The Way I Found Her

by Rose Tremain

Book Overview

This is the summer that Lewis Little, precocious thirteen-year-old, is spending in Paris with his mother, Alice. Alice is translating the latest medieval romance by Valentina Gavrilovich, the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671035703
• ISBN13: 9780671035709
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Washington Square Press
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Not Enough Superlatives

I really can't find enough superlatives to describe Rose Tremain's wonderful coming-of-age novel, The Way I Found Her. It's sweet, sexy, sad, funny, affectionate, tender, heartbreaking, engrossing and...perfect.The Way I Found Her is the first-person narrative of Lewis Little's rite-of-passage from the world of childhood to the world of the adult. Rose Tremain has done such a masterful job of bringing Lewis to life, one would almost think The Way I Found Her was a memoir rather than a novel. There is a wonderful mix of the child Lewis still is and the adult he is rapidly becoming. And, this mix is not only charming and endearing...it's believable. For me, Lewis Little is far more "real" and unforgettable than many more famous (and more highly-touted) literary characters. I really felt I knew Lewis inside and out; I could feel his fear, his hope, his pain, his joy.On its surface, The Way I Found Her may seem to be the story of a disappearance, but the disappearance itself actually plays a very small part in the story. Its importance lies in its impact on Lewis and in the way it changes him; this isn't a fun, little caper story, its definitely a portrait of one lovely and precocious boy's coming-of-age through his own "trial by fire." If there is one thread that runs through all of Tremain's novels, it seems to be one of isolation and loneliness. Lewis, like all of Tremain's protagonists is isolated and, in many respects, lonely.Lewis Little is charming and he is forced, through no fault of his own, to give up much of the innocence of childhood during the summer we spend with him in Paris, but he still has far to go before fully entering the cynical world of the adult. This makes him a rather unreliable narrator and an even less reliable detective. He makes wild assumptions, he is led down false paths, he devises outlandish hypotheses. Sometimes these work out, but more often than not, they don't. Still, Lewis, in grand thirteen-year old fashion, is unfazed.Those looking for a plot that races at breakneck speed should really look elsewhere. The Way I Found Her is, at its heart, an interior book. It is a chronicle of Lewis Little at age thirteen, (almost fourteen), and, as such, it is fascinating. Quite psychological and literary, The Way I Found Her bases its protagonist on an earlier one...one found in Le Grand Meaulnes, a very French book in which Lewis just happens to be engrossed. And, just as that book honored adolescence, especially male adolescence, so does The Way I Found Her.The Way I Found Her is first and foremost a superb story, written by an author who possesses superb storytelling skills. But it is also an endearing portrait of a young boy poised on the brink of adulthood who wants to fly and yet knows that in that flying he will relinquish something precious and irretrievable.The Way I Found Her is a book that tugs at your heart; Lewis Little is a character who burrows into your soul and stays there. This is a thoroughly enjoyable st

BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN

This is the first book I have read by Rose Tremain, but it won't be the last. She is a sensitive, talented writer. The coming-of-age story of Lewis Little is sometimes sad, sometimes funny, and the characters are unforgettable. I read it non-stop, and when I came to the end, I felt discombobulated to find myself back in the real world.

Stunning

What I thought was going to be a sweet, charming rumination on one 13 year old's most important summer, was instead a brilliant, insightful look at a young adult on the cusp on manhood. That Tremain accurately captures that evasive and often dizzying period of being a boy and a man at the same time is a testament to her incredible writing skills. This is a gripping and poignant book that will stay with you long after the last page.

As Unforgettable as a Summer in Paris

I can't remember the last time a book imprinted itself on my soul the way this one did. "The Way I Found Her" is a remarkable book - affecting on many different levels. Rose Tremain carries your spirit to a place in the way Hemnigway did - it's almost more real than actually being in Paris. You can smell the baguettes, feel the opressive summer heat, sense the sheer magic of the place. If this novel were nothing more than a travelogue of Paris it would be an amazing success.It's so much more than that, though - even as you're whisked away to Paris along with Lewis Little and his beautiful, enigmatic mother, you're whisked along by the story as well. Tremain weaves a deceptively complex tale of love, betrayal, loneliness and, finally, regret. As a novel "The Way I Found Her" flows smoothly and effortlessly as the Seine, never allowing your attention to drift from the events at hand.Most of all, though, this novel succeeds in the vivid portrait of the characters who grace it's pages. Lewis Little is the most interesting voice in many a years' fiction. Tremain does a stunning job of capturing the pure, unadultaerated passion of an adolescant boy, his senses opening up to the world around him as if for the first time. Adolescence is a natural vehicle for character drama because it's a time of change, and Lewis can feel change all around him - the life he knows is slipping away, the person he was along with it. This frightens him and exhilerates him at the same time, leaving him torn between a stubborn attatchment to his comfortable, child's life in Devon and the bold, exciting world of adult pleasures and sorrows he's just beginning to comprehend.Even as he slips farther away from the stranger his mother has become and the father who seems a million miles away, he falls under the spell of Valentina, the writer who'se latest novel Lewis' mother has come to Paris to translate. Valentina is one of the most vivid, larger than life characters ever to grace the page. He comes to love her as only an adolescant can, old enough to realize the futility of his desire but unable to resist. She's a marvel - a bosomy, dizzying melange of cigarette smoke, infectious laughter, surprising warmth and a mysterious, exotic and sorrowful past which Lewis comes to understand all too well.Finally, Tremain's Paris is filled with a collection of unforgettable supporting characters - Didier, the philosopher/roofer; Grisha, the bitter, mororse Russian writer; Moinel, the dapper, inquisitive yet guarded neighbor; Sergei, the "brilliant dog" who becomes Lewis' constant companion; and Babba, the immigrant maid who becomes Lewis' confidant. Not least of all, this Paris - in Lewis' fertile mind - is alive with the images of Francois Suerel and "Le Grand Meaulnes" (which serves as a framework for the novel), of Porfiry Petrovich and "Crime and Punishment", which serves as the inspiration for Lewis' improbable quest.This novel is

a book of beauty, to be remembered

It is now 4:30 AM and I just finished THE WAY I FOUND HER. I wish it didn't end. A seemingly simple story of a 13-year old boy's "coming of age" during a summer spent in Paris, the book is a passionate exploration of love, friendship, intimacy and what it really means to live life.This is the first novel by Rose Tremain that I have read - I anxiously look forward to visiting her other literary worlds. Her writing expertly captures the mind, imagination and language of a real, albeit precocious, 13-year old. Her attention to detail is wonderful and as you are reading THE WAY I FOUND HER, you feel as if you are living amongst the character in Paris. The characters of Lewis and Valentine are people you want to know and have in your life.There are times towards the end when the novel takes a slightly off-key turn and wavers towards becomming contrived. Tremain handles this well, even if she does come close to becomming incredulous at times. She redeems herself completely with the ending and Epilogue where she is on firmer ground dealing with human emotions.There are few books that once finshed, I look forward to returning to years later. I add THE WAY I FOUND HER to this short list