The Life of Elves

Such a disappointment The Elegance of the Hedgehog is one of my favorite books It doesn t seem possible that the same author has written The Life of Elves It doesn t seem possible that I m giving Muriel Barbery one star but I have to.First off, this book should come with a warning that it is part one of a two part series Having pre ordered it I had no idea As I write this I see it is not possible for you to read a sample of the book, which is unfortunate a sample is essential for this particular [...]

This is a strange, strange little creation.I really don t know if I loved it or hated it I don t know if the florid prose is beautiful and meditative, or eye rollingly overwrought and ridiculous I don t know what happened in the plot, but somehow I understand the emotion behind it, or something similar.Things make no sense for entire chapters and it doesn t matter, as they snap into focus for brief seconds later I think that s a good thing I think Reading this is like trying to see through the m [...]

I loved The Elegance of the Hedgehog Anyone I ve ever talked to about The Elegance of the Hedgehog loved it too And yet, Muriel Barbery s third novel The Life of Elves is a literary calamity.I am two thirds through this book but I realised this weekend that the avoidance techniques I ve employed to not finish this book hmm I ll just read this real estate magazine again have won out The Life of Elves will go back to the bookshelf unfinished Book I Forsook 2.I can t even critique the narrative pro [...]

This book opened my heart to the bridges between the mundane world and the ethereal community of faith along the shared road that passes over the bridge Can we move easily from one realm to the other Not without war, whether fought under the overturned sky, or within I think that s what Barbery is letting us have a peek at the struggle to merge the misty awareness of joy in the riches of each day with personal and shared history, struggle, pain, loss of everyday life The simplicity of a kitchen [...]

she looked up at him with her eyes as blue as the torrents from the glacier, with a gaze in which the angels of mystery sang And life flowed down the slopes of the Sasso with the slowness and intensity of those places where everything requires effort but also takes its time, in the current of a bygone dream where humankind knew languor interwoven with the bitterness of the world The Life of Elves is the third novel by prize winning French novelist and professor of philosophy, Muriel Barbery Two [...]

A beguiling fairytale , as quoted by the NYT, should be everything I dream of reading and Well frankly I wish I had read the full review before starting because the review goes on to pretty much say over written and confusing which is what I found this book to be also The start is intriguing, then it all gets a bit too wordy and what starts off as magical magical realism turned into a bit of a nightmare for me as it went on By then end I was furious with myself for not giving up half way Not fo [...]

I really wanted to love this And it looked and sounded like a book that I d normally dive into and feel immediately swept up along in but that didn t happen and that makes me feel sad It focuses on 2 little girls one brought up in Spain, the other in Italy And they both have a great role to play in the battle between good and evil in very different ways There are glimpses of what this book was trying to get across, and the way it was written was beautiful in parts but for a lot of the time it ju [...]

Ce se nt mpl c nd un autor nu are chef de scris Cine dore te s afle poate citi Via a elfilor Sigur c nu va afla nimic despre elfi, de i sunt pomeni i des n roman, i nici nu va avea parte de personaje sau ac iune Ce se petrece n acest carte ar fi nc put lejer ntr o batist narativ de 30 de pagini.Povestea celor dou fete este complet neinteresant i redat n a a fel nc t orice urm de interes s fie omor t n fa Exist c teva sclipiri, c teva personaje care par s promit , dar care sunt abandonate rapid d [...]

L mminhenkisen Siilin eleganssin kirjoittaja ranskalainen Muriel Barbery on aloittanut uuden kenties kokonaisen fantasiakirjasarjan kirjalla Haltiael m Kirjan nimest voi jo p tell , ett kirjassa tapahtuu yliluonnollisia asioita ja tapahtumia Kirjan p henkil t ovat kaksi tytt , Maria ja Clara, jotka on viety syntym ns j lkeen eri maihin, ja molemmat saivat rakastavat perheet luonnon keskelt.T ss fantasiakirjassa kohtaavat sek hyv ett paha Kirja on alkusoittoa todella voimakkaalle pahuudelle Molem [...]

ugh I loathed this book I read her the elegance of the hedgehog and do not remember one thing about it, which means it was better than this granted, this has been translated from the french, but I don t think that can possibly account for the sloppy, overblown, synesthetic writing I have examples dawn shooting its rosy fingers into skies transparent than love first of all, leave the rosy fingered dawn to virgil not exactly original and WTF does transparent than love mean this is like bad poetr [...]

Warning Your tolerance level for airy fairy prose must be to enjoy The Life of Elves I loved this book I never read the Hedgehog book, which makes me one of a small minority on I chose this book because, well, I ve always been an Elvish fan.I also loved John Crowley s Little Big and Mark Helprin s Winter s Tale I was mesmerized by Antoine de Saint Exup ry s The Little Prince, another French to English translation They all have that dreamy, sunny afternoon lazing in a hammock feel to them Like e [...]

Halusin kovasti pit kirjasta jo alusta alkaen, meit ei kuitenkaan ollut tarkoitettu toisillemme Kaunista kielt ja maagista realismia, varmasti ihastuttava kirja Barberyn faneille Me and this book weren t meant for each other, sadly I was pondering between 2 and 3 stars, decided finally to give 3 since it s so beautifully written.

It seems unanimous that Muriel Barbery shocked us all with this new novel, which is already set as a first in a series of two books A deviation from her first two beloved books so much so that most of us can hardly believe it is from the same woman I have not found anyone declaring this better than her first two novels barely anyone that does not hint toward it being worse The story is magical, whimsical, confusing, mysterious, otherworldly Barbery s prose is lyrical, poetic As was evident in he [...]

As posted on Zezee with Books.I ve found a new writer to admire.My thoughts Indeed, I would not be surprised if, in the end, we find out that we are all the characters of some meticulous but mad novelist I m in love with Barbery s writing The entire time I read, I was wrapped up in her prose I admired how she structured her sentences, the words she used, and the descriptions she weaved throughout It s all beautiful.The story is about two girls who must strengthen their powers before an impending [...]

I almost want to challenge anybody to remember much about this book after they ve finished it it has an ethereal, dreamlike quality that I suspect was precisely the author s intent to convey, but this really works against the book, in my view I spent the entirety of the journey feeling like I was shuffling through some kind of sleep fog Characters utter things that are clearly supposed to be of great significance, but which meant nothing to me at all There s lots of talk about bridges , the War [...]

This is a fantasy novel that feels like it has been written by someone who has never read a fantasy novel but all the same assumes that she and her readers all share the same general conception of what one should be Everything is drawn in the broadest of strokes with very little effort into world building, and there s magic and good and evil and some sort of battle but characterizations of either side are hazy at best There are 2 little girls who I guess are elves, but it doesn t really matter H [...]

I sadly could not finish this book I SO wanted to having loved her earlier book The Elegance of the Hedgehog I had high hopes for this book and truly some of the prose was simply stunning The story lost me and found me and lost me again I gave a concerted effort, returning to the ring again and again But a book shouldn t be like a boxing match, right

Ori am eu grave probleme de aten ie, ori trebuie s mi mai creasc un creier pentru a n elege cartea asta

Beautiful use of words Story could be better itself Very slow beginning It was like reading a poem.

La prosa de Barbery es maravillosa, da igual si escribe sobre un hecho horrible o sobre la belleza del paisaje, como lector quedas sumergido en ese mundo que ella inventa Ya sea que escriba sobre plantas, m sica, libros, pintura o elfos, t te lo crees y en el camino te recreas con un uso excepcional del lenguaje No voy a comparar este libro con su xito m s conocido porque ser a injusto, porque este por s solo es capaz de gustar a quien lo lea a conciencia y se deje llevar de la mano de su narrat [...]

Two girls are born at the same moment in time, both with mysterious links to the elven world That world is in trouble, so the two girls are carefully placed into the human world, Maria in a poor little village in France, Clara in a little village in Italy, with good people who will raise them safely and well As they grow they discover something of their own powers, eve though they have no idea who or what they are Some of their human caretakers the sensitive and creative ones, the ones with good [...]

I m still not sure what to make of this book.I ve read Muriel Barbery s The Elegance of the Hedgehog and Gourmet Rhapsody and absolutely loved them, but struggled to finish this book Is it a fairy tale A fantasy An allegory None of the above Two little girls are born on the same day and hour One is adopted in France the other one in Italy We later find out that they were taken to this countries to protect them One is half elf half human and the other is an elf, but with human characteristics The [...]

La vida de los elfos es una historia que me dej totalmente indiferente Llegu a la novela con muchas expectativas dado el renombre y las cr ticas positivas que tiene la autora Si bien no hab a le do rese as sobre esta novela, me atrajo la historia que propon a.Desde las primeras p ginas supe que esta novela no iba a ser de mis preferidas por el estilo de escritura de la autora Su prosa es demasiado detallista y po tica, ya que de manera permanente ahonda en descripciones de lugares, cosas y situa [...]

Much to say about this book I adored The Elegance of the Hedgehog and I still find myself thinking about its characters many years after having read it I had high expectations for Barbery s most recent novel because of my love of her earlier works and because ELVES and was dismayed to see such terrible reviews accumulating I emerged from the other end of this book amazed and confused by the harshness of those reviews I m not sure how to judge the quality of Barbery s writing or the story as a wh [...]

I so enjoyed this book It is so poetic and whimsical, it spoke to me very deeply I loved how important nature is to the story It was simply a joy to dive into the language of the book and be swept away by magic and dreams As for the plot, it was a little hazy and not quite concrete The whimsy made for an illogical story telling that was hard to follow It was pretty vague and took a long time to tell But I didn t mind because everything was wonderful.The characters were very important and deeply [...]

I really wanted to like this book as I am very fond of magical fairy tales for adults But it is very difficult to make them work and in this instance Muriel Barbery was not able to deliver I enjoyed the sentiments of the story and Ms Babery s writing whilst in translation was quite lovely However I was unable to engage with any of the characters and neither was I swept away by the narrative or its inherent magic.

lo siento,pero quiz s no sea para mi

Although a book should not be judged by its cover, I believe that it can be judged by its title, at least prima facie, unless and until evidence to the contrary is provided I declined to read The Elegance of the Hedgehog because of my aversion to eye catching, cutesy titles It seems unlikely to me that a novel with such a title, than 6 million sales and a plot concerning a wise concierge and a suicidal teen will be anything but young adult pulp The advance notices, however, about Muriel Barbery [...]

In Das Leben der Elfen von Muriel Barbery geht es vordergr ndlich um die beiden Waisen Clara und Maria Maria lebt in Frankreich in einem kleinen Dorf Sie scheint auf au ergew hnliche Weise die Natur positiv zu beeinflussen, doch zugeben will es zun chst keiner der doch sehr gl ubigen Anwohner Doch vor allem die lteren Frauen aus dem Dorf k mmern sich um das besondere M dchen.Clara hingegen wohnt in Italien, doch schon bald kommt ein Verwandter ihres Ziehvaters und bringt ein Klavier mit Clara se [...]

ARC kindly provided by Text Publishing in exchange for an honest review.Review The Life of Elves was everything I had COULD have hoped it could be Unbelievably enchanting, I fell in love with it within the first sentence This was one of my most wanted to read novels in my review copy pile, and I must say, that it has probably surpassed them ALL What I really loved about the novel was the standard of the writing This is what I always look for whenever I open a book And I was BEYOND thrilled to re [...]