Dan Rhode's "This Is Life"

“This Is Life” is the story of Aurélie, a young art student living in Paris, and all the bizarre characters that entwine with her over the course of one week. Her strange adventure begins with an art assignment. To choose a subject, she casts a pebble high into the air, with the intention of following and filming whomever it strikes, for the period of one week. This plan quickly goes astray as she hits not a grown adult, but a baby.

The apparent mother strangely places little baby Herbert into Aurélie’s care for the use of her assignment, with the intention of meeting her back in the square in one week’s time. This leads to the strangest and most memorable week of her life.

Aurélie and Herbert’s supporting cast add so much charm to the book, especially in the way their own stories start to weave into their own. At first we have the absent-minded Professor Papavoine, who gives the go-ahead to Aurélie concerning her assignment, despite its potential to injure. Second is Sylvie Dupont, the best friend of many years who is unlucky-in-love but completely doted upon.  There is also Léandre Martin, Monsieur and Madame Akiyama, the Akiyama’s  adult daughter and son, their translator named Lucien, the strange artist Le Machine, and the art critic, Jean-Didier Delacroix.

The small worldliness of the story’s characters, who are all interconnected one way or another, lead to an almost fateful but completely improbable series of coincidences. This unrealistic nature of “This Is Life” makes the story all the more enjoyable, lending a sense of whimsy and sitcom-like humour that will produce genuine out-loud laughs on occasion.

From old friends to pretend families and artists to love interests, it is the characters, their relationships, and the outlandish circumstances they end up in and produce that make this such a charming and riveting read. If you don’t mind stories that are quirky and a little loose with reality, then pick up a copy of “This Is Life” as soon as possible. Its final chapters and ending will leave a smile on your face for days to come.