Another cracker from Faulks. This is the last book of his French Trilogy. And yes, as usual, I am out of sequence. I finish with the first book. Reading Birdsong first and then Charlotte Gray. All great standalone works.

Sad story of love affair between Anne and Hartmann. Set in the mid 1930’s with an eye on the impending war to come.

I have read a number of the authors works now and have not been let down by his attention to his characters development and clever storylines. Recommend him.

If I sat back and just thought about the writing itself, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It had a gentle, nostalgic feel, like looking at a blurry sepia photograph. The writing was lovely and the characters vivid. It is squarely in my wheelhouse: orphan with a secret in an attic in a down-at-heel French hotel in the interwar years. YES. If the author got a little long-winded at times, I didn't really mind--that's not something that bothers me much if it's not ridiculous.

It was as we got into the meat of the story that I started to have misgivings, and by three quarters through, it was clear to me that, in person, I might not like this author at all. In his world, men cannot possibly be expected to control their sexual desires and appetites, and women don't have the emotional depth to be traumatized by it if they are consenting. Christine is too well-bred to be traumatized. Anne is only traumatized because of her past history of loss, and should really just be accepting of the constant attention of men, because she's pretty and it's her lot in life to have to deal with bumbling sex-crazed oafs. And as for those little girls on the island? OH. That nearly made me throw the book across the room! As IF a mature man of the world should casually dismiss barely pubescent girls as being completely at fault and completely unaffected by what happened?! "To them, it meant nothing at all." ::throws book:: Not to mention, we had to put up with a lot of writing about and preoccupation of the characters with breasts. Bored!

I was waiting for the moment when Hartmann would realize that what he really liked about Anne was the idea of rescuing her. Certainly she was pretty, but she can't have been the first pretty girl to cross his path. Eventually, the author allows that Hartmann really felt more like a savior to Anne than anything else--after he finally, thankfully, ends things with her. I really have no interest or patience at all with the "married man who will never leave his wife having an affair with a gorgeous young woman" plot. I was glad that they at least allowed Anne to have a genuine emotional reaction to being pushed out--just how I think a young woman like her would have reacted. In spite of it all, I liked Hartmann, though I thought he might have been brighter than to get involved with the help.

Anne herself was a delightful character, even if she expresses love for a man she has hardly known the second he seduces her, probably because she has no idea how love really works after her life experiences. She is not a heroine, but an everyday survivor.

"She didn't want to live in a grand manor with cavernous rooms and wooded lands, but in one of those simple houses behind gates where children could be seen playing on the sandy paths and a dog padded silently across the grass."

Loved the writing, did not love how women and men were portrayed.

I have high regard for Sebastian Faulks, who totally captured me with his magnum opus Birdsong hence why I have high expectations for this novel. Faulks writes beautifully and eloquently, transforming words into landscapes and emotions that are depicted with ease and candor. I love the way he writes about the varying thoughts and feelings of his characters, lending them insightful qualities that inspire empathy. What I don't like about this book is its plot which I felt was quite simple and mediocre. While the confrontation of Hartmann's conscience and his analysis of his feelings and impulses were the peak for me, the rest were just a total letdown and definitely did not move me as much as I wanted it to.

A complex and moving account of an anguished extramarital affair, The Girl at the Lion d'Or, is impeccably written. The main characters have real depth, and unlike most novels about infidelity, it's easy to see their pain, confusion, and conflicting emotions. Excellent and heartbreaking