Grapetree itibaren Kovaç, Arnavutluk
I have read this book about three or four times over the last 20 years and it never fails to horrify and amuse me. I adore it.
I remember this so fondly if only because this, as far as I can recall, was the very first "proper" novel that I read [by which I mean a book read mainly by adults". I was probably about 9 at the time and I plucked it off a shelf in the hall and read it avidly. It set me off on a bit of a legal thriller craze and made me quite a fan of Grisham to whom I accorded one of the rare honour of buying my first hardback books. This was the novel that really got his career going, and it is kind of fitting that it got my novel reading career going too.
A wonderful read; fun and witty, satirical and sentimental all at once. A delightful French soap opera that clearly paved the way for the great society tales to come. Balzac broke the mold on this one.