Life A User's Manual - post IV

The central story about Bartlebooth and the jigsaws does not progress a great deal but there are a couple more singular stories that are culled from the past and present inhabitants of the Parisian apartment block.

Bullet points between pages 155 – 210

* Bartlebooth advertised for a jigsaw maker who would be prepared to make a jigsaw a fortnight for twenty years and was sent 12 applications and Winckler stood out not just because of his technique but because of his age, which at 22 meant he would live through the task

* Each jigsaw once made was put into its own box that had the location and the date put on in a uniform manner with a label that was added to a collection that awaited Bartlebooth’s return from his travels

* Elsewhere there is the story told about a former inhabitant of the block who ran foul of the Gestapo and was sent to a concentration camp after his role in a bomb and shooting plot at a hotel

* One of the other tales that stands out is about the concierge who fell out with one of the tenants after she was given food to use while the woman went on holiday but was then asked for it back after the tenant’s holiday went wrong and the embarrassment has caused problems between them ever since

More tomorrow…