Le Mariage

Diane Johnson knows the prejudices and affections of the French as well as she knows those of her American countrymen. So when she writes about the proposed marriage of a young French woman to an American and mixes up the story with a theft of rare manuscripts and a neighborhood spat over the rights to hunt on private property, and you have the recipe for a delightful comedy of manners. Just read, laugh and enjoy.

After Le Divorce and L'Affaire, this book was a let down. What I liked most about the other books was how Ms. Johnson was able to turn a rather average story line into something much more with her keen insights into the interplay between two cultures. That was missing from this third novel, leaving the reader with a lot of characters, several implausible sub-plots and an ordinary story.

Surprising for such a thoughtful writer, a letdown. There are too many characters and they never escape their stock roots in romantic fiction, especially the men. Too many crazy subplots (notably, the main character's entanglements with the French legal system) that peter out toward the end. Last-minute effort to draw parallels with one of the great movies of all time, Renoir's Rules of the Game, is strained.

Well this wasn’t as funny or as interesting as I thought it would be. There was almost no tension about anything – the murder, the feud or anything else. There should have been. The only emotion this book evoked was anger at the French for being the assholes they are portrayed to be. It may not be true but it certainly doesn’t make me want to go to France any time soon. Unfortunately I got the other book, Le Divorce and it’s not very good either.

I changed the book cover AND my entire review and Tags got erased - it would be good to be warned about this.

Anyway, here's what I remember: Emotional equilibrium lost in subplots and underdeveloped characters.

Gossipy and shallow until Clara gets sent to jail!

Simple and obvious solutions never followed up, like just go visit Lars and get Delia to watch over Mrs. Holly...annoying
because so many minor loose ends around, not to mention what are Serge and Mrs. Persand thinking during the wedding...

...which takes forever to get to as most of us ending hoping that Teem will bail and actually find true love.

Animal Rights are woven strongly into the plot and characters.

American actress Clara is married to movie director Cray, who collects manuscripts and books.

Crime follows involving the Morgan Library and the FBI. Unfortunately, not much of interest happens.

Not at all what I expected. Not very satisfying either.