Everything separates them, starting with burial to their respective lifestyles. Desiree finds his neighbor a kitsch razzle-l'oeil distressing even a vulgar taste, like him elsewhere. For its part, Benny can not "stand him" the next, finding the image of the coldness of the grave of her husband, faded like an old color photo, just the opposite of the women he loves.
Then, a combination of circumstances that intersect their smiles and as an arc of light that arises between them, everything changes.
For her, it is "impossible to describe that smile. Inside, there was sun, strawberries, bird chirping and reflections on a mountain lake. "His stomach began to beat faster. "The egg begins to wriggle in me to jump in lap, doing somersaults and sending signals," This way! This way! "I wanted to shout:" Sitting, not moving! "
For him, the smile of a kid Desiree evokes on vacation, or a kid before his first bike.
Thus begins a relationship full of pitfalls confronting diametrically opposed lifestyles. Neither is willing to drop a little ground on its cultural and social certainties. Their games are crisp determinism, their impossible conversations. Yet they are struggling to pass one another despite living standard mismatch.
It is an exhilarating book about the collision of cultures. A novel in two voices making us penetrate with joy intimacy of two people who must deal between their instincts and reason. The text is a series of hilarious and finely brought metaphors have often made me giggle. Just a few about the part of Benny seemed to me a bit too scholarly.
The author has a keen and accurate look at some social and cultural barriers in a playful tone nevertheless filled with great tenderness.
This book had an extraordinary success in Sweden as I understand! Between laughter, blue flower side and the culture shock, I really cracked too.
(An additional detail: this book is the result of Gaia editions that have the feature to print their texts on salmon pink pages This actually has the effect of making the reading very soothing That happiness..!)