L'Affaire

I enjoyed Le Divorce, and even Le Mariage, but somehow L'Affaire left me cold. Maybe it's because Johnson's insights into cultural misunderstandings are getting a little stale; maybe it's because she insists on writing the same book over and over. But in fact, I think it's because her characterizations of the nationalities involved have become broader and less kind since her first book.

In le Divorce, everyone had their little foibles and prejudices, but they were all basically likeable and believable people. In L'Affaire, all the Americans are culturally illiterate morons, and all the French people are cruel and selfish snobs. Is it accurate? Maybe, but it's not pleasant.

But it might just be my perception. Maybe living in France and in show more poverty has made stories of the wealthy and titled seem a bit frivolous to me. show less

This is the story of a young, independently wealthy, American woman, who seeks a master class on sophistication in France. With the help of a female French mentor (who caters to American women) and an international group of people she meets at a ski resort, she finds more questions than answers. Overall the story seemed to lack an ending; character stories wrapped up abruptly. I enjoyed the travel aspect of this book most of all - transporting me to France, both a small skiing village and Paris, for a little while every evening.

Amy finds herself wealthy after her dotcom company sells, and she sets off for France for a course of self-improvement. While at a ski resort in the Alps, an avalanche puts two fellow guests in the hospital. Adrian, who is married to Kerry, is not expected to survive his injuries. Amy befriends Kerry's 14-year-old brother Kip as he shoulders responsibility for his infant half-brother Harry. Soon other of Adrian's offspring appear: Rupert, who is content to ski; Posy, who falls into bed Emile, husband of Victoire, a sister she didn't know she had. Insipid and superficial, I rate this New York Times Notable Book of 2003 at 3 out of 10 stars.

Thank goodness the married man who was having an affair with a 21 year old changed his perceptions about Americans so he could have an affair with the main character too! Mostly pointless drivel. Wondering why I kept reading? - I thought the death and the legal problems were going to lead up to something significant - guess not.

Calif. $ goes to ski resort — she tries to do good — things get mixed up — good

Amy Hawkins, a smart, pretty Palo Alto girl who made herself a dot-com fortune, goes to France to get a sheen of sophistication and, perhaps, to have an affair that will ruffle her all-too-steady heart. Amy starts her quest in the French Alps in the town of Valméri, amid an assortment of aristocrats and ski enthusiasts.When two of the hotel’s guests, esteemed English publisher Adrian Venn and his much younger American wife, Kerry, are swept away by an avalanche, Adrian’s children—young, old, legitimate, illegitimate—assemble in Valméri to protect their interests.

It was OK. It started better than it went on. It is written in a precise style and each character is drawn so you see their faults & virtues...except maybe the lawyers. It was odd that the women had no problem sleeping with another woman's husband, esp. since he was the father of her children. Oh yes, there was also a problem with time, she didn't seem clear how old the father was and how he got so old; the children were too young for how old I think he was supposed to be...but maybe not, is the point that he wasn't so old, just the kid thought he was?

Another of her "Europeans, especially the French, and Americans are so different" books. I liked it till about 3/4 of the way through, where it became insubstantial and trivial like her previous books. Bad character development.