Le Divorce

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic for anyone who knows France!
Review: Even though I found the ending disappointing, I loved this book! Having lived in Paris for 9 months and visited many times since then, I feel her observations of French culture and the difficulty of Americans trying to fit in was 100% accurate. I also loved the subplot of the painting and Ms. Johnson's obvious knowledge of the art world. Anyone who knows the French (whether you love or hate them) and/or is interested in art would like this book. I could hardly put it down.

Rating:
Summary: A quick read without a very lasting impression
Review: The social comedy of two very different cultures coming together was enjoyable. It reminded me of a contemporary Daisy Miller; a more modern American in Paris. Although I enjoyed how the book sped up at the end, the violence and action filled ending seemed out of place in this calm type of novel. Although I could identify with the narrator's struggle of being a foreigner in another country, I was not able to connect with any of the other characters. I also felt like I had to know some French to read this novel because many french words were not interpreted, which was very frustrating.

Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: I agree with many of the reviewers - I am amazed by the critical acclaim this book received. The book was difficult to finish because I lost interest in the characters and the story. The author's use of French language without translations drove me crazy - I cannot believe the editor allowed it. All in all - I would not recommend the book.

Rating:
Summary: Loved It!
Review: So it's not Shakespeare! It's a great read, hilarious, the characters are wonderful, the glimpse of French sensibilities from an American perspective delicious. I read it on a cross country flight, was completely diverted from the tedium of flying, and actually laughed out loud several times. I recommend it highly.

Rating:
Summary: Le Divorce
Review: This is a lovely, quick read. I enjoyed the California girl take on things French as well as things stateside. Naturally the book deals in generalities regarding both the French and the American. However this a fun sort of generality. It certainly beats boring old Peter Mayle fussing around the south of France worrying about his plumbing and constantly going somewhere for dinner. Diane Johnson actually makes a story out of the book, including a bit of mystery, a murder and some good sex - after all she is a liberated Cali girl. I live on the beach and often take book breaks -- this isn't real heavy thought provoking reading -- but it is well written and certainly beats a lot of fiction out there by a mile. If you have an interest in Paris, and who doesn't, and can get past a bit of snobbishness as to deep thinking buy the book and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: I loved this book!
Review: Despite the negative reviews..., I really enjoyed this book. I couldn't put it down and read it in about five days. I thought it was a challenging, interesting and funny read. It covers differences between the two cultures, a little history, politics and also manages to entertain an hilarious plot wherein the characters get mixed up in all kinds of funny and sometimes scary events. I definitely recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: a thoroughly distracting novel
Review: while in the midst of a family crisis, i picked up this novel wanting escape. Despite the fact that Le Divorce is about families in crisis, on these pages, I was completely removed from my own problems. I'd lived in Lyon years ago, and was happily reminded of that time-and of all the good and bad qualities of the french, and of americans in france. Bistro, tonight, I think.

Rating:
Summary: A quick entertaining read with imperfect characters
Review: I always check the Amazon.com reviews before reading or buying a book but I was glad that I put aside some of the negative reviews of Le Divorce. I loved how Johnson created such flawed yet likable characters. I admit that it was hard to relate to some of the character's adventures and troubles. But honestly, if I wanted to relate to characters who are like me, then why bother reading! I read so that I can let my imagination soar. It's fun reading about people that I would never meet in my own sometimes mundane ordinary life. I read Le Divorce in record time and laughed out loud at some of the crazy situations. I also appreciated the glimpses into French culture from the American perspective. It's clear that Johnson had spent time in France and has done her research. I bought Johnson's Persian Nights after reading Le Divorce.

Rating:
Summary: no story, no character, only anecdotes
Review: I've actually read to only 2/3 of the book but I don't feel I need to finish in order to comment. I, too, doubt the credibility of the National Book Award shortlisting. I, too, feel that Johnson has only assigned the characters some convenient adjectives instead of attempting to seriously fill them in. I couldn't "visualize" the characters at all! Her liberal use of screenplay format only serves to annoy the reader, as well as her tendency to start any paragraph she wants the reader to pay attention to with "Then something strange happened..." or her compulsive urge to end every chapter with "Little did I know..." Reads like an English-major college kid's debut, shoulda been a travel essay/guide (witness the success of "Toujours Provence").

Rating:
Summary: American in Paris
Review: Isabel goes to Paris to be with her sister who is pregnant and newly abandoned by her husband. The plot revolves around the quest for a divorce which invokes French laws involving property belonging to Isabel's family -- a painting by La Tour which is to be auctioned off. Isabel is introduced to her sister's French in-laws and makes a conquest of an elderly roue uncle who appears as a talking head on French television trying to stir up the French to do something about the Bosnian-Serbian situation. This novel is very well written but it never really rises into a first class fiction. It remains a pallid Mary McCarthy wannabe (read "Birds of America" for a first class novel on an American in Paris), the eye is sharp, but the emotions are non-existent. Even when the deserted sister attempts to commit suicide and later finds her own husband shot dead, there is less emotion displayed than there is about what to order for dinner or whose rights to the La Tour picture are pre-eminent. Johnson is a good writer, but a minor one and essentially this novel falls down because the intention from first to last is unclear. If it is satire, it is too scatter shot and pale, if it is realism than the background overwhelms the foreground. One never gets close enough to the characters to care what happens between them, and whatever does happen is emotionally uninvolving. Johnson is careful to stir clear of any real moral issues or even a real contrast between two cultures. To her credit, her characters (as far as they go) are clearly delineated and this is an easy read.