This was a fun break to read. I got out my French dictionary and read it in short bursts. She isn't much on realistic plot, but her characters' views on French/American attitudes is really delightful.

This is a smart, perceptive romp of a book. Tim, an American journalist living in Paris, is soon to be married to Anne Sophie, a French antiques dealers. Tim is hoping to break a big story that involves Serge, a grumpy, hermit-like film director who lives with his American wife, Clara Holly, on the outskirts of Paris. When the stall owner next to her is murdered, and discovered by Delia and Gabriel, two American antique dealers on a buying trip, the lives of all 6 become intertwined, reminiscent of a Pink Panther movie. Johnson pokes at social norms and social stratifications as well as American and French self-perceptions and views on others. Fast read.

Fun book, can drag.

I was surprised to love this novel. Mrs. Johnson's writing voice stands out of the herd, and is exceedingly clever, informed and well versed in human nature. I was very entertained!

Diane Johnson really drags this story out. I found myself wanting to get to the end just to see how she tied it all together. I did enjoy the continuity and references of characters from her other books and I always enjoy a good story about France.

Americans banging on about how rubbish the French are

I do love Diane Johnson's writing and her subjects. Great fun, humor, a bit of drama....enjoy!

Dear Diane Johnson,

I don't know how to start my freaking letter about your books. Generally, most of your books that I read have this one star trying to shine like hell waiting for changes. Okay, I'm not angry, sad or, of course, happy of your works. They are very fragile in a sense that they have good covers, simple but very doddling elegant for me. Unfortunately, inside, it was the worst experience I ever felt in my entire life. I'm trying not to be rude but your books are killing me softly, waiting for the right time to burst.

God, I'm not here to give you (Diane) headaches nor giving fans of yours a letter that will send them gaga for years and trying to evolve their entire time giving me another set of funny opinionated comments. Anyway, at least I already read half of your works and one more to go to cut this hatred and I can free myself from hell. I want to die but suicide is a sin, pray.

Your beloved hater fan,
Kwesi of Old-Fashioned Readern

I want to start my review with, uhm, ugh, what? I can't remember anything, wait, uhm, I'm trying to reconcile my thoughts. Uhm, how many days did I read this book? 3. 5 or 9 days? I don't know. Fine, I'm done. So that was it, it happens to be nothing and it was like reading in a blank page while taking a break every chapter. I'm very sorry and I did not understand the near end of the book or the thoughts that instilled inside.

Yeah, a lot of my friends read and hated enjoyed the award winning Le Divorce which she was the finalist of National Book Award and gold medalist of California Book Awards (I'm planning not to read books that was awarded by CBA. Gulp.) I heard that she was also one of the co-authors of Stephen King's The Shining's screenplay, which was good and better than her book. Period.

Anyway, at least I have one or two idea from the book (Congratulating myself!). There is a murder case and then a wedding, a conspiracy, jealousy, some kind of that, until everyone is in trouble and suspected and went to jail. Overall, it was a bad book written by a pretty American living inside and outside the state. Unfortunately, her out of this world books did not work well for me.

my mother is calling...

40 minutes later.

Oh yeah, I'm back. At last I'm nearly done with my informal review with a stupid twist in the middle. So far, I don't know whom to recommend this book. Wait, I'm still thinking. Oh yeah, a guy here on Goodreads always mentioned that he always enjoy books that I hated and I think he might like this. And please, don't bother me next time if you did not or like it in the end.

I'm tired now and I need to rest, I still have few books left to read for this week and some school stuff that bothers me for days already. I congratulate myself for finishing this trying hard book, wait, I just remember, I still have one more book left and I'm trying to finish it next year. Ugh, wish me luck lucky readers!

n  n  
n  What is that?! Eeew, okay. I'm trying to portray that I'm dying of starvation, not inside my stomach but inside my brain, and dehydration. Anyway, I still survive in the end with a cup of milk. Nice art!n

Review posted on n  Old-Fashioned Readern.

Rating: Le Mariage by Diane Johnson, 1 Sweets

Challenges:
Book #218 for 2011
Book #128 for Off the Shelf!

I loved this story as tragic as it became about getting married.

I thought this would be very light, but it has deep moments for such a quick read. The writing is easy on the eyes...

I'm on vacation don't judge me

I had no expectations for this book, and started reading it with interest. What I couldn't decide in this book was if the author was trying to compare and contrast the sexes, or Americans vs. French. She sort of did both, but I couldn't help but wonder if she'd placed all the characters in one locale with a similar nationality, if she'd have hit the mark better? It's not that this book couldn't have both, but it seemed weaker because she was trying to hit both. Maybe what I'm really trying to say is, if you want to write a book about a wedding, and American vs. French thoughts about it, do that. If you want to write a book about a wedding, and your thoughts on male vs. female thoughts, then ... do that. This one was very interesting to read, but kind of petered out at the end. Maybe that was the problem. In trying to hit everything, there were too many notes to hit, and many got missed.

That said, there were parts of this that were just awesome. Flashes of brilliance that just make you break out your highlighter and wish you had written them. Here are a few:

In a way she had been shocked to learn that the whole elaborate ritual of hunty -- dogs, red coats, horses -- was done in France, which seemed too, well, too small a country to let people loose with weapons in...
"What danger means to the French I have never understood," Tim had written once. She had read this passage over several times. "The seem drawn to it in a way we are not. Perhaps it is to atone for the crucial national moment when by and large they avoided danger. Or perhaps, belonging to an oldcivilization gives a certain perspective that we, fragile in our optimism, and convinced that we have yet so much to teach, lack. we are prudent, they drive too fast, race cars across deserts, sail in little boats alone across the open sea, scale skyscrapers, tightrope-walk, assault their arteries with rillettes and patinate their lungs with Gauloises."
"I wonder if the Americans will be, well, like Tim, alors -- their jackets won't match their pants, they'll wear tennis shoes in town, that sort of thing," said Anne-Sophie happily.
She stared at the moonlit wall, where she could reat the cross-stitched sampler that said "Kissin' don't last, cookin' do." The exact opposite of what the countess Ribemont in Against the Tide would say. The countess said, "All men really require is extravagant admiration of their genitals."

And although this wasn't brilliant, it made me laugh: Delia didn't think she was a prude, but there was an awful lot of screwing in France, in the public toilets, or with people listening two feet away -- for of course she was awake, four o'clock the heure blanche of jet lag.

I mostly liked this book, but I felt like the author's pessimistic attitude toward marriage colored the writing, instead of writing a character to express her opinion. If I could just change the end of this, I'd like it a whole lot better ...