High-Quality “Chick Lit” written by a man: you heard here first that it’s possible.
Marc Levy has the distinction of being the most-read French author in the world. His latest, All Those Things We Never Said, is freshly translated into English and highly recommended by Compulsive Reader for a quick and pleasurable read.
The book opens with the death of animator Julia Walsh’s father, which inconveniently forces her to choose between attending his funeral and going ahead with her wedding day. She cancels her wedding, of course. Shortly thereafter, Julia learns that her father had his cerebral cortex downloaded into an android after his death when he appears in a crate in her living room complete with a remote.
Part sci-fi, part magical realism, and all suspension of disbelief, Levy then pulls the reader into a globetrotting journey with Julia and her father, Anthony–or what’s left of him. The android looks exactly like Julia’s father, and she cannot resist asking a few questions along the way.
Like any good father would, he wanted to have six days to cavort around with his daughter. However, Anthony Walsh was too absent to have been a good father, and Julia refused to speak with him for over a decade. Now that he’s dead, they’re finally talking. Ultimately, Julia finds the love she had tried to forget and realizes that her relationship with her father was not as far gone as she had imagined through her adult life. This book could be a real tear-jerker for anyone in a relationship of distant ambivalence with her father, but it’s light read overall. The book may be about how our parents influence us whether we want that or not–or it may be about what a father will do for his daughter–or possibly, it’s a tome about the importance of not compromising when it comes to being in love with a future spouse. All I know is that it was fun to read.
Head over to Marc Levy’s Facebook page before February 10 and answer five questions about the book for your chance to win a trip to Paris. Good luck!
About the reviewer: Carrie Wallace loves to read, review books, and drink coffee. She writes for Publisher’s Weekly and ForeWord/Clarion, and was recently hired on by BlueInk reviews. Her other job is in the organic foods, beauty products and supplements industry as an independent contractor for Aspen Horizon. Her undergraduate degree is in sociology and journalism (KU). She lives in Lawrence, Kansas with her husband and 3-year-old.