DNF. Looking for a fun summer read, I picked this up, but after muddling through about 20% of Le Divorce, I found that I just couldn't care less about these characters. I enjoyed the depictions of Americans and French folks in Paris as setting and cultural juxtaposition, but the setting couldn't propel the book for me. The hinted-at-but-yet-to-be-expanded plot involving the fate of the St. Ursula painting promised intrigue, but the plodding pace with which it seemed to be developing just annoyed me. Really, for me, a book lacking interesting characters just isn't worth the effort.

This was given to me by a fabulous friend in New York. I enjoyed it as a light read.

An oddly charming book about the modern Ex-pat experience in France. Despite the cover and the, I would assume, awful film it is entirely worth the read.

It's not quite an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story or Hemmingways' Movable Feast in terms of ex-patriot in France stories but it is decidedly more fun that James' 'The American'. But then again so is syphilis.

Qualifications

I haven't seen the film of this book, and now I don't know whether I want to. It depends on what aspect of the novel it relates to best.
Diane Johnson is actually a serious writer, rather than a popular fiction or chick-lit author (as Stephanie points out in her review).

Off to a Good Start

The first half is pretty serious, setting up the characters, giving you a feel for Paris. In that sense, it's like a sophisticated travel guide.

Creeping Scepticism

But for much of the time, you have started to ask the question: she's got everything lined up, when is she going to get on with it?
Well, she does, in her time, but unfortunately I felt that was when the wheels started to fall off.

Author, What Were You Drinking?

Instead of remaining within a fairly realistic narrative, everything went very melodramatic.
I had started to find these characters quite believable, then they started to do stupid, farcical things to each other.
Not as a result of normal personal and family stresses, more like someone had spiked everybody's drinks and it had now become one long strange trip.
It's not as if these characters are Deadheads, they're normal people.

Don't Do Me Like That

I think they were good enough characters to deserve a little more respect from their creator.
They must have been really pissed when she revealed what she had in store for them.
I hope this was just a lapse of taste, because I have already bought some of the other books in the series.

It was ok, but got a little confusing. Good descriptions of Paris though

I loved this book. I was apprehensive about it at first because it looked like chick lit (for want of a better term) and it seemed to be about very rich and privileged people, but the author is a master prose stylist, and the book is a deep meditation on nationality and Americanness.

Memorable lines and settings. Interesting conflicts to learn about how divorce differs among countries, how a modern, cosmopolitan country like France can have antiquated laws. A good read before traveling to Europe. And it's always a joy to catch bits of the movie as well when it pops up on a cable channel.

read for bookclub, july-august 2003

Why did I read this steaming turd of a book?

I bought this book on my honeymoon in Paris, funnily enough. Still married!

Loved this book! It kept my brain from turning to mush! I'm glad this wasn't an easy read and took me a while to get through it. The only thing i had a problem with was that it takes place in France so there's a ton of French that I didn't know and the author doesn't translate. SOme of it i could get through since I took french, but some of it i had no clue. A great story from the point of view of a twenty something who goes to visit her sister who lives in France. her sister had one child, one on the way and finds out her husband wants a divorce. The book has a great love affair, family issues and even a murder. I highly suggest it. I can't wait to read Le Affaire and Le Marriage.

A definite chick book. A good read for fast-moving fiction.

A disappointment. I enjoyed the writing at first, but the character of Isabel infuriated me. How could she be so clueless and self-centered to move to Paris and refuse to speak French! Some plot devices made just as much sense and the book's ending was a complete letdown.