Usually I don't like books with protagonists who are "cold fish" but for some reason I really enjoyed this book. Johnson elevates the story, which is a bit over the top, with her dry writing and her observations on French culture.

This book read a little bit like a Lifetime Movie, but set in Europe. This, of course, made it more interesting. It was somewhat like travel writing, as it is written from the perspective of an American who goes to Paris for a few months to live with her sister. She makes observations about cultural differences and has a strangely sexy affair with a 70 year old. Ooh la la!

This is worse than fluff. Too trite to even be a beach read. 179 pages in and all that had happened is a girl comes to Paris to help her sister (who's pregnant) through her divorce and ends up having an affair with her estranged brother-in-law's uncle. That's it. And then somewhere around page 248, the author decides "oh yeah, let's make this more of a story than a girl who sleeps with an old guy". And she tries to throw in some international mystery and come up with crap about a murder and a porcelein smuggling ring(?). Complete crap. And this was a national book award finalist?!

This story takes place in Paris,the eternal city so they say. It's a story of a comedy of manners and morals,throw in a bad marriage,money and murder,all of the elements of a good story.
Isabel Walker lands in Paris,city of amusements and pleasures,where four fifths of the inhabitants are dying of unhappiness,she has come to visit her stepsister,Roxe, who is married to an aristocratic French painter who has assured her of a place in Parisian society,however by the time of Isabel's arrival,the husband has left her for the wife of another man even though they have an eight year old daughter,what a time for " Le Divorce".
While Isabel finds herself seduced by gourmet food,antiques and an older man,while Her sisters marriage disintegrates into arguments over money and a family painting.
Will Isabel keep her perspective and her love life intact as cultures and passions collide?
I should mention that toward the ending of the story many of the characters find themselves in EuroDisney and I wondered what " Voltaire" would have thought of "EuroDisney"

If we do not find anything pleasant,at least we shall find something new.
~~~~~~~~~~Voltaire~~~~~~~~~

I kept waiting for this book to go somewhere and when it finally did, the story just fell apart. The last third did not hold together well and seemed hastily tacked on in order to wrap up the novel. It's a quick read, but there are better ones out there.

I am obsessed.

This book was a step up from the Marley and Me prose. Infinitely better than the movie. I tried to re-watch it after reading this and I couldn't make it through. As always, read the book!

Barbara Johnson is really incisive about the inner thoughts of her characters and their relationships with family. She makes real the feeling of trying to adopt or be adopted by another culture, the difficulty of fitting in and of finding what you want to do.

Very smart, well-written, and fun, which is what I’m usually looking for, but it’s a little rough when a book primarily focused on identity politics already feels so dated and irrelevant. Isabel Walker is a well-drawn character, but her area of fascination — How French people view Americans, how upper middle class Americans fit into Paris, how French women wear their scarves — who cares?

I, too would have liked to rate this book 2-1/2. Fortunately, i was in Paris as i read this and i think that helped me to keep reading. A couple of interesting cultural observations, but weak, unbeliable story line. On the plus side, it was nice to read about an American adjusting to living in Paris.

I found this story of life, love, marriage, divorce, and lots of family decent enough. I enjoyed it mostly because I had spent two summers in France when I was in high school and found Diane Johnson's descriptions of family life, long drawn out meals, how French culture works, and being an American living in France to bring back memories of my summers abroad. About halfway through the book I started to loose interest a bit. The story lines got to be a bit much, and the wonder of the characters had started to wear out. Overall this is an enjoyable read, nothing too heavy, especially if you are an American who has ever spent time in another country. As an aside, I did see the movie, which was a disappointment. It didn't have the flavor of France that I found in the book.

Way better then the movie!!!

This was a really great book. Until it wasn't. The last fifty pages just rode it right off the rails, as the author struggled to tie up several non-essential story lines and dropped the tone from a fascinating collision of family and cultural values to, well, a car wreck. Still, disregarding that, as a Francophile and a young woman struggling to make sense of her life, I enjoyed reading Isabel's perspective on France and her story.