Rating: 
Summary: Have "L'Affaire"
Review: After experiencing "Le Divorce" and "Le Mariage," readers can experience "L'Affaire," the latest Henry-James-does-chick-lit book on France by Diane Johnson. "L'Affaire" is a fun read with some witty insights, though it putters out near the end.Amy is an American dotcom exec who has become a millionaire, but she feels oddly guilty about her newfound wealth. She vacations in Hotel Croix St. Bernard, a ski lodge in Valmeri, France, and encounters an odd gaggle of people including a lustful count, likable poet Robin, and sexy TV executive Emile. But things take a nasty turn when an English publisher, Adrian Venn, and his young wife are nearly killed in an avalanche. When it seems that Venn is probably going to die, his assorted children show up, including an illegitimate daughter married to Emile, who is having a fling with his wife's half-sister. Now it's a fight between the French and the British -- the inheritance will be divided differently, depending where Venn dies. Amy, trying to do a good deed, ends up ensnaring herself in a bitter family feud. Diane Johnson seems to have a bit of a love-hate relationship with France -- love everything about it except the attitude towards Americans. Blaming American planes for an avalanche is only the start; the cultural clashes between France, England and the United States are at the core of the novel, adding spice to a typical family feud. Johnson's writing is fresh and detailed, and for much of the novel she intrigues with stories of sexy Eurotrash, chic ski lodges and extended families linked by one loathed man. And she manages to wriggle in some cultural insights: how different cultures are seen across the world and how those viewpoints can be wrong -- like lumping all Americans into one big group. Unfortunately, things start unravelling near the end. The plot simply starts meandering, as if Johnson couldn't figure out what to do to wrap up the storyline. There's a shocker lawsuit and divorce thrown in to maintain tension, but "L'Affaire" simply runs out of plot twists. So it grinds to a halt in a flurry of legalspeak. Johnson tends to create characters by type: the French tend to be calculating and obnoxious, the Brits tend to be bitter, and the Americans nice but a bit dumb. Amy seems like a nice if bland character, until she starts sleeping around for no good reason. The supporting characters tend to be rather obnoxious, except for well-meaning teenager Kip, who just wants his sister and nephew to be all right. "L'Affaire" loses steam at the end, but it's an amusing light read with a twisted family and a young woman just trying to help. A flawed yet entertaining social commentary novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Very boring
Review: I found this book very tiresome. The writing was not especially witty or graceful, and the characters often seemed more like "types" than people. The book was neither as amusing as it might have been if the author had set out to write a comedy of manners, nor as intellectually and emotionally compelling as it might have been if the author had written about characters with depth and complexity. Use your money to buy a better book and your time to read something engaging.
Rating:
Summary: Very boring
Review: I have greatly enjoyed all of Diane Johnson's books especially since "Le Divorce." Her style is unique and fresh, and the subject matter engrossing and captivating. I believe she is one of the great new voices of American fiction, even if her subjects involve Americans lost and bewildered by alien surroundings and customs. I agree, none of her novels are "fast" reads, if that is what is important to you. But I was engrossed from the minute I began savoring this and her other novels.
Rating: 
Summary: A modern marterpiece
Review: I have greatly enjoyed all of Diane Johnson's books especially since "Le Divorce." Her style is unique and fresh, and the subject matter engrossing and captivating. I believe she is one of the great new voices of American fiction, even if her subjects involve Americans lost and bewildered by alien surroundings and customs. I agree, none of her novels are "fast" reads, if that is what is important to you. But I was engrossed from the minute I began savoring this and her other novels.
Rating:
Summary: Johnson's other works are better
Review: I was disappointed with this novel. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Le Mariage or Le Divorce. Somehow I couldn't really connect with the main character and her mysterious and convenient millions, and the French and English characters were all shallow and not very likable. The ending was just too pat. This novel wasn't a complete waste of time, but it wasn't worth the precious little time I have for reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Amusing comedy of manners
Review: In L'Affaire, Diane Johnson writes another comedy of manners centered on the cultural differences between French folks and American folks. She expands her contrast to include a goodish number of Britons. Her third-person narrative centers around the
doings when a rich man and his young wife have a ski accident.
We are led through the viewpoints and lives of the man's children, as well as a newly-rich-in-dot-coms young California woman.
The comparison inevitable in reviewing this novel is that to Johnson's other cultural comedy, Le Divorce. Although L'Affaire has similarities sufficient to draw the reader who liked Le Divorce, this comedy of manners is rather different as well. Ms. Johnson's periscope view of people of some money and some culture provides a bit wider view here.
The world created by this novel is not intended to be quite the literal world in which we all live. Like a Wodehouse novel, the Johnson universe has some touchstones from "real life", but is instead its own constructed universe. Although Le Divorce arguably had some "skewed Jane Austen" touches, this novel is more Trollopeian in its approach. Although all characters are quite sympathetic, none are quite lovable.
This book is consistently diverting, and in parts quite amusing.
It rarely provides the "roar out loud" type of chuckle, but that's more a matter of design than flaw.Ms. Johnson's ear for language remains solid. L'Affaire is a quick interlude more than a lifelong memory, but well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: amusing but dark avarice bedroom manners romp
Review: In Palo, Alto, California, Amy Hawkins made a fortune in the dot-com boom. Feeling she owes for her fortunate life, Amy decides to improve herself before doing good deed. She heads to the Alps ski resort Hotel Croix St. Bernard in Valmeri, France where she plans to learn everything French in two weeks.
The good deed surfaces when she pays for the return of dying publisher Adrian Venn, injured in an avalanche to England. Venn's family gathers to carve up the estate with each expecting to trump the other. Amy finds herself in a loony bin as Venn's two adult children and his illegitimate French daughter expect to eliminate their father's young comatose (from the accident) American wife and their infant step-brother from the estate competition before the final battle royal between themselves. Even the solicitors from France and England are skirmishing over who does what to whom arguing which country takes precedence. Finally there are also the outside straphangers ready to take a slice. With all that and bed hopping, romance, and affairs while everyone disparages those damn Yankees Amy Hawkins has learned a valuable lesson that no good deed goes unpunished.
The key to this humorous coffin romp is the ensemble cast mourning their loss or celebrating their gain seem genuine as Diane Johnson provides a deep look at values. The story line is a comedy of errors with everyone misinterpreting the actions and motivations of everyone else because they constantly impose their values on how others will behave. Fans will appreciate this intelligent amusing but dark avarice bedroom manners Rape of the Lock.
Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Fun
Review: No spoiler (I hope ) so read with caution - but I was enjoying the book until the last page conclusion - then I realized how much time I had wasted with a shallow unfullfilled character (Amy). She had not developed in any sense in the book even as she desired to improve herself and enrich her life. Disgusted by ending. Such an easy out for the writer - must have had a deadline.
Rating:
Summary: Complete waste of my time!!
Review: Please, don't spend your time or money on this book. I struggled through waiting for the plot twist that would lead to the point of this book. It never came. The characters were vague and so underdeveloped that I couldn't quite decide who was likeable and who wasn't. Even the ending was unsatisfying. It ended so abruptly that at first I thought maybe I was missing the last chapter. This is the first and last book I purchase by this author!
Rating:
Summary: Isabelle Archer Lives!
Review: Thank you, Diane Johnson, for being a true heiress to Henry James. When clueless Amy meets a cross-section of European, Paris-centric, upperish-crusted, slef-promoters, she shows both brash courage at sticking to her principals of mutual aid, and an open curiosity at how to, if not fit in, then at least not stick out. Unfortunately, her principals and new wealth always make her stick out, bringing into question what American generosity and world-involvement really are and lining her path of good intentions with one corpse and a number of disappointments from those depending on her. If there's a flaw, it's in the unexplored character of the novel's surprise villain -- but when an author is juggling at least eight points-of-view as seamlessly as Johnson is here, well...I for one am in a forgiving mood even if it means a miss on perfection.
Brava!
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