Although billed as a dark comedy, I did not see any comedic aspects to this book. It was tragic, but the characters were ALL so quirky that I wasn't really able to appreciate it.

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher via netgalley.

everyone is comparing this to the royal tenenbaums and they are not wrong. it's a story about a family from the perspective of the youngest member. the 5 older siblings are all eccentric, brilliant, and semi lacking in typical life coping skills. the youngest POV character, isidore, is the figurative heart of the family, providing caring, humility, and slave like tendencies.

there is a lot going on in this story from a family unit standpoint as well as an academic philosophical anthropology one.

I really liked it. I enjoyed the lengthy discussion of what "pretentious" means (an argument I've had since I use it inconsistently always). I loved the main character and his individual relationships with all his siblings but particularly with the girls. I loved how the reader would sometimes get tiny, tantalizing glimpses that izzie's view and comprehension of events was a microcosm of what was actually happening. there was so much more story going on off stage, as it were, and yet I never felt there was a lack with the single view point; just experiencing izzie's trials and tribulations was enough.

within the story one sibling is writing a dissertation, from a sociological standpoint, on the family. another is preparing for her eventual biography. others are having mental breakdowns from post-Ph.D. ennui. translating languages is a big deal as well as the translation and representation of a life from facts to perception. this is a lot of the more serious and academic side of the book.

the dialogue is snappy, intricate, and approachable. characters are well developed and most have pretty decent arcs. plot and pacing is excellent. I'd definitely recommend this book to people who like the royal tenenbaums or books about precocious families like that in where'd you go, Bernadette or running with scissors.

I absolutely adored quirky little Isidore and his dysfunctional family. There were fantastic moments of writing and really wonderful, unusual characters. Overall, I found the novel was missing something, maybe more of a cohesive plot, but the clever prose was worth the read.

It took me a while to get into Bordas' writing style. It seemed to lack a clear plot which I found distracting.

Izzy was an interesting character that I could empathize with. His family is smart but distant and I enjoyed the snarky attitudes. I don't usually do dark humor, Bordas may have converted me..

I’m not sure I was stupid. It’s not that I didn’t understand anything my teachers talked about, it’s that when I did, I doubted I had. I believed there had to be a trick. Maybe I just assumed the world was more complicated than it was.

Isidore Mazal is the youngest of six children, with the particular misfortune of being born into an extraordinary family. His older siblings exhibit an array of exceptional talents and impressive intelligence, while Isidore is average at best but with a remarkable talent for understanding the world in the most literal fashion. Seeking guidance from his brothers and sisters who, though they claim to be worldly, often can’t see beyond their extremely narrow PhD thesis topics, Isidore attempts to make sense of his world. How to Behave in a Crowd is a clever and peculiar coming-of-age tale with an endearing narrator whose experiences are surprisingly relatable and humorous.

I felt I had to have something important to say if I was to request their attention. From a very early age, my sisters had made me understand that I wasn’t as smart as them but it didn’t matter, that I had other qualities, whereas I feared the reason my brothers never talked to me was because they didn’t think I was interesting enough.

While Isidore may not be talented in the traditional sense, when the family suffers the loss of their patriarch, he becomes the only one to tease out the grief of his mother and siblings. His thoughtful, empathetic nature serves his family well though it often goes unnoticed and unappreciated, most often by Isidore himself. Lost in this world dominated by adults, he struggles to carve out a place for himself. So he attempts to run away, multiple times, but each attempt is thwarted by the unbreakable bond he still has with his family despite their glaring flaws.

I believed if I ran away from home, it would make my mother happy. She always complained we weren’t adventurous enough, and while my siblings usually met her remark with the same indifference they granted statements of personal opinions in general, I, the youngest of the six of us, took it to heart. I didn’t want to be blamed for the others’ quirks. I wanted to be my own man. To be different. I mean, I had no choice but to be different (I wasn’t as smart or as good-looking as my brothers and sisters.), but I had no particular idea what kind of person I should be either. I thought I could as least try what my mother had in mind and be adventurous.

Written with all the wit and complexity owed to the Mazal family, Bordas has crafted a study in the ways families tear us down, build us back up and ultimately shape who we are despite all of our attempts to avoid this. How to Behave in a Crowd is brimming with quirky characters, though Isidore alone will find a place in your heart and settle there as he navigates the absurdity of the world.

The prelude was just about to end. I could tell because it closed almost exactly the way it opened- the same motif repeated- except it didn’t sound as light and heartening at the end as at the beginning because there was that big dramatic part in the middle that darkened and loaded and tainted everything.

Hmmmmm.....Took me awhile to get into the character-driven....matter-of-fact writing style of this novel. It's so different with little to no plot, and (for me) leans toward more of a character study.

Anyway....The Mazal family members are all highly intelligent....but rather cold....distant....loners for the most part who spend much of their time indoors studying. Even when tragedy strikes, the announcement is monotone...and the immediate reaction (by family members) a nonevent, but there is grief.

Among the six children, the focus here is on the youngest, Isidore....who prefers to be called Izzy vs. Dory. Izzy is just about twelve, an obviously caring and sensitive young man....unlike the rest of the family. He has an excellent memory, but no friends to speak of and spends much of his time trying to figure out how to fit in...understand adults, or...trying to escape them.

HOW TO BEHAVE IN A CROWD is described as a "darkly comedic novel" and although I did laugh out loud a few times; overall, I found it to be rather sad....even shocking and heartbreakingly so in one instance....but I loved Izzy, his courage to ask tough questions....his ability to figure things out....and the way he gave comfort.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved this book and thought the NetGalley description was very accurate. This was a great summer read. I was chuckling on the beach and sharing funny bits with my friends. The youngest child in a family of odd-ball intellectuals narrates this whacky family history. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Net Galley.

It may be hard to like the Mazal family, but it is surprisingly easy to love them. Perhaps that is because this quirky, pretentious family is presented through the eyes of 11-year-old Isidore, the youngest of six children and the least over-achieving of the bunch. His three oldest siblings are on track to have completed advanced degrees by the age of 24. Jeremie performs with a symphony, and Simone, who is closest in age to Isidore, has skipped several grades and is working on her first novel. When "the father," as they call him, dies unexpectedly, the Mazal children--and their mother--seem to take his death in stride. Until the ever-observant Isidore begins to notice the small ways grief has changed the family.

How to Behave in a Crowd, Camille Bordas's first book written in English, is a darkly comedic coming-of-age story. In Isidore, Bordas has crafted a young, naïve, observant and unexpectedly wise character, whose sudden insights into the workings of the world are made all the more striking for his general bewilderment over much of what he observes in the adults around him. As he navigates the tender emotions of his family's grief--and his own--How to Behave in a Crowd moves beyond Isidore's typical 11-year-old angst and into the territory of adult confusion. Do people just pretend to be okay? Maybe, Isidore's experience seems to suggest. But maybe that's enough.

This is described as a dark comedy and while there are some funny moments, I found it more sad than comical. The Mazal family is a quirky family like none I've ever known. I have to admit at first I didn't like any of the six children in the family except Isidore (Dory), the youngest and our narrator. I wasn't sure I wanted to continue , but I was so taken with this 11 year old boy who takes us through the next few years of the lives of this odd family who live in a small French town. An odd bunch for sure , dysfunctional in many ways. Dory's siblings surpass the norms, skipping grades, getting PhDs at very young ages but they live in the shell of their studies and their bedrooms, except when they watch American tv shows and analyze them by Aristotle's "Poetics". Dory perhaps gives us the best insight into who they are : "I love my family, I believe. Even though I'd known no other and couldn't really tell, I thought they were all right, decent people. But oblivious. They got lost in their thoughts. They had no sense of the other - or anyone outside our family, sometimes even me."

Dory too is an outsider not just in his family, but in school. He keeps running away but keeps coming back sometimes even before his family knows he's gone. Dory is not book smart as his siblings but he is perceptive about people- his family, about the friends he reaches out to make. He is caring and it was touching to read that he updated his will every year since he was eight. "I still wanted them to know I'd thought of them." The family faces a loss and I won't say more to avoid a spoiler but suffice it to say that they are grieving. In spite of Dory's siblings' inability to connect with people and their condescending nature to almost anyone not as smart as they are, I couldn't have been more moved than when facing their loss, Dory tells us " ....we all slept in the same bedroom for days but didn't talk about why."

This is a wonderful coming of age story. Dory deals with some real issues- bullying, teen suicide, loss, and trying to find his own identity within his family and in the world at large. His brothers and sisters certainly have the gift of intelligence, but Dory is gifted with love and empathy and an unbound curiosity about life that make him a gift to his family and definitely to the reader.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Crown Publishing through NetGalley.

Story of an adolescent boy trying to figure out where he fits in his large (he's one of 6 children) family. Strong story idea of finding your way during a time of grief and figuring out how you can contribute to the family and help your siblings. However, the idiosyncratic family members didn't reel me into the story and, ultimately, I found the characters to be a bit too flat to carry the day.

This is a beautiful story of a boy trying to find his place in his family and the world. Dory is the youngest sibling of 6. His siblings are all brilliant, skipping grades and getting multiple PhDs. Dory, a young teen, is "normal." We learn though that unlike his siblings, he is perceptive, kind and empathetic. When the family suffers a huge loss, it is, in the end, Dory who is the glue that holds them together, even as he learns that everyone is as uncertain as he is. This is a story of growing up, family and how we are all finding our way no matter how old or how smart we are.

Thank you NETGALLEY!! This is a book about a family; told through the perspective of a young teenage boy named Isodor who has like 4 or 5 older siblings and really it's just his account of his life and how he sees his older sisters and brothers. They're all pretty smart. They live in France and the parents are not really in the story but it's important when the father dies (literally he's called The Father) and how their life changes in the 2 years after.
There's no plot, really. It's just the writing and the coming of age that was so appealing. I have been super picky about what i read lately, often throwing a book to the side which I never used to do being the kind of person who just had to finish a story once started. But now the book has to make me want to pick it up again.
This did.
It's about dissertations, speaking German, being the 3rd oldest person in the world, exchange students, having sex for the first time at a very young age- just because, a spot on the couch, friendship and suicide.

This is the story of Isidore (Dory), an 11-year-old in France and one of a big family. He lives with his parents and his many siblings, flying under the radar mostly due to his siblings' academic genius. Dory spends most of his time observing the world around him and having remarkable insight into not only his own family, but the world at large. After the family experiences a tragic loss, Dory begins to navigate his way through his own grief in his own unique way.

I fell in love with Dory. He is a witty, precocious, empathetic character and his oddball surroundings conjured up the families of a Wes Anderson movie. I found myself laughing out loud and many of his observations and wanting to befriend him since I recognized a lot of what I experienced at that age. I think a lot of readers will be transported back to being 11 years-old...the age when things start to both make perfect sense and no sense at all.

After reading Bordas' short story in a recent New Yorker, I knew that I had to read her debut (in English) novel. My instincts were right on this one.

Bordas has a unique style that makes you laugh even as you get close to the different characters in this novel. The family dynamics are universal but the characters quirky. I can't wait for the next book by Camille Bordas.

“Because what goes on in your head when you step out of the present is always richer and more satisfying than what you come back to when you’re done. That’s the sad part. That’s what’s at the core of melancholy, not the things you actually imagine. The present is disappointing in a way you can’t act upon while it’s happening. But once you’ve made a memory of something, you can throw away the meaningless parts and write better versions of it.”

I am in love with this novel. There, I said it. At 11 years old, Isidore “Izzie” Maza is the youngest of six children, all whose intelligent far surpasses his own. In fact, their intelligence surpasses most people, children and adults alike. Simone and he share a room, and though she isn’t much older, she is years ahead of him in school and already has plans for her success and has put Isidore in charge of collecting information about her to write her biography one day. While his siblings are in pursuit of vast knowledge and defending their dissertations, getting doctorates he is busy noticing all the details in life that are overlooked. Tragedy falls upon the family, but he is the only one that truly notices how it affects everyone. The siblings seem to go about life as usual, but there are cracks and Izzie is slipping in. Though he comes from a large family the house has never been one of excitement with his siblings living in their rooms in self-imposed exile. They have all the answers, but most of what Izzie knows are things his siblings don’t even realize they have missed. It’s a beautiful exploration on real intelligence and how striving to be the best comes at a cost.

When Izzie and Denise (another social outcast at school) become friends, the novel intensifies and breaks your heart at the conclusion. I felt sad for days after reading this gorgeous novel. It’s one of those stories that I don’t really care if anyone gets why I loved it. I think there is a bit of Izzie in all of us. He doesn’t know which way is up sometimes but he understands so much more than his older siblings do, yet he doesn’t even know he knows. I was thinking the author was going to fix people, and GOD I hate that. Real people know there aren’t any quick fixes for the big issues we face- death, depression, mental illness, old age. There is only learning how to go on carrying that weight, maybe hoping someone will come along and relieve it now and then. What happens with Denise was very well written, and terribly heart-wrenching. I read it two nights in a row, and losing sleep was no loss at all.

There is a charater named Daphné in the novel, so old young children are terrified of her but she is popular and celebrated for living so long. His encounters with her are a gem too, and the saddest quote in the book is how she describes living so long. I caught my breath, because it is what I imagine one who has outlived so many loved ones would feel. Of course, I can’t share that quote because this novel isn’t out here until August 15th of this year and I read an uncorrected proof. For me, this novel is perfection. Everyone in it is awful and beautiful. There is snobbery and a coldness in his siblings brilliance, but they haven’t really touched life yet, so buried in their books, music, etc. Much of what meaning they strive for crumbles in eldest sister (the one everyone looks up to and tries to be) Berenice’s life in Paris. But only Izzy is privy to the decline.

There isn’t much I can write without ruining the story. It is a beautiful dissection of one gifted family, and there are so many flaws in their perfection. Izzie humanizes each of his siblings simply by being different from them all. While he may not have an ease with educational pursuits, he is brilliant in his humanity and has things to teach his siblings that professors and books never will. I can’t gush about this novel enough. Read it! I can’t wait to get my hands on more of Camille’s writing! I think I have a new favorite author.

Publication Date: August 15, 2017

Crown Publishing

Tim Duggan Books

Have you ever gone to see a movie or a comedian that everyone says is really funny, but you sit there and wonder when it will get funny?

I think I have a good sense of humor; those who know me know that I'm really very sarcastic (I often say that sarcasm is my superpower) and I love a good joke, yet for some weird reason movies and books that are supposed to be hysterically or even darkly funny often miss their target with me. In fact, when I see books lauded as funny, I often steer clear of them, because I rarely find them as funny as they're purported to be.

This was the case with Camille Bordas' How to Behave in a Crowd. While it wasn't supposed to be a knee-slapper, the book's characters were full of quirks which almost instantaneously wore on me, almost as if the author was trying to be ultra-clever , and many of the situations which I'd expect were supposed to be funny fell flat for me.

The Mazals are a family living in a small French town. Four of the six children are tremendously accomplished—Berenice, Aurore and Leonard are academic prodigies of sorts, each on track to have their doctorates before age 24; Jeremie is a musician who performs with a symphony; and Simone, although only 13, is already distinguishing herself academically. Only 11-year-old Isidore, more often called Dory, doesn't seem to stand out intellectually, and in fact, is at a loss when it comes to deciding his future ambitions.

What Dory has that his siblings lack, however, is humility and empathy, for people he knows and those he doesn't. Quite often his mother remarks on his kindness and sensitivity, especially when comparing him to her other children. Yet sometimes standing out for not standing out isn't appealing, especially in adolescence, and he often tries to escape his family by running away.

But when a tragedy strikes the Mazal family, each of them handles it in their own way. But as the cracks begin to show, Dory sees how everyone is dealing with their grief and tries to help where he can, often in bizarre yet kindhearted ways. However, Dory has his own issues, and must balance his own grief with the anger he has felt about being the odd man out.

I thought that this book had a lot of potential, but it just never clicked for me. I don't know if the characters were so odd that it was difficult to empathize and connect with them, or if I just found the story to be more of a series of anecdotes than a cohesive narrative. Dory was also seemed much more mature than his age; I often had to remind myself that he was 11 or 12 years old. One other quirk that really irritated me for some reason was that the children's mother constantly referred to their father as "the father," never "your father."

I've seen some tremendously positive reviews of this book, so it's inordinately possible I'll be the one in the minority. If you often are on the same wavelength with books hailed as funny, or the quirks of a quirky family don't drive you crazy, pick this book up. I'd love to hear you tell me how wrong I am!

NetGalley and Crown Publishing provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

I really wanted so much to love this book, because the author is such an interesting and smart new voice, but really the story grew so tedious at times. I loved the characters though--a quirky French family who overeducates themselves to the point of being unable to really communicate outside their own clan. I hope to see other things from this author soon.