Well, this was pretty depressing. It was another book that felt "sad for the sake of being sad" which wasn't exactly a thrill to read. The jumps in so many different characters was also confusing.

Let's write about a bunch of characters that inhabit a estate in France over a number of years. One doesn't have to develop the characters. Nothing needs to be interesting. Just introduce a new character every few pages. Short vignettes of characters and scenes pretending to be a novel.

This was a big nope for me. Too much jumping around in time, too many characters, and way, way too much over-the-top sadness. I think the book was supposed to be "beautifully melancholy" but Delury couldn't quite pull it off. I stopped reading 2/3 of the way through.

This books was rich in detail and fascinating. I did have a little trouble following some of the jumps in the storyline, and my mind kept trying to make connections between the timelines. Overall, a unique and interesting book.

This is a collection of pointless short stories very loosely connected by a house outside of Paris. The stories might also have been connected by characters, but since (for no discernible reason) they weren't presented in chronological order, it was impossible to keep track of them. The stories all felt so shallow and uneventful that I read four of them and gave up. But I confess that I am not usually a fan of short stories. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

The balcony from the title is part of an old manor house in the French countryside, where there’s also a pond that hides many secrets. The storytelling and physical details are impeccable, although the narrative jumps back and forth through time and functions less as a novel and more as a series of literary short stories. A large cast of characters inhabit larger historic moments—for example during WW2 the house suffered as did the owners. Olga’s Russian-émigré parents are hauled from their home by the Gestapo. During detention, the house falls to ruin and a daughter, Olga is born. Eventually, Olga reclaims ownership of the property after the war. A generation later, Olga’s fragile daughter, Élodie, will inherit the manor and embark on a serious restoration project as well as a tender, doomed affair with the neighbor. Élodie’s au pair amèricaine, Brigitte, also grows up, lives in Paris, and falls in love with a cartoonist she meets on the Metro. Brigitte's lover survives the CHARLIE HEBDO terror attack, but their affair is doomed. There are no easy endings here. Delury creates characters as a literary array of nesting dolls (one of the artifacts linked with the manor). If you love France, snippets of French language flavor most of these literary and lovelorn stories. Read this sipping a sweet “Coca and glace à la vanille”.

Very enjoyable. I loved the different viewpoints and the way everyone’s stories intertwined. A lovely read.

The Balcony, the debut novel by Jane Delury is somewhere between a collection of stories and a novel for there are connections between the stories as they jump back and forth through history. I like the premise of history through a home, but I hoped the book would convey that feeling of history. Unfortunately, the number of characters and stories and the lack of a chronological order make it a real challenge to follow.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2018/06/the-balcony.html

Reviewed for NetGalley

Reading through the synopsis again makes me question exactly what book I read because it doesn't sound like the one I read and the synopsis for it are the same book. For one thing, the book is anything but linear. So the whole "over the course of several generations" thing is a bit misleading. It does cross generations, but you have to figure out to what era you have jumped from section to section. We start out near present-day and then shift back in time and then forward, and then back again. There are references to World War II that provide somewhat of an anchor but only slightly. Often, it is not until a particular section is almost over before you connect the events occurring or characters in one section with a previous one. So while the setting never changes, the stories are only loosely connected. The shifts in time as well as seemingly unrelated characters make this feel more like short stories rather than one particular novel.

To muddle things even more, the stories are not exciting. There is no lesson to learn, no mystery to solve. These stories are about life. Some may be a bit more interesting than others, but they all progress with a placidity that causes your interest to wane. It is not that the writing is poor. If anything, the writing is such that it tries too hard to make something out of nothing. For example, in one section, there is much made of a mother taking black market goods and burying them. Given the vividness of this scene, one expects these goods to become a big deal in a later section. Alas, the only thing we learn about these goods is how fifty years later a construction worker doing improvements to the estate discovered them, rusted and desiccated beyond appeal. There are many other examples of anti-climax like this to which your only response is literally "meh."

Granted, this could all be me and my impatience at the lack of connection and at the slowness of each section. It could be me struggling once again to recognize the value of literary fiction. It could even be me expecting too much from this loose collection of short stories. However, I think not. I do believe the bare bones for a decent story exist within the pages of The Balcony, but the execution leaves much for improvement.

THE BALCONY by Jane Delury is a novel in stories. The centerpiece is a manor house in near Paris which provides the background for over a hundred years of events, primarily in the life of one family. Debut author Delury has chosen to not tell the story in chronological order, rather inviting her readers to make connections as the chapters flit from 1992 to 1890 back to 1980 and so on. The characters include Henri, a Resistance Fighter, his troubled sons named Guy and Jacques, two grandsons and a great-grand-daughter, appearing at different stages in their lives as well as a young au pair who is attracted to her employer, an alcoholic academic. Somehow, there's quite a sense of foreboding and melancholy throughout these well-written stories. Personally, I would have preferred a few more happy memories for the deftly developed characters. THE BALCONY by Jane Delury received a starred review from Kirkus.

More like linked short stories than a novel and I always wonder what makes an author and editor make that determination. The stories were compelling but I had a hard time remembering who was who. I knew I'd seen the key characters before but where? If you need your fiction linear this one might not be for you but it was an interesting read about the families who inhabited the grounds of a manor in France.

The story begins with Brigitte who is heading to France to be an au pair for Elodie, the daughter of Hugo and Olga Boyer at their estate near Paris. With her master’s degree in French and the description of the position, she is delighted to accept. However, the estate and the location turn out not to be as advertised. It is a run down building and nothing has been done to cleanup the town after the ravages of the war. Elodie is a pretty little four-year-old and is so happy that Brigitte is there to be with her. Hugo is a writer who taught at the Sorbonne. He and Olga met there when she was working as a librarian. Their marriage is not good. Hugo is an alcoholic who relapses now and then and Olga is very worried about Elodie’s health. At the end of her time with the Boyer family, Brigitte moves to Paris and meets a man whom she marries. She has two children and teaches at a Lycée.

Next, the story focuses on Yvette Mongrain who works on the Leger estate and is married to Gustave, the head gardner.

The story follows another family whose sons are grown. One refuses to return to his parents home so his brother must be the one to keep up a relationship with their father who is a hard man. This son is married with two children of his own. Sadly, the grandfather is hard on them as well.

Various vignettes switch back and forth in time but they all center around the estate which is quite old.

I stayed with the story simply because I lived in France and so many of the descriptions are familiar to me. In addition, I enjoyed the challenge of understanding the French in the book. Other than that, I think the average reader may find this to be somewhat boring and depressing.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

3.75 stars to The Balcony, a tale of an old French manor house and the fascinating people who resided within! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ .75

If these walls could talk!

The synopsis of The Balcony enthralled me. The story follows a French estate’s residents from the Belle Époque to the present day over several generations, different families, and living under various circumstances.

A young American au pair in the present, an ex-courtesan, a Jewish couple pursued by the Gestapo, the haves and the have-nots, the young and the old; all of their stories are told in an alluring way by Jane Delury. Each of the characters were in search of something while living under that vast roof. These chapters felt much like short stories that were all bound by the historic property.

This book is full of heavy emotion, much of it sadness. The characters are both flawed and fascinating, and their stories converge in a skillful way.

The Balcony is best-suited to a reader who enjoys a cast-full of absorbing characters, short stories with a link tying them together, and a melancholy, somber tone.

Thank you to Jane Delury, Little, Brown and Company, and Netgalley for the ARC. The Balcony will be released on March 27, 2018.

Title...The Balcony

Author...Jane Drury

My " in a nutshell" summary...

This book seemed to me to be a series of related short stories that were connected by time and characters and events. The stories took place in France...often in the same cottage/country house.

My thoughts after reading this book...

Hmmm...my thoughts...I liked some of the chapters...some were difficult for me to enjoy. People lived, became ill, died...people were affected by hunger, war, their own frailties...life in general.

What I loved about this book...

I know I didn’t really love this book but it was a thought provoking sometimes enjoyable reading experience. I loved the author’s descriptive writing.

What I did not love about this book...

There was no fast pace with this book...no chilling page turning.

Final thoughts...
Would this be a good choice for you...potential reader?

I am not sure how to recommend this book. Perhaps readers who enjoy history, flawed characters, sadness and a bit of joy...would enjoy this book. I don’t think I want to read another book like this any time soon. It was a slow reading experience...for me.


I received an advance reader’s copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley and Amazon. It was my choice to read it and review it.

As much as I tried, I just couldn't get into this novel. I just was not interested in the history of the house. The writing was strong, but not compelling, at least for me. I wanted to care more about the endless stories that were presented, but that connection just wasn't happening.

Have you ever seen an old house or a beautiful garden and contemplated what amazing stories you would hear if only the walls could talk or the flowers could tell of all those before who had strolled their path appreciating their beauty and savoring their fragrance? THE BALCONY by Jane DeLury creates just such a scenario as it takes the reader to an estate in the village of Benneville. This fusion of ten tales focuses on the lives of those who have occupied the estate’s manor house and cottage over several generations and the events, both positive and negative, which have colored their perceptions and affected their lives.

Some of the tales are grim - filled with envy, resentment and tragic endings while others are revealing in their portrayal of fleeting moments of desire and even love. Through it all the house, it’s garden and pond stand as silent witness to all that occurs.

This is a perfect book for those who enjoy reading a short story or two before retiring for the evening and while each narrative is distinct its own right all ten are interrelated and paint a stunning and enlightening picture.

A collection of intertwined short stories focusing on a French country house and it's different inhabitants.

I'm not going to spend much time reviewing this one. It just wasn't for me, I lost interest about half way through, but powered through the rest.

I've lived in many different places and have often wondered who lived in my space before I did. Jane Delury's novel, THE BALCONY, took that question and explored it for one hundred years of life in the French village of Benneville. The property consisted of a grand manor and a staff cottage. The story starts in 1996 and goes back and forth telling the story of happiness, wealth, poverty, despair, family, and war. The inhabitants are often slightly crazy but never dull. The novel is inventive and surprising. I loved the parts where there was just even the smallest connection among the inhabitants. I still wonder who lived in that Brooklyn brownstone my husband and I rented so many years ago. I'm sure it had many stories to tell and just needs a good writer to conjure them up.

Thank you, NetGalley and Little, Brown, and Company for the opportunity to read this ARC which will be published on March 27th, 2018.

I enjoyed this book but I found it terribly disjointed with the character's timelines. This is not a book you can put down for a couple of days and then start reading again-you would be lost! I loved the characters but I think they would have been more fully developed without so many flashbacks. Thank you for letting me read and enjoy it.

The premise of this novel intrigued me more than the actuality. Threaded through the chapters, the lives of those who live in a particular house (with a balcony) jump back and forth through time and interconnect in very subtle ways. The connections were tenuous in several cases, which forced me to flip pages frequently (was the brother in that chapter named Gabriel? is this the same man/boy, no his name was Guy). In the end, the whole effect was more of short stories set in the same locale. The ending was particularly in-cohesive and perplexing. This book does not seem well suited to a solo read, so have someone you know read it so that you can help each other navigate and piece together the time line and the family trees that emerge.