A short but extremely evocative read, with exquisite drawings. We are given a window into the world into the young Catherine’s life with her father in Paris, as he makes apparently dodgy deals and tried to move up in society. We see things from Catherine’s point of view, so are never quite sure exactly what the father is up to, but this slightly sketchy element of looking back on childhood is thus perfected evoked.

Catherine, watching her daughter dance ballet, reminisces about her own childhood in Paris with her father. He has a suspicious occupation with a failed poet, who seems rather controlling. They are in the "packaging business" and all manners of strange things happen.
Catherine and her father enjoy the simple pleasures of life and she happily recalls these moments with her father.
Beautifully illustrated in pastel tones, this book will put a smile on your face.

Catherine Certitude is a strange little tale of childhood memory, of Paris, and of unanswered family questions. Catherine watches her young daughter in a New York dance studio and thinks of what sets her family apart from any other New Yorker: her mind wanders back to her fragmented memories of childhood with her father in Paris.

Catherine never fully understands what it is that her gentle-natured father does, though she is clearly suspicious about the ‘packaging business’ he runs. Without a conventional plot structure, we find ourselves cast back into certain moments in their relationship - moments when her father struggles to fit in with a refined crowd, warm recollections of conversations over lunch.

Jean-Jacques Sempé’s illustrations transport us liltingly between Greenwich Village and Paris with the same haze as when young Catherine and her father would remove their glasses. The beauty of soft edges is as much about what they can hide.

I enjoyed it. It reads like our own jumbled minds. I like the unanswered questions. It makes it real.

Fathers and daughters are always different, right? There are Paris and ballet and also a tender father-daughter relationship in this book. The pastel-toned drawings of Jean-Jacques Sempé also feel as warm as the story told. It was a short book, but even though I didn't wear glasses, I loved it as I was a kid who fell in love with the grace of the ballet just like Catherine and saw her father as the hero. Although it took 20-30 minutes to read, the smile he left on my face remained much longer when it was finished. This is a cute little book.

I loved Sempé’s illustrations (they make me feel nostalgic), but didn’t quite get what the author was trying to say with this book. There was no real plot and the thing with the glasses didn’t make much sense.

Overall this story left me disappointed and a little confused.