And God Created the French [Paperback]

Louis-Bernard Robitaille (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2003

Hailed by reviewers as a brilliantly insightful look at Parisians and France, this best-seller on two continents (80,000+ copies in print) by Montreal daily newspaper La Presse's Paris correspondent gives the reader a detailed view of how French society really works, with its hidden codes, unspoken rules, tribal loyalties and attachment to the past. French society's strange love-hate relationship with money, for example, which must be spent to excess but never, never discussed in public is revealed here, as is France's obsessive attraction to all things American, along with its simultaneous demonizing of all things...American. This a treasure trove of biting, satirical and bang-on pieces on anything and everything French from King Louis XIV to Charles de Gaulle, from EuroDisneyland to the French schizoid view of money, love and country, from Catherine Deneuve to François Mitterand describes a country of excesses and opposites, where the wine and olive oil culture from the South competes with the beer and butter culture from the North, where a monarchist movement is strong in the country that beheaded its last king, where classical music is adored but dreadfully composed, and where the art of brilliant conversation is taken to dizzying heights. France is a country, in sum, which might in fact be another planet, distant and obscure but absolutely mesmerizing. Few foreigners know France as well as Robitaille, who arrived in 1965 to become a novelist, and stayed as a reporter. He knows EVERYONE of importance in Paris and has interviewed hundreds of writers, actors, politicians and cafe owners in the course of his career. His interviews with Isabelle Adjani, Celine Dion, Mavis Gallant and many more make for page after page of fascinating reading. A new section on Americans in Paris has been added specially for this translation and the preface by Nouvel Observateur columnist Jean-François Kahn puts it all in perspective. The France-Inter radio network said, about this terrific page-turner of a read, it is clairvoyant, penetrating writing by a real journalist.

Editorial Reviews

Review

... this book has been penned by a serious observer with a clairvoyant and judicious eye for the truth. -- France-Inter radio network

A biting, loving and wonderfully knowledgable insider's guide to Parisians. -- Pierre Salinger

A biting, loving, and wonderfully knowledgeable insider's guide to Parisians. -- Pierre Salinger

A critical book, full of caustic observation and irony. -- Pierre Assouline, RTL radio

A critical book, full of caustic observation and irony. The author has succeeded in shaking us up, gently but without complacence... -- Pierre Assouline, RTL radio

A first-class anatomy of French life. -- GLobe and Mail- Toronto

This book has been penned by a serious observer with a clairvoyant and judicious eye for the truth. -- France-Inter radio network

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 282 pages
• Publisher: Studio 9 Books & Music; 2 edition (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155207028X
• ISBN-13: 978-1552070284
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,730,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Parisian doesn't mean french, July 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: And God Created the French (Paperback)

I'm french and lives in the United States. I read that book but I think there's good things and bad things about it. First, the author seems to spend a lot of time depicting the parisian intelligentsia rather than really depicting a french picture. Paris and province are very different. And most of the french people don't have a Bishop or a noble for dinner. So why talk about it that much ? Also who cares about EuroDisney that much ? Not french people. There's good & bad things about France but at 33% of the book seems to talk about things that doesn't really seems relevant to a french. Otherwise some parts are really funny.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Pick and choose in this one, May 31, 2000

By 

Nancy R. Woodington - See all my reviews

This review is from: And God Created the French (Paperback)

Robitaille says some interesting and funny things, but in general I found his book hard going. The prose is quite dense (this may be the fault of the translation), and the author expects his readers to be as au courant with the details of French political and social life of the last twenty years as he is. If you're not up to speed, you'll be left scratching your head about the significance of this strike and that strike, this gaffe and that gaucherie, this change of minister and that, and on and on. But there are some very entertaining general articles in this collection, so I recommend that the Average Reader (in this case, someone generally but not intimately familiar with matters French) hunt them out and enjoy them, and leave the rest to the specialists.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Convoluted and Poorly Written, January 23, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: And God Created the French (Paperback)

This work is beset by problems of both style and substance.

Stylistically: this book has numerous spelling errors (Chili instead of Chile, for example.) and is translated into a verbose English. It's possible to remove at least 50% of this book by shaving needless adjectives and redundant sentences. There is no logical organization; it seems the author just began writing one evening and didn't pick up his pen until after he was finished.

In matters of substance this book has even more serious problems. First, the author is writing from the perspective of the literary "chic" crowd. His self consciousness is evident throughout when he constantly points out what the French may think of you if you live in one of the less fashionable districts of Paris, if you criticize a popular writer, or commit any of a few dozen minor social gaffes he has listed. While this may be the case for the literary crowd he associates with, it by no means is representative of the French. This book should be retitled, "And God Created the Self-Styled Parisian Literary Elite."

Most of the points he raises are universal in nature. If you flaunt your money or dress in a gaudy manner, you will be looked down upon whether you are in France, New York, or even Moscow.

His political insights are trivial. In no way does he explain the French political or business sectors before coming to his outlandish conclusions. The only people who could get anything at all out of this book are those who don't know anything about France. (For those who don't know, this book gets two stars. For those that do know, it's only 1 star) Unfortunately, this very audience needs the author to present some basic background information before diving into the conclusions.

Another main problem is that a lot of the material is marginal to his main story. Why does he feel the need to keep bringing up Jews and anti-Semitism every couple pages? If he wanted to write a book about anti-Semitism in France, then that is exactly what he should have written. He writes, at length, about Louis-Ferdinand Celine just to mock his "anti-Semitism." Another topic which perplexed me, was the young French Orientalist who lived in India as an "untouchable." I'm fascinated by India's caste system, but I don't see why he has to spend half a dozen pages writing about it in a book on France. When I want to read about a caste system, I will read a book by many informed Orientalists. And when I want to read about France, I would like to find a book actually about France and not a book written about everything and nothing at the same time -- about the Parisian literary elite, anti-Semitism in French literature, India's caste system, and some dimwitted perceptions about the United States.