Kate Muir

A great piece of writing, assured but never smug, lively but never overblown. The only thing I disliked about it was the slightly cloying and predictable ending (felt as though they should have been playing Flower of Scotland in the background as I read the text), though I was still a little misty eyed , and it remains a great read as far as I'm concerned.

This book possibly has the least likeable characters in it than any book I've ever read. It covers adultery, vanity, neglect and the worst facets of human character. At least Madison, the Texas film star who is self absorbed and trying to cling to her youth & career in the beginning of the story manages to redeem herself and gain some perspective in life after her daughter goes missing. Unlike her husband Olivier, the French philosopher she's married to who wants to be famous but who has show more never met a woman he doesn't find sexually alluring and who has no interest in any sort of monogomy or Anna, the English nanny who cheerfully carries on an affair with Olivier in the same house she lives in with the family.



When I was in University part of the sylabus was to read a book called [b:Money|6853|One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, #1)|Janet Evanovich|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266449300s/6853.jpg|1486401] by [a:Martin Amis|11337|Martin Amis|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1206469248p2/11337.jpg] and at the time I thought it involved the least likeable protagonist in history yet for whatever reason, Kate Muir seems to have made an attempt at trying to rival him. show less

A mix of French, American and British cultures come to a clash in Paris. Muir has a good grasp of the "gauche caviar" and some of the French idiosyncracies. The development of characters, especially of the heroine Madison, is compelling as are their interests. The book ends elegantly on a sweet and sour note. Overall an enjoyable light read.

I'm not sure how this book would be categorised. It stands just the right side of chick-lit, and the characters are just about the right side of being caricatures, but unfortunately the story stands just the wrong side of interesting.

Built around a rather trite storyline involving some pretentious characters getting a kick up the backside from their seven year old child, I'm presuming the story is intended to satirise philosophy-spouting tarte-crunching Parisian society, but all it seemed to show more do in the end was showcase a bunch of characters whose personalities changed on a daily basis.

Featuring a variety of unusual concepts (it manages to bring together Chechnya, wet-nursing and Tetra-paks) the plot constantly wanders up blind alleys, introducing elements that could have made interesting reading if developed, but they never were.

Kate Muir certainly writes well, and the images conjured by her prose were always spot-on, but I finished the book wondering what the point was. Her later novel, West Coast was much, much better. show less