L'Affaire
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.60 (708 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0452285631 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 352 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-05-14 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
In Diane Johnson’s L’Affaire, 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.Amy, already suspect because she is American, steps in to assist, and unintentionally sets in motion a series of events that spotlight ancient national differences, customs, and laws. Filled with love, sex, death, and travel, L’Affaire is Diane Johnson at her very best in a comedy of contemporary manners played out between the sexes as they stumble over cultural barriers and slam into cultural stereotypes.
C. ONeill said L'Affaire by Diane Johnson/Review by C. O'Neill. The series of "L" books L'Divorse, L' Marraige, are delightful but not frivilous accounts of men and women from various backgrounds, cultures and countries coming together in high and low levels of "French Farce." I love them for the pure escape and entertainment. But, don't misread this to mean they are "fluff". These books are well written filled with literary,artistic and historic. Superb Writing I can't figure out the low ratings for Diane Johnson's books as well as her relative obscurity. I realize she has reached a degree of success, and has had Hollywood connections as well. But there is nothing evident online (without actually reading her books) to suggest how incredibly intelligent, witty and engaging she is as a novelist. I read many novels per year and have done so fr. A Customer said amusing but dark avarice bedroom manners romp. In Palo, Alto, California, Amy Hawkins made a fortune in the dot-com boom. Feeling she owes for her fortunate life, Amy decides to improve herself before doing good deed. She heads to the Alps ski resort Hotel Croix St. Bernard in Valmeri, France where she plans to learn everything French in two weeks.The good deed surfaces when she pays for the return of dying publisher Adrian Venn,
Add a stuffy British solicitor who disdains French customs, his French counterpart who equally despises the English, an intellectual and TV personality who demonizes Americans, a lusty Austrian baron, a chic Parisienne hostess and other expertly drawn characters, and the comedy moves into high gear, but never at the expense of insights into human nature. When she generously pays for transporting the dying Adrian Venn, a publisher crushed in a landslide, back to his native England, her humanitarian gesture backfires with exquisite irony. Vraiment, L'Affaire, c'est irresistible!Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. Here, she perfects it in a deliciously entertaining story of a group of people drawn together-and divided by-the sharply different laws of succession in France and Britain. . From Publishers Weekly In Le Divorce and Le Mariage, Johnson polished her skill for sop