3.5 Star
The number-one best-selling international phenomenon that asks, If you won the lottery, would you trade your life for the life of your dreams?
Jocelyne lives in a small town in France where she runs a fabric shop, has been married to the same man for 21 years, and has raised two children. She is beginning to wonder what happened to all those dreams she had when she was 17. Could her life have been different?
Then she wins the lottery - and suddenly finds the world at her fingertips. But she chooses not to tell anyone, not even her husband - not just yet. Without cashing the check, she begins to make a list of all the things she could do with the money. But does Jocelyne really want her life to change?
Kathryn - 3.5 Star
Whenever I read a translated novel I always, always wish I was reading it in the original language. I’m convinced I’m missing something essential about the essence of the story by not getting the nuances of the author’s originally written text. Irritatingly, in this case, My Wish List is a novel I could actually have read in its original language but I had forgotten said frustration before starting it.
“Kicking myself” lecture over- I really enjoyed My Wish List for its blatant honesty, tragic history and heartbreaking misunderstandings. Jocelyne is an ordinary woman living a simple life, her children are grown and she’s not sure she completely understands her husband anymore and, though she loves him, she’s not entirely sure he still loves her. Her fabric shop is an inspiration to many women and she has some lovely friends but when she wins an enormous sum of money on the lottery she can’t seem to cash the cheque.
I would have done.
I was completely drawn to Jocelyne and her life, her musings and her conflicts but that she didn’t want to cash the cheque and be able to help her friends, family and community completely dumbfounded me. While I could understand not wanting to rock the boat in her somewhat shaky marriage I still would have wanted to be able to provide that generosity for those around me?
While reading the latter part of My Wish List I was therefore antsy, not only with Jocelyne, but the skewed route the novel’s plot ended up taking. It seemed to not fit with the first half and left me feeling decidedly unsettled. So while I enjoyed the novel for its differences I couldn’t love it because the feeling at the start didn’t match the feeling at the end for me.
Thank you to Penguin Books for our review copy. All opinions are our own.
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