I'm in two minds about this book. I loved it at first: the slightly whimsical 'French' voice of the narrative, for instance. The plot line was promising. A middle aged doctor has a letter delivered 33 years too late. It's from a record company interested to talk to him and his then-fellow band members about a demo tape they'd sent for consideration. Alain has lost touch with them all, but his interest piqued, he hunts them down and we are gradually introduced to each of them. It's only later the plot gets stretched a bit thin for me. The coincidences become perhaps one too many, the individual denouements a little extreme. Nevertheless, it's a charming book, and takes a satirical sweep at current life in metropolitan France. I'd be interested to read it in the original French, because it seems very well translated, and by a team of two, which is unusual. ( )

Contemporary, surprising, brilliant. The best book I have read in the last 12 months. Loved it! ( )

Antoine Laurain is an author whose books should be more popular in the U. S. than they are because they are so much fun. They are on the borderline of humor, romance, and chick lit. This is the third book by Laurain that I have read and I plan on reading more as they are a pleasure to read. They are short but packed full of fun and entertainment with an international flair. There is lots in these books that deal with French culture and life. This book is set in the present but is about a group of people who in the 1980's were members of a rock band in the mode of Eurthymics, etc. They had made a recording and submitted it to a record company. 33 years later the letter telling the band members to contact the record company finally arrives at the address of one of the band members. This sets off a search to contact all of the members of the band and the reader finds out what has happened to each one of the members in the subsequent years. It is a fun ride. The book is full of laugh-out-loud spots while at the same time skewring the French political and cultural scene getting digs in at everything from art to politics. Great fun to read. ( )

I don't remember how I first became aware of the writing of Antoine Laurain but was delighted to receive "The Red Notebook" on Christmas 2017 as one of that year's requested holiday gifts. I was enraptured with the story and as I closed the book I knew I wanted to read other stories written by this author. I chose "French Rhapsody" as my next selection and received it this past Christmas 2019. I was also excited to discover the author worked with the same translators, Jane Aitken and Emily Boyce.

The story setting is in the country of France but the theme is universal and an interesting story to ponder --- Remembering dreams once held high but lost along life's way. It's fairly easy to imagine a lost letter in the mail but lost for 33 years? WoW! In this scenario, one of the band members of the Holograms receives a short letter from a record labeling company about a demo tape received and that they're most interested in the song, "Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made Of" and would like to schedule a meeting with the group. The band member that receives the letter discovers that he no longer has a tape of the song and begins to contact other band members to see if they still have a tape of the song not yet certain whether he'll also share the news about the long lost letter.

A story of reflection not only for the band members but I almost couldn't help myself as I closed the book to have a few moments of reflection myself... ( )

Alain Massoulier is a middle-aged doctor who played lead guitar in a band called The Holograms in the 1980s. The band split when they didn't get anywhere. Now, 33 years later, he receives a letter from a recording studio dated 12 September 1983 with an offer to meet with the band to discuss their future. The Paris postal system lost the letter behind some shelves which were only recently dismantled. Alain determines to track down the old members of the group, at the very least to try and locate a copy of their old demo tape with at least one song that he was sure would be successful. The task is harder than he thinks, and each band member has a story. An interesting plot line, but not as good as his other titles unfortunately. ( )