I really feel like I’m missing something– why do so many people love this book so much?

I listened to the audiobook, and nothing happened until the five and a half hour mark? This book follows the lives of the people involved with Violette Toussaint (her husband, her new paramour, his mother, his mother’s lover, her daughter, her husband’s lovers, etc.) and it’s confusing as heck.

The narrative switches from past to present and between narrators without any warning, and (excluding was I believe is the main plot thread,

Spoiler

uncovering the true cause of her daughter’s untimely death

) this book was mostly just people cheating on their loving spouses and smoking.

While Perrin does make some beautiful observations on human nature, grieving, love, and the afterlife– it wasn’t nearly enough to fill the full fifteen hours.