Writing-by-Numbers
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I thought I'd give this a read as it appeared to be a light-hearted, short, "comedy" novel set in a country I've enjoyed many a visit to. I guess after reading it, it proved to be exactly what I expected although it didn't really hit the spot with me.
I can't help but think that in today's market there are just too many average books out there. Ok, it's certainly not a bad read & I'm sure the author is well-placed to base a whole book (and indeed sequels) on the differences bewteen French & English cultures but there's just nothing particularly clever, funny or indeed original about it.
With just a little more talent & desire, I'm sure there's thousands of us who could sit down and sketch out the overall plot of a book such as this and then get down to writing 300 well-spaced pages about an unsuspecting "hero".
All-in-all I wouldn't particularly recommend this unless you were a Brit-in-France or managed to pick it up in the bargain-bin of your local bookstore. Far better stuff out there.
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Painfully unfunny
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Stephen Clarke must have been unable to believe the success of this book: he's basically repackaged a bunch of cliches about the French and made a fortune off of it. The characters are completely one-dimensional, the protagonist is entirely unlikeable and the most obvious author insertion I've ever seen in a book like this.
Furthermore, the book is relentlessly sexist in a Daily Mail kind of way. You know, 'Men Are From Mars...' kind of sexism defended by 'oh it's just a bit of fun' and a shrug. Female characters are described pretty much exclusively by what they're wearing and how attractive they are, are completely one-dimensional and obsessed with sleeping with the main character and there are some extremely nasty dismissals of women who don't meet Paul's standard. This being fiction this of course means that they are never main characters (they're all attractive, and fancy him) but instead just background uglies who are good for a put-down and nothing else. The whole thing made me feel very uncomfortable.
Boring, overlong, sexist and childish. No wonder that the Daily Mail thought it was brilliant.
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Same old clichés
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Can't understand why this book is so popular. It is poorly written, not very funny and regurgitates the same old clichés about France. The French are lazy, sex obsessed, corrupt, etc. I have lived in France and it does not reflect the reality of France AT ALL. In short, France for daily mail readers who like to have all their preconceptions about France reinforced.
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Funny, funny, funny
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Having spent a year in France as a newbie to the language and customs I found this highly entertaining and related to many aspects. Funny and useful combined in a quick read - a good spend.
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I didn't really get it
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The blurb on the back makes out that this is the diary of a year in the life of an englishman living in Paris. It suggests, with its quote from the Times about it being more edgy than Bryson and Peter Mayle that it is true. The author, inside, suggests that some of it is true, probably and it reads like a ladlit novel.
I thought it was fairly poorly written, not massively entertaining and a book which enjoys exploiting the stereotype of the French character without being in the slightest bit hard hitting or edgy. The main character comes across as wildly unsympathetic, fairly amoral and rather dull, and I learned nothing about French life that I didn't already know.
I think the marketing is misleading and the book below par.
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