My Wish List

My Wish List

Gregoire Delacourt

Genre: Fiction

Summary (from the publisher):  Jocelyne lives in a small town in France where she runs a fabric shop, has been married to the same man for twenty-one years, and has raised two children. She is beginning to wonder what happened to all those dreams she had when she was seventeen. 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?


Review:  I'm not sure I exactly liked this book, but it was definitely thought-provoking.  It's the story of a middle-aged woman who is happy with her ordinary life, despite her possibly disappointing relationships with her husband and children.  When she wins the lottery, she has to reevaluate her life and decide whether the money would make her happy.

Jocelyne is a warm and sympathetic character, and I found myself hoping for her to have a happy ending.  The book is a fast read, and not difficult, although there's no forgetting that it takes place in France - the French names and places were a little hard for me to pronounce and keep track of.  The end of the book seemed to wrap things up too quickly and too neatly for my taste.

Oh, and the blurb on the back states, "One feels unbelievably happy reading this."  I would never say this book made me happy; quite the opposite, I felt like this book was sad overall.

Rating: 3.5 star