Customer Reviews

French Lessons: A Novel

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

The plot of French Lessons: A Novel intrigued me - I expected a romantic story set in Paris and instead the novel is actually an anthology of three very short and underdeveloped stories taking place on a single day featuring a Parisian tour guide - each escorting a sad sack around the City of Lights. Billed as a romance, it is actually a somewhat depressing novel more about loneliness than romance.

The one plus in the novel is that author Ellen Sussman makes Paris come alive with her vivid descriptions (and handy maps), but I found the style of writing difficult to follow - there would be dialogue which is suddenly made passive with third person narrative, sometimes detracting from the story and my enjoyment of the novel.

I finished this book in one sitting, and must applaud the author for such a unique and interesting story line. Three visitors to Paris hire a private French tutor for combination French lessons and tour guide. The novel opens with the three tutors, and then is divided into each twosome's day... the entire book takes place during one day in Paris.

Josie is running away from a tragic secret, seeking solace in the anonymity of a tourist, but Nico, her tutor, breaks through the fragile wall she's built around herself through playful flirtation and genuine caring. He is keenly observant of his pupil and seems determined to pull her back into life, if only for a day. By the end of their sesson, each has inadvertantly helped the other make a key decision that will help each move forward in their own lives.

Riley is a reluctant ex-pat in Paris, a young mother of two, and a very unhappy housewife. Her tutor, Phillipe is a overly confidant womanizer in every sense of the word. Although fluent in English, Phillipe insists on speaking only in French, which is no small challenge for Riley. Their story was difficult (for me) to read because it felt a bit like a train wreck unfolding, and (for me) the choice Riley makes is disappointing.

Jeremy has been meeting regularly with Chantal as an anniversary gift from his wife who is a well-known actress filming in Paris. He feels disconnected from his wife's movie world and has come to appreciate his French lessons and Paris day trips with Chantal... who has her own, carefully hidden secrets.

By the end of one single day, each character's life has been changed in some way, big or small. Again, it's a unique concept for a novel, very well mastered by the author, and my only real (personal) criticism is the amount of semi-graphic sexuality in the book, especially about halfway through. In my experience, at least for many women, sex is like a big banana split with hot fudge... deliciously wonderful to enjoy, but not something we think about 24/7.

I've been slogging through a bunch of novels I "should" read, and French Lessons was such a welcome relief! I tore through it in two evenings. Take six well-drawn characters coping with their own unique love issues (bereavement; estrangement; ambivalence; longing; betrayal), place them in Paris, have their paths cross in the course of one day in ways that ultimately change each of them... throw in some doses of nice erotic tension... It was a delight to read. Well written yet easy and accessible.

I notice that some reviewers have criticized French Lessons for not being a "romance." They're correct: I wouldn't describe it as genre romance. It is more nuanced, the characters' feelings more ambiguous. It's more reflective of (and reflective upon) real life! For me, that's a plus.

"French Lessons" is the story of three French tutors and their very different students. Nico's student, Josie, is an American French teacher in mourning. Philippe's student, Riley, is an expatriate housewife who wants more out of life. Chantal's student, Jeremy, is a woodworker whose wife happens to be a film star.

The book follows a single day with each pair, with both teachers and students learning something about themselves as the students not only practice their French but open up about their issues and concerns. The stories cross paths during a film shoot featuring Jeremy's wife.

The prose is elegant and engaging; the book is primarily written in third-person present tense, lending an immediacy to the events. The interior design also shows maps of each pair's journey throughout Paris on the day in question.

Highly recommended for those interested in French culture, or who enjoy a good literary novel.

By page ten I was wondering how something so awful could get published? By page 30 I knew the author must have many friends in the publishing business. French Lessons consists of three novellas tied together by three different French tutors working for the same language school They are sent out for the day on an exploration of Paris with their student to improve the student's lanuage skills. In the first story handsome tutor Nico(everyone in the book is handsome or beautiful, of course), is assigned to spend the day with Josie. Josie is an American French teacher escaping to Paris after the death of her much older, and much married lover, the father of one of her students. Here is a quote just to illustrate the dreadful writing, 'Young love teaches you how to love. You're so lucky. Most of us spend years trying to learn the ways of love'. So cliched! The author indulges in the current fashion of turning nouns into verbs, 'she...metroed back to her hotel'. And then there are the grammatical mistakes, 'Just his father and I'. It scares the daylights out of me that this author actually teaches creative writing. Clearly she needs to take such a course herself from someone who actually can write. I won't bother going into the other two novellas. I think you get the point. This is mindless nonsense.

Yes, I know there is a certain type of lazy reader who enjoys this sort of book. I hope you enjoy wasting your time on this book, I know I didn't.

Set during one day in the city of seduction, three French tutors and their American students walk around Paris, think about love and consider having sex in five loosely connected stories. There are no simple, romantic happy endings here, which could make the book more compelling and realistic, but somehow most of the characters did not come to life for me. Maybe that's a result of the book's short story format, or because all the character development from despair to revelation had to be squeezed into one less-than-24 hour period.

Strangely, because I usually enjoy books more, I think I'd rather see French Lessons as a movie. With the right script and talented actors to inhabit and flesh out the book's hastily sketched characters, French Lesson's theme of the complications of love and lust along with its Parisian setting might make a moving, visually beautiful film.

J'aime this book beaucoup. I am probably a bit biased because I love Paris and most things French (I can't do escargots), but really this story just took me there for a day. The premise of the french tutors was really unique, and if there is an opportunity for this in real life, next time I go there I am signing up. Their stories mixed in with the students' stories really show a lot about human nature, and the emotions were very real. It felt that each of the students were able to tell their stories completely truthfully good or bad, and I really appreciated not having the standard stories of grief, lost love, stagnant relationships and the like. These stories were very like the french people; blunt at times and unapologetic, qualities that will sometimes make outsiders uncomfortable. I for one had been longing for a trip to Paris, and this book gave me a perfect escape without the hefty airfare.

Reviewed by Gabi for Book Sake.

Here's my tip: read French Lessons by Ellen Sussman while sitting in a cafe having a chocolate croissant and good coffee. That's the easiest and fastest way to transport yourself to Paris this summer.

French Lessons by Ellen Sussman delivers Paris in her myriad facets, conjuring freshly baked pain au chocolat, strolling by the Seine, and the thrill of a romantic dalliance. This is Paris through the eyes of three Americans at a crossroads in their lives, who, in discovering Paris, rediscover themselves. Their stories divide the book into three parts, each with a distinct perspective. Josie, Riley, and Jeremy each have hired a French tutor to make them more comfortable with the language. With this same premise, however, their experiences and what they get out of the one day's lesson are remarkably different from each other's. Sussman deftly changes the mood and tone of each story to match the character's personality: heartbreaking and bittersweet in one story, smart and racy in the next, then sensitive and yearning in another.

The strongest story of the bunch is that of grief-stricken Josie, who has fled to Paris in the wake of a doomed love affair with a married man. Her narrative alternates between the memories of the excitement and guilt of an illicit relationship with a man she can no longer be with and the very present possibility of a fling with her French tutor. Despite her broken heart, somehow Josie responds to the magic of being in Paris. No one can resist her allure, least of all the reader.

As the stories are brief but intense glimpses into Josie, Riley, and Jeremy's lives, so do they offer Paris from multiple viewpoints, each one beguiling.

"Paris. The city of sex. The city of clandestine affairs. The city of French tutors in pathetic apartments. The city where the pain au chocolat you eat in the morning is only the first erotic taste of the day. The city where you can stop talking long enough to hear the song your mother sang."

"On their second day together they walked through a neighborhood filled with antique stores so that Chantal could teach him the language of furniture and jewelry and art...They stood in the charming clutter of the old man's atelier, with the man's low steady voice in his ear and the odors of the wood and solvents and Chantal's fragrant perfume in his nose. The late-afternoon light filtered through the small, high windows of the shop, and Jeremy thought: I'm happy here. This is where I belong."

French Lessons is the story of three French tutors in Paris and their American students. The tutors struggle with their own love lives, as do their students. When they meet for their lessons, not in a classroom, but on the streets of Paris, they learn a great deal about each other and themselves.

I love how Ellen Sussman so effortlessly weaves in the backstory of her characters. So while the story takes place over the course of one day, the novel delves into the histories of these characters and gives the story a deeper time span. I've never been to Paris, but I certainly feel like I know my way around after reading this book (and studying about Paris in my own French class oh-so-many years ago!). I also like how Sussman intersperses French sentences here and there in story without weighing down the dialogue.

Since Paris is the city of love and one filled with delicious pastries, Sussman includes both in each of the three stories. I found myself blushing all while craving a sinful pain au chocolate (a flaky rectangular pastry filled with chocolate).

I've recommended this book to friends who've headed out to the beach for a couple weeks. If you love Paris and a good story or three, this is a perfect summer read.

Those who, like myself, read this novel thinking that it might provide some insights into life in Paris will be disappointed, as this is nothing more than a romance novel that would, I imagine, best be appreciated by an audience whose main interests would include celebrity gossip and daytime television. At first I thought that the author's intent was to write a parody of romance novels in recognition that that today's woman was more seriously engaged but parody it is not. Perhaps the author herself had a bad experience living in Paris as an expatriate. In any event, I can't recommend this book, even as a lightweight diversion.