Rating: 
Summary: I must have missed something...
Review: It's always difficult for me to enjoy a book if I get the feeling that I wouldn't like the main characters if I knew them in real life, and that's exactly how I felt about "Le Divorce..." I bought it last year but could never read more than a few pages at a time, but then with the movie coming out, I figured I should try again. The descriptions of Paris and the changing of the seasons were wonderfully done, but the characters left me completely cold. The two sisters never took any steps on their own behalf-- they let situations control them in the most irritating fashion without ever becoming proactive. I'm curious to see if the movie rounds out the characters of the two women, or leaves them as flat and featureless as Diane Johnson did. With any luck, it will be one of those few times a movie was better than the book on which it was based.
Rating: 
Summary: Am I a snob if I say how inredibly lowbrow this book is?
Review: If you are a young teenage girl, or a Cosmo magazine devotee you may find this work to have literary merit. However, if you have ever read any books seriously, or have ever been to France or even if you just believe that life and people are actually complicated and interesting and deserve more than tired cliche characterizations than you will agree that this one bites le gran chien!
Rating:
Summary: Warning!
Review: This book was a complete disappointment. I only finished it because I was reading it for my book club (at my suggestion!). I found it impossible to like the lead character, a selfish young woman with a complete lack of good morals. The book seemed to wonder aimlessly with the thoughts and desires of the main character without developing any of the other characters or even the very thin plot. Additionally, the author seems to assume the reader knows French! I believe she was trying to show Isabel's progression in learning the language and culture but in the end alienates the reader. Save your money!
Rating:
Summary: Misses the Mark
Review: This novel, while entertaining, is very disappointing in three major areas: plot fufillment, character development, and comedic distraction.While the initial plot seems both feasible and intriguing, it does not completely progress and climax...instead it dwindles and incorporates many sub-plots that the author fails to adequately bring full circle. While this manner of writing can, in some instances, be thought provoking, all that this story does is to leave you with a bland taste in your mouth. By it's conclusion, I didn't even care about the defunct plot line. Characters are charming, but there is little to no resolution of their life stories, or their development AS PEOPLE. Conclusions seem perfunctory, as if the author had to find a way to just write them out of the story. I found this to be very disappointing. Thirdly, this book is described as "humorous," "charming," and "comical," yet it embodies none of these adjectives. While the dispute between the American and French families is a great screen on which to project how our differing societies mold our way of thinking, and the Bosnian situation provides a political venue, the constant comparison of French and American culture is ANYTHING but comical or humorous. There is a severe LACK of humor in this novel: not in the characters, the language, the tone, nor the subject. In conclusion, this is a mildly entertaining book (despite the over-use of several adjectives--"cupidity" being among the top few) requiring the use of a French dictionary, and leaving the reader rather disgusted at the avarice and dispassion of the characters. It's worth $14.00, but I would rather just see the movie (I think that is the first time that I have EVER said that.)
Rating: 
Summary: Not a lipstick fluff novel
Review: I agree with the reviewer from Amherst - this is satire. The complaints of other readers largely stem, not from the writing, but from the way the book was marketed. It was made to look like a fun, rollicking exploration of two cultures - very fast-food and mindless, like the new lines of fluff books aimed at 20-30-somethings. Two of the quotes on the back cover appear to have been written for an entirely different novel ("Sparkly novel...Alluring...Delightful...Charming tale"). Le Divorce is actually an intelligent, funny book with a distinct edge. It is not a terribly good-hearted book. It focuses on a group of American, French and English characters, none of whom are entirely likeable. This includes the narrator, a pragmatic young woman who views the people around her in a clear-eyed, unromantic way and is surprised to find herself falling in love with an elder uncle of her brother-in-law's family - or is it love? "Even as a little girl, I lacked that endearing quality of female credulousness." Her entirely conscious examination of the romantic cliches she has fallen into, and her honesty about her own and others' less admirable motives throughout the book, make this an interesting story - but not one a reader should go to for a soothing, brainless read.
Rating:
Summary: Is this an American woman ?
Review: I cannot understand if this is an insulting book to describe American women or the French peoples. I don't know how desperate is Isabel, in her twenties, young , beautiful to get into being a mistress to an elderly that charms her, buys her something expensive, convert the girl into Tuesday's mistress, have fun, and on the top of that insults frequently with those '" You American this, you American that.... "in her nose and that girl is nodding in agreement and planning to buy him something so expensive and making plans to move to other country to stay close to him. He is trying to end the relationship with excuses and go on with his life. Can she see what is going on ? Is she dumb, has no dignity or is simply a generous young woman? And the old fox Edgar got her eating in his hand, sleeping with him and all.
What peoples are going to consider the American women ? Desperates !!!!
Her sister is another dumb woman who wants to kill herself because of her good for nothing husband and cannot be daring to take that painting, and daughter back to America. This would serve well that hypocrite French family-in-law, all smiles on the front but planning to knife her at the back. About those French lawyers, so low. Remember, about law problems, first thing is to return to your own country, and attack from your territory. Blood is thicker than law. Remember that always!
Rating:
Summary: Le, La, ...Have A French Dictionary Handy !!
Review: Or you just might miss something. Since I live abroad I thought this would be a fun book...and it was up to a point. First off Ms. Johnson knows her French no doubt about it...I on the other hand am not completely fluent so I had to pull out my trusty French phrase dictionary! This was needed since there were so many French words, phrases, and complete paraghraphs in French that were not translated I thought I would miss something and the author does not do this for you. This did not impress me in the least. If anything it annoyed me. The characters were...unique but in my opinion unlikeable and at times literally stupid! Young girl has raving affair with a man old enough to be her granfather, she refuses to even try to pick up the language in her new home country, lots of references to Bosnia and other war type conflicts used I think just to help move the book from point A to point B. Otherwise these historic events were not necessary except to get across certain character's political statements. Again very annoying. And then the constant comparison of how Ameican's are totally clueless! And then lets not forget the young American married to young Frenchman, have one child together, pregnant with another, and said Frenchman having an affaire. Oh ya did someone say soap opera? What I did enjoy was the descriptive writing as far as describing a meal or a point of interest such as landmarks, and Paris in general. I have been to this European city on many occassions and I find it interesting to see how other author's see this city. Reading about cultural differences was also entertaining since I have run into some of the situation at times while living overseas. Otherwise unless you are looking to bone up on your conversational French or are really entertained by 'Dynasty' type books then this is for you! Otherwise borrow it from the library.
Rating:
Summary: Lifestyles of the Rich and Brainless
Review: First of all, if you don't speak French, skip this book. There's a different French word in every other paragraph that is neither translated nor explained in context. Very annoying. The characters are all rich, beautiful and "cultured" enough to cavort around Paris without a care....except they're all very involved in caring about things such as their adultery, their family's adultery, and their friends' adultery. When they're not doing that, they're going on and on about the differences between Americans and Parisians. Unfortunately, the latter subject could be an interesting part of the book, but the author beats it to death.
The protagonist, Roxy, is a self-proclaimed slut and aimless slacker. Everyone in her family knows it, she knows it, all of Paris knows it, etc. She alternates between wallowing in her "Everybody thinks i'm a slutty slacker" self-pity and her utter apathy toward the same fact, a sort of "if they want a slutty slacker, then that's what i'll give them!" She never makes any substantial steps to overcome her reputation. Well, one step. She becomes the mistress of a wealthy older Frenchman. Big step Roxy, a rich man's mistress is everything slutty and slackery.
To top it all off, all the rich and brainless characters are fighting over who gets to keep the painting recently discovered to be incredibly valuable. Goody, i love to see the rich get richer without having to work or even think for it.
The rich old man dumps Roxy (maybe because she was a slutty slacker?), whose big resolution is to take her new money and follow him to the ends of the earth, despite the fact that he doesn't want to be with her. It's sad really. And not the good kind of sad.
Rating:
Summary: A Suprising Disappointment
Review: I purchased this book years ago- soon after it went to paperback I believe. I was expecting stylish escapism, something I believe most younger women yearn for in some way or another. I looked forward to a insightful and candid story about Americans in Paris. I cannot tell you how many times I picked this book up and started to read the first chapter, and just as quickly put it back down to go on to something more alluring. That should have been my first hint. However, in an effort to get my $14 worth out of this book, I made a final go at it... it took forever! I had no compulsion to pick it up ever! I found the general manner of the book to be very arrogant. It was difficult to have any empathy for Isabel or Roxy. You fail to feel any compassion for their situations abroad, simply because they do not deserve it. Character development lacks severly in the main character Isabel, and is far over-compensated in Roxy. Additionally, the characters I did favor, and had any interest in (such as Mme. Persand) were denied any mentionable situations or dialogue. Additionally I found the quotes at the begining of almost every chapter pretentious as well- though many would be interesting in a different context. While many were insightful, they somehow gave the book the over-all felling that Diane Johnson believes that she is somehow on par with the minds of Rousseau and Adolphe- she is not. I feel that this is a poorly disquised and snobish attempt by the author to prove herself worldly and profound. I just ended up being annoyed.
Rating: 
Summary: Vive Le Difference..!
Review: This was an enjoyable,if flawed,story that gave me alot of insight into the French-American relationship,warts and all,which was I enjoyed most about the story of a young woman named Isabel who goes there to help out her newly-abandoned pregnant step-sister. The French are neither portrayed as horribly rude and unwashed( a played-out,suspect stereotype to begin with) Nor are Amercians portrayed as simple and uncultivated,(at least the ones in this book weren't.) What I like less was the rather icky affair Isabel has with a 70 year old man and the ending which didn't match the tone of book and seemed to belong to a different story. The "travel-guide" aspect and observations of this book are great though and it's what I reccommend most. Read and enjoy the "trip"...
|
