This is a tale of
holding back – Renée
hides her inner life, playing the role of concierge that the other
residents expect. She ensures the outward observed habits of her
life are consistent with the status of an uncultured working-class
woman – she sees this as a route to successful interaction with the
other residents, who are her employers.
If
they knew of the inner life, her passion for art and culture, they
would she her as trespassing on their territory – they would feel
she was demanding a status akin to their own, they might have to
treat her as an equal, as a person, and the functional relationship
would be lost.
It
is an exploration about whether the caterpillar can become the
butterfly – there is a risk in breaking open the shell and becoming
a new self, that fear is very real.
If
this was not a French novel (read in translation by Alison Anderson)
one might worry that it was a caricature – the social world of the
novel is not one that exists in England – although the themes of
status and pretentiousness are universal.
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