Helpful Score: 1
An okay read but the movie is way better.
Helpful Score: 1
Divorce, what an ugly word you may think , right? not so ugly once you start reading this book, funny !!!!!!
I simply could not put this book down in spite of the fact that the characters are not all that believable and there seems to be a prejudice against the French as whole, I did have fun reading it!
"Here is the bestselling novel hailed by critics and readers alike--a delightful comedy of manners and morals, money, marriage, and murder, as wickedly funny as it is deeply insightful. As lingering as a French kiss, LE DIVORCE is Diane Johnson at her most sublime."
I disagree with some of the other reviews of this book. I found it to be an interesting novel about the differences between Americans and French when it comes to love, fidelity, marriage, divorce and culture in general. It isn't easy to read, but it's not difficult to get through and the story is entertaining. The characters are well developed and while there are many generalizations between the two cultures, the author never sinks to stereotypes and caricatures.
It's a story of how a woman from the US goes to visit her sister in France to help her out with her divorce, and is caught up in the highflying society that is France. It was an interesting novel that is a tearjerker in some parts.
Great book!
Surprisingly good- witty, intelligent, and worldly. Definitely not the hokey chick-flick that the film suggests.
This was a wry and funny book. A great read. A fun and intelligent romance. They even made a movie with Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts.
A wonderful, insightful comedy.
A fun, fluffy read for a day at the beach.
This was a national book award finalist.
This book is about two step-sisters from Cali. The older sister, Roxy, married a frenchman and moved to paris and started a family. Her younger sister, Isabel, comes to visit and help out as Roxy is pregnant again. The book focuses on the differences between cultures which was interesting to read about.
Publishers Weekly: "It's no accident that the epigraph for this delightfully urbane social tragicomedy is taken from Henry James. Isabel Walker is a latter-day Isabel Archer, a charming, intelligent American in Paris, who thinks herself sophisticated and analytical until her eyes are opened during the ironic, erotic and shocking events in the course of which she comes of age. Restless and unfocused, a drop-out from film school at Berkeley, Isabel is sent to Paris to help her pregnant step-sister, Roxy, through a difficult time: Roxy's husband, Charles-Henri Persand, has left her and their toddler daughter to run off with another woman. Isabel accepts a motley range of jobs in the American expatriate community-running errands, helping a famous writer with her files, serving at parties, etc.-and becomes aware of the jealousy and backbiting among the insular set. At first totally at sea because of the language barrier, she also gradually becomes aware that a chasm of misunderstandings and basic attitudinal differences lies beneath the cordial facade of Franco-American relationships. Meanwhile, an heirloom painting that Roxy brought to Paris is suddenly discovered to be an immensely valuable La Tour; under French law, it will be considered part of the divorce settlement. ....... By the time the various strands of the plot culminate in surreal scenes at EuroDisney and the refuse bins of Roxy's apartment building, Isabel has become wiser about herself and the world, though she realizes that her point of view will always be colored by her Californian mindset. Johnson's control of her material is impeccable. The world of American expatriates is fertile territory for her ironic wit, which is both subtle and sharp. Everything here delights the reader...."
I disagree with some of the other reviews of this book. I found it to be an interesting novel about the differences between Americans and French when it comes to love, fidelity, marriage, divorce and culture in general. It isn't easy to read, but it's not difficult to get through and the story is entertaining. The characters are well developed and while there are many generalizations between the two cultures, the author never sinks to stereotypes and caricatures. I didn't see the movie, but I assume it is a typical Hollywood bastardization of the book.
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.
fun - light romance - setting is Paris
A fun read and escape into another world.
A sexy smart American abroad as she arrives in Paris to visit her stepsister Roxy, a poet whose marriage into a aristocratic French family has assured her of a coveted place in Parisian society.
This is a "comedy of marriage, money and murder!" A story about the collision of two cultures.....American and French, in the City of Lights....Paris.
Isabel Walker, eerily reminiscent of James's Isabel Archer, is a young film-school dropout who travels to Paris to aid her stepsister, who is going through a divorce. Isabel's California cool, American freedoms, and feminist slants comingle, successfully and fractiously, with the customs, biases, and complex sexuality of modern Europe. The result modulates between introspection and hilarity, and a quick, Hollywood-inspired sweep of violent action in the end doesn't undermine the author's mastery of Old World vs. New--in fact, it provides an ironic scrim.
A bestselling novel - set in the City of Light.
this is one book where the movie is definately more worth your time! Don't feel bad if you skip the book.
Great condition.
