13 RUE THERESE

13 Rue Therese - Somehow writing about 13 Rue Therese requires a different font. When my friend Brenda gave me a list of book titles, this is the one that most intrigued. 13 Rue Therese is a story constructed around a box of momentos saved by a woman named Louise Brunet. When Louise died, she had no relatives, so her landlord cleared out her apartment by letting the other tenants have her possessions. The author's mother saved this box, and the author always knew that she would write a book about the box of treasures. That much seems to be the truth. The story is about a woman who leaves the box for a man to find, and when he finds it he decides to study and reconstruct the history of the items in the box. It's a bit disjointed, and goes all over the board. There is a World War I story here, there are a few love stories here, there is some religious this or that, there is family, there are some friendships, there is time travel, there is something almost existentialist that pops up at the end out of nowhere, (maybe to make it all the more french?)(was there existentialism in the middle and I missed it?), and there is the feeling that this author knows her book, and knows her themes. This one didn't flow through the author's mind and through her body and then fly out of her pen in a burst. But it's OK, and really interesting. Old photos are mirrors, and I can spend lots of time with them. This book is about the author analyzing the photos and going way way out there with them. Did I like it? Yes. I liked Louise with her pretty smile. Maybe it's that some of the speculation was presented so strongly, all the while admitting to being speculation. I think I wanted to feel a little more humility from both the fictional characters and the characters who were presented as not fictional. This is a wild little book!