Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

The Carousel of Desire is a sexual and romantic saga told with a master storyteller's feel for character and plot and a philosopher's abiding preoccupation with what makes life truly worthwhile. With tenderness and infectious delight, Schmitt tells an exuberant tale about class and community and about the vastness of human experience. Schmitt's love of coincidence and serendipity is surpassed only by his affection for his flawed, all-too-human characters: Zachary Bidermann, the powerful European Union commissioner; Faustina, the fashionable book publicist; François-Maxime de Couvigne, the happily married banker with more than a few secrets; Marcelle, enamored with a handsome illegal immigrant; Miss Beauvert, who makes love with her parrot, Copernicus. These and many more unforgettable characters animate this story of simmering desire and the antics of the mischievous and playful god, Eros.

The Carousel of Desire

Briar's Reviews

The Carousel of Desire is a beautifully crafted set of stories by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt all focused on love, romance and desire.

This book was hard to get through, if I'm being honest. There are SO many character and storylines to follow that it was really hard to put the book down and pick it back up. I would forget what people were doing, and even when I took notes I felt it had the "Game of Thrones" effect for me. Too many people around, to many things going on and fantastic writing. It kind of upset me.

The Carousel of Desire was translated, and boy it is marvelous. Reading it felt like cheating fine chocolate or sipping on fine wine - it's absolutely glorious. If you want a well crafted book that felt like it was written by someone who truly loves literature and crafting stunning sentences, this book is for you. I was honestly floored by some of the descriptions because they're just... good. Too good.

All of the stories interconnect through a series of notes being passed around. The notes express sentiments of love, and every set of romantic partners/couples/trios/squares get one. Watching the drama play out was fun as well, but I felt like it would have been way more enjoyable if the stories had been separated. If I only had to focus on one story at a time instead of waiting twenty chapters to get the second part to a couple I read in chapter one.

HOT TAKE TIME: I'd also argue that this book is a very adult book. It's R rated for some of the sex scenes and it ventures into various types of sexual relationships. Old/young, true love, asexuality, threesomes, young love, and second chance at love being some of the major ones. But... you can tell this was written by a man (only at times). Some of the descriptions and comments said in the book don't sound romantic, they sound ravenous (but at times when it is supposed to be romantic). Sure, maybe the characters are just horn bags and like talking that way, but I didn't feel like the character studies felt like a variety. They felt like different ways to have sex written in a man's imagination. 

One story really angered me, and it was a woman who hated her body. Yes, they exist and most women have their insecurities but some of the descriptions about her made me want to throw up. It didn't feel like it was written in an honest take, but rather as an insult to women who don't appreciate themselves. Others might not see it that way, but I really did not enjoy that story. I've read other novels where they address this issue, but they don't insult the character along the way. It felt... distasteful and weird. It's a bad execution of the idea, in my opinion.

Overall, this felt like a very pessimistic book for me. It's definitely not a book I enjoyed as a reader but other people will thoroughly enjoy it. Maybe I'm getting soft with the novels I like to read... Either way, it wasn't a book for me. I still think Eric-Emmanuel is a master of description and sounds like an author I would have read in my literature classes - beautiful writing style with beautiful prose.

One out of five stars - it's just not for me. It took me a long time fighting myself to finish this book, unfortunately.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.