A charming play, "how time"

With a very nice style, very fluid, elegant and delightfully quaint, Gwenaële BARUSSAUD presents here ... a fan-fiction Emile Zola!
The dazzling Au Bonheur des Dames of the author (Zola affordable, exciting, eminently modern and that ends well, for once! I still do not understand why it is not studied in college rather than knocking Assommoir. .. good, end of digression) served here as a springboard to introduce a similar story, but modified in its development, with choices more feminist and more current without losing its historical tone. (I will not detail more not to spoil the reading, but a detail of the end surprised me, I was expecting a revelation that did not come!)

Pauline, motherless and with a sailor father always absent, left Rouen for the capital, with load fourteen sisters and six. It does not take long to find work, by a fluke - but also thanks to its determination - to the great Parisian elegance store. The first part is in Zola Book mirror, with the supercharged atmosphere of the store, the harsh working conditions, the ruthless competition. The tone is lighter, however, flown difficulties, to offer a reading youth, and later differs, the author takes over its history.

As in the novel by Zola, born marketing outbreak of a brain bright, bold and enterprising, very well staged, showing sales precepts still used today, but incredibly innovative at the time.

The ardor of the modernism of the time, the possibilities for social advancement through work and ambition are very well made. The author is passionate and makes us discover a feverish Paris and its bucolic surroundings with great talent in a very evocative style. The story is very fluid, I actually read the book in one sitting before giving it to my thirteen year old girl, who will certainly appreciate as much.

I did not put 5 *, despite my reading pleasure because it pretty novel is a little superficial to my taste, with a small side amusement park, many things are touched, but never explored. The relationships between the characters are believable and well exposed in a period setting, but lack the "show do not tell," more dialogues and scenarios would probably remedied. However the choice of treatment the author is perfectly respectable and consistent from beginning to end, the novel is very balanced.

For all those who have been excited about this reading, I suggest you read if it does not already, the work of which it pays homage Zola (Au Bonheur des Dames) and fantasy novels Janine Montupet especially The Lacemaker Alençon exposes with great realism and passion of the time the working conditions, through the eyes of a child and young woman, unusual.
Finally, to revive the industrial turn of the garment, through family stories, discover the work exceptional and rather unknown that was the extraordinary writer Germaine Beaumont, reading the series of novels "Sylsauve" which begins with one: Silsauve