Quick lighthearted read by an author I suspect I wouldn't enjoy meeting in person. ( )

Young Englishman Paul West is hired by a French food corporation to organize and open their new venture in a chain of English tearooms in Paris. He's contracted to work on this project for one year, and so he enters the world of French business with barely any French language himself and leading a team that mostly doesn't understand him. His boss, suave Jean-Marie, seems the picture of the confident Frenchman, and Paul feels lucky to have such support, until he begins noticing cracks in the image, beginning with the sloppy way Jean-Marie conducts an office fling with an employee.
Paul's own libido often takes precedent over his work as he goes about the city, from work to cafes and bars, looking for just about any woman who will have him. His attempt at being a French country squire goes disastrously when he discovers that his boss has so much influence and power even that far from Paris. ( )

At times; at times silly; at times tedious and under-plotted. ( )

I think every traveler to France (no matter how competent they THINK they are in the language) experiences at least some of the things that Clarke recounts in this travel memoir. And depending on how traumatizing the experience ultimately was, we let our friends and family hear all about it when we get home. But few of us tell it all via the dry wit that Clarke consistently exhibits in A Year in the Merde. I actually lost count of how many times I laughed out loud.

This one is great fun for those who know know a bit of the language, including some French slang, but I think that even those who haven't been to France or who know more than a few basic words in French should enjoy this one. ( )

Funny - Initially I thought it was non-fiction, but soon figured it out that it wasn't. Good writing and humour. ( )