Overall, I enjoyed the book very much. The setting was wartime Paris, which provided a rich setting to develop deep and multidimensional characters, which the author did superbly. I liked all of them and found it easy to engage with them emotionally. The author's language …more was spirited and eloquent; '..but those dazzling syncopations do not last forever'; 'The wallpaper is staging a slow escape from the walls.'; 'optimism on such a cosmic scale was an art.' Through the despair, devastating losses and suffering of the characters, the author showed how the enduring power of hope can soothe the human spirit, even if resolution doesn't ever come. The use of real, contemporary figures such as Hemingway, Proust, and Stein, was brilliant.
What held me back from rating this book a '5 - very good' was the fact that none of the characters ever achieved complete emotional healing or reconciliation. I was left feeling sad and somewhat 'flat' at the end, because I wanted each of them to get what they were searching for. Personally, I like it when stories end on a positive note, even if real life doesn't always work out that way. I would highly recommend this book to readers who like a gripping, emotional story with deep characters who show the best and worst of human kind. (less)