Le Mariage - Hardcover

Johnson, Diane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525945180 ISBN 13: 9780525945185

Publisher: Dutton Adult, 2000

Synopsis

A proper Frenchwoman married to an American journalist finds herself in the midst of a scandal involving a stolen manuscript, a reclusive film director, and his actress wife. By the author of Le Divorce.

About this title

About the Author

Diane Johnson is an American-born novelist and essayist. A two-time finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in three different genres���essay, biography,and fiction���she is���the author of the bestselling novel Le Divorce, a 1997 National Book Award finalist, as well as twelve other books, including the novels Persian Nights, Health and Happiness, Lying Low, The Shadow Knows, and Burning (all available in Plume editions).��� She is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and splits her time between San Francisco and Paris.

Reviews

Even more knowing and perceptive than Le Divorce, Johnson's second novel about American expatriates in France is another wickedly clever comedy of manners. Her amused irony infuses this story of two romantic relationships. Good-natured Tim Nolinger, an easygoing journalist of mixed American and Belgian ancestry, is engaged to adorable Anne-Sophie d'Arget, who runs a boutique selling equestrian memorabilia in the Paris flea market. When Tim pursues a story about a stolen medieval manuscript called the Driad Apocalypse, their lives intersect with those of a former American film star, Clara Holly, and her husband, famous and reclusive director Serge Cray, who live in a ch?teau in the suburbs of Paris. Peripheral characters include Anne-Sophie's mother, a cynical Parisienne novelist whose romance novels contain platitudinous advice about love that her daughter takes seriously; various members of the American community in Paris; the villagers of Etang-la-reine, who resent the rich property owners from the States and whose anger about the loss of their hunting rights triggers a plot against the Crays; two visitors from Clara's hometown in Oregon, and the members of a millennium cult there, who are pivotal in the drama of the purloined papers. What will be even more satisfying to Johnson's fans is the appearance of a character from Le Divorce, the dashing Antoine de Persand. In six degrees of separation, everybody is connected, yet the coincidences are artfully managed. Johnson's crisp manipulation of the engagingly convoluted plot is rooted in her central theme of French misconceptions about Americans, and vice versa. As exemplified by Holly and Cray, even those who share the same culture habitually fail to estimate the other accurately. Johnson's barbs are sophisticated and sharp, her amused irony is easily maintained, and her finesse at narrative is as fine tuned as her cultural sensitivity and her instincts about human behavior. As the novel ends, it is not surprising that le mariage of Anne-Sophie and Tim seems doomed by misunderstandings, but an adulterous liaison between two other characters conveys the mesmerizing passion of true love. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

With deft, skewering prose, Johnson (Le Divorce, 1996) once again gives readers a window into the odd goings-on of the expatriate community in Paris. Anne-Sophie, French, is engaged to Tim, a half-American, half-Belgian journalist looking for his big break of a story. There is a Polish film director, Cray, and his American wife, Clara, a murder in the marketplace, stolen manuscripts, false accusations, lost passports, and outrageous tangles of plot linking across continents--all seeming to have the direct effect of complicating conservative Anne-Sophie's attempts to plan a proper wedding. The murder and manuscript link to Oregon, and Clara's aged mother's companion, requiring a trip to America to resolve. Of course because of the legal complications stemming from the false accusations, Clara cannot accompany them. Does the wedding come off? Does Clara go to jail? Whatever happens, Johnson is slyly accurate in her ability to zero in on the defining quirks of the various cultures. This wickedly amusing amalgam of plot and character will keep the reader engrossed and entertained throughout. Danise Hoover

Like Henry James and Edith Wharton, Johnson's most recent novels (Persian Nights, Le Divorce) have explored the cultural misunderstandings between the sophisticated Old World (Iran, France) and the brash yet na?ve New World (America)--but without the tortuous Jamesian prose and with a contemporary satirical wit. Her latest, Le Mariage, is a delightful companion, rather than a sequel, to the National Book Award-nominated Le Divorce. Set again in Paris with a few overlapping characters, the plot revolves around two couples--Tim Nolinger, an Belgian American journalist engaged to the very French Anne-Sophie, a dealer in equine collectibles; and the very beautiful American Clara, a former actress married to the reclusive film director Serge Clay. Thrown into the entertaining mix is a stolen illuminated manuscript, a murdered flea market dealer, Y2K cults, an adulterous liaison, and of course Johnson's perceptive and witty insights on love, marriage, and Anglo-French relations. Highly recommended.
---Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dutton Adult
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0525945180
• ISBN 13: 9780525945185
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320