Underground Time: A Novel

If a reader wants to be uplifted or inspired, Underground Time is not a book to take on…unless perhaps you are an aspiring writer. Certainly this author is an exceptional talent, capable of teaching the merits of mood and complexity. For example, with a small scene in the beginning, involving a fortune teller, she plants a seed of hope for the reader and the characters. The amazing part is that seed grows up to and including the end, in spite of all evidence to the contrary.As the story unfolds, two primary characters are struggling with unrelated emotional circumstances. Both continue to be plowed under by their misery ( chapter after chapter, after chapter, after chapter). The woman is being mentally and professionally beaten down by an arrogant boss. In fact, he is devious and evil at heart. The male primary is a doctor practicing under a social health system that pays little but demands much. His not-so-romantic partner likewise invests little in him. As good and decent,hardworking people, I liked these two characters. But they are depressingly slow to act in their own behalf.

This book has echoes of Camus' The Stranger in the isolation of its two main characters, Mathilde and Thibeault; there is also a Kafkaesque quality to Mathilde's predicament. The rigors of life in a modern cosmopolitan city--from one's strategy for riding the subway and driving through the streets, to the frustrations of computer malfunctions, both random and intentional--are very well captured in this novel. The Metro serves as an overarching metaphor for the dehumanization and isolation that its characters deal with every day. While I was not surprised by the ending, it did seem as though the story, with its sense of rising tension and building toward a climax, perhaps should have ended differently (though I'm not sure how); some readers will likely feel short-changed. On the whole, it was a powerful novel which will haunt me for some time.

Haunting imagery, fascinating story. The conclusion was unexpected, a shift away from the typical happy endings, which I found refreshing. A sad and unflinching commentary on modern society.

This book was recommended to me by a French friend, who has read several of the author's book in her native French. Once I read the book (in English), I have not stopped talking about it. The story is occasionally maddening and you might think a bit trite, but the author knows exactly where she is going. I recommend this, especially to book clubs because this is a book you will want to discuss. Another good one by the same author is No and Me, a young adult novel, but to me, enjoyable at all ages.

Good read. Nice character study of two separate insecure people.i enjoyed it.

There was really no connection in this story. It told about the guys life it told about the girls life and that was it. Even though their lives were parallel in that they were both boring this book was a waste of time

Almost impossible to put down. Well drawn characters and an utterly convincing plot. My sympathy was so fully with the protagonist in the story that I ached for her.

This is life in the 21st century: Wake up and hear the noises of the city around you. Heave your body into a train car, squeezing every last inch of yourself into a vacancy. Physically contact several people during your commute; feel utterly alone. Sit at your desk and consider your work. Encounter numerous people throughout the day; connect with none of them. Push your body into the train again; stand mere centimeters from several other human beings. Return home, exhausted by your solitude, miserable from your loneliness. This is life today.Mathilde and Thibault are professionals in Paris, a city many consider to be the most magical and beautiful in the world, but they both ache from the city's harshness. In beautiful yet disjointed passages, de Vigan describes the day of both Mathilde and Thibault. Unsatisfied with their jobs, they wander, alone, throughout the city.Reading about loneliness is both comforting yet boring. It's reassuring to realize people have suffered from the same feelings as you, but overall, ennui isn't terribly interesting. That's why Underground Time wasn't a spectacular read for me. Nevertheless, it moves quickly and the emotions it evokes are worth more than the less than exciting plot.This is a very French novel. Things are depicted as they are rather than how we wish them to be. It's also a very 21st century novel. Gone are novels detailing epic fights or webs of intrigue; nowadays we have these languorous, psychological works, a trend I could come to support if I can learn to spell languorous and psychology can be made more interesting.The best part of reading this novel is determining what, if anything, de Vigan blames for Mathilde and Thibault's smothering solitude. Personally, I think we are at fault. We can blame the city, urban life, and business culture. We can say the city divides people, separates them until they have no one to turn to. But there are several instances throughout the novel where Thibault or Mathilde could have struck up a relationship or merely a conversation with someone else. But they don't. The city is absolute.Favorite Quotation:"His life is in this incessant toing and froing, these exhausted days, these stairways, these lifts, these doors which close behind him.His life is at the heart of the city. And the city, with its noise, covers the complaints and the murmurs, hides its poverty, displays its dustbins and its wealth, and ceaselessly increases its speed."