"Can you experience nostalgia for something that hasn't happened?"

I confess, one of my primary motivations in reading this book were its length. At just 159 pages, The Red Notebook seemed the perfect candidate to speed up my 2025 reading challenge with only four months left in the year. Of course, I didn't expect to love it as much as I did.

The Red Notebook is a translated work of fiction by Antoine Laurain that follows a red notebook - specifically, a red notebook inside a mauve handbag belonging to our female lead Laure, that gets stolen. With the red notebook is a compact, some pebbles, a chain, and several other things which are just tangible items that could easily be replaced. But as we go on, these aren't just 'things' for Laure; they are a part of her, her life, and her existence. Luckily, the bag finds itself in the possession of a bookseller named Laurent, whose curiosity gets the better of him. He does what no man - and perhaps no man in the future - would ever dare to do: he opens the purse and goes through the belongings. (Gasp).

Luckily, for us readers, this is a short book that fits into all the optimism of the Romantic Comedy genre. All the nostalgia of vintage romances, all the makes-you-smile-like-an-idiot stories that everyone has read and enjoyed at least once in their life. The ambience of this book literally feels like the classic rom-coms 'While You Were Sleeping' or even 'Notting Hill'. In terms of tropes, it feels like the 'Will They Won't They' trope has been absolutely done right. The best part being that nearly everyone in this story, from it's main leads, to a coworker of Laure, to Laurent's ex-wife, and his daughter, all are depicted as green flags. Each character is given an idiosyncrasy to not make them boring; my personal favorite being Laurent's daughter's decision to name her cat 'Putin'. Yes, you read that right!

If you've read and enjoyed the stories of O. Henry, then the feel-good warmth of The Red Notebook is right up your alley. Mind you, it's predictable from the start. From the get-go, the concept of the book sounds done and dusted, but its execution was pleasantly spot on!