My aunt gave me Le Divorce at Thanksgiving because she just finished it, and I ended up carrying it on the plane with me because I really could not stuff it anywhere else. My other book was a little too serious, so I decided to start Le Divorce on my first flight. By the time I landed in Toulouse I had finished 3/4 of the book (it's short and an easy read).
So, for anyone who didn't see the movie with Kate Hudson or read the book when it was a best seller a few years ago, Le Divorce is about a young American college drop out (Isabel) who tells the story of going to visit her step-sister in Paris who is pregnant and recently left by her French husband. Isabel goes to stay several months in Paris, date several men, hang out with the ex-pat community, improve her French, and help her sister through divorce proceedings while pregnant.
If I hadn't spent so much time in France, I'd probably say that unreservedly that I really liked it. It was fairly well written, funny at times, with good commentary on life. That said, the fact that the step sister is married to a man from a rich bourgeois family (de Persand) and has several other de ___ friends is presented as matter of fact. Maybe you do meet lots of people like that in Paris? The ex-pat community in the story is well off and includes famous writers, trust fund couples, and dignitaries. Isabel immediately gets hired to do odd jobs for ex-pat friends, like walking dogs, working as a secretary, house sitting, etc. It seemed too convenient. There is no explanation either of how she's able to hang out for 6-7 months after arriving as a tourist (but that's just me after my ordeal to stay in France).
The book was published in 1997, but Mitterand is still alive in the story (I believe he died in January 1996), so it was obviously written over several years leading up to that. Some references in the book just aren't true anymore, like French women being allowed to drink some alcohol during pregnancy. Others I think are still correct: the French talk freely about sex but don't talk openly about money and finances.
The story is mostly about the divorce of the French-American couple following the husband's realization that he was in love with someone else. There are a lot of references to French marriage and divorce law (which didn't give me much confidence). I don't know if any of those laws have changed, but I don't think the Pacs was around at the time, so maybe things are different now. The French family seemed to view the husband's affair and decision that he was in love with someone else as just a bad, impolite habit. Almost like someone who tells off-color jokes. They were sure the son would realize his mistake and come back to the wife, all in good time. B says adultery has always been a big deal, so perhaps the relaxed attitude is just the author's doing. I wonder though if things have changed in 10 years and if an author wouldn't be able to write the same kind of attitude today.
In some ways Le Divorce was a fun read because certain chapters read like a memoir, like Almost French, and I could relate. But at other times I felt like the author took liberties because she knew most of her audience wouldn't know that living in France isn't really like that. Now I have to decide if I will donate the book to the local library (they have a sizable English fiction section) or take it to the British shop in town for the book swap and get a euro or so of store credit.
1 comment:
I read Le Divorce years back, probably not long after it was published. I agree with a lot of what you said: her observations are obviously pretty stereotypical, and of course the "expat community" descriptions are culled from the richer side, and not from those of us struggling to get by and to find our place here in France.
Well, and as to divorces -- I just read an article about them in the French Elle from a few weeks ago, and believe it or not, they are more and more common. And apparently more and more WOMEN are the ones to leave relationships and to take the risk to want to start over again. I don't know how long the PACs has been around now, but it is easier and faster for people to divorce these days, even more so than five years ago. And the French have unfortunately always had a bad reputation for adultery and "maîtresses"... Of course, the irony of it is they exist in every country and every society, but they appear to be sewn into the fabric of French culture.
As to alcohol during pregnancy: well, even though there are ads in magazines here now telling women NOT to drink alcohol, most docs here will still tell you that "a little bit of wine won't hurt"... I agree that women shouldn't drink at all while pregnant, but wine is not frowned on nearly as much as hard alcohol, like whiskey and such.
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