“He only wanted to live quietly, waiting for death to find his address.”
Ferdinand is THE grumpy old man. His life has been a country song: wife left him, dog died, etc. What he doesn’t expect is a precocious young girl to move in upstairs and decide to make him her new project. She wants him to be happy and to live a better life (no easy feat mind you) and sets out to make it so, starting with getting him to clean his apartment! He eventually even makes nice with some of his neighbors and finds a new lady who gives him butterflies.
This story is placed in France and was translated from French, so some of the dialog sounds a bit strange. However, I still really enjoyed the characters and the growth of Ferdinand’s personality. The characters really come alive in this story, even the evil landlord who you really have to hate.
The book wraps up very nicely, leaving you with a good feeling about the time you spent with Ferdinand and the other inhabitants of his apartment complex.
This was a pretty quick read, a bit funny, and one I would recommend for a pallette cleanser between heavier books or long series. (I always need one before I delve into a new trilogy.)
*Fido test spoiler alert*
A very important part of any story for me is that it passes the Fido test. This one does, so rest easy!
I read this book last year and really enjoyed the first part, as I found it hilarious, but somewhere around the middle, I felt like I wandered into a farce. I enjoyed the story overall but was perplexed nonetheless.
Yeah, I can see what you mean. I was really enjoying the grumpy old man plot, and I was a bit sad when he started to be less grumpy…