Customer Reviews

L'affaire

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This book was very slow-moving, and did very little to grasp my attention, and even less to hold it. The beginning started off alright- great setting, interesting descriptions which gave the reader an indication of upcoming conflicts...but wow did this book drag!!!

I read three other books in the time it took me to read this one. Even when I was down to the last ten pages, I couldn't sit still long enough to see how it ended, and just waited until I had enough energy to stay awake for the last chapter.

This book was a tedious read. I am a fan of Diane Johnson and was more than disappointed with this novel. The characters were either loathesome or poorly developed, and while the setting was ideal as the backdrop of a great story, the almost non-existent plot was dragged out for about 200 pages too many. Either this book needed to be one hundred pages long, or it needed a bit more excitement to keep me interested.

Perceptive and witty, popular novelist Diane Johnson struck it rich with "Le Mariage" and "Le Divorce" (later made into a top box office draw by Merchant/Ivory Productions and Fox Searchlight). Now, with "L'Affaire" Ms. Johnson creates a protagonist who also has the Midas touch - Amy Ellen Hawkins, a young attractive American who has reaped a fortune as a dot.com
executive.

However, for Amy her vast wealth almost seems to bring more problems than pleasures. You see, Amy believes she must do some sort of payback for the blessings she has so unexpectedly and suddenly received. Thus, she first sets upon a course of self-improvement, "an almost superstitious way of placating the gods for her recent good fortune." Next, she hopes to find a cause, a sort of "mutual aid" to which she can devote a portion of her considerable assets.

She opts for a stay at the Hotel Croix St. Bernard in Valmeri, France where in a few weeks she intends to master French (the language and cuisine) in addition to absorbing other cultural niceties. She has gathered that this particular hotel is "the choice of diplomats taking a break from Geneva, the occasional adulterous couple, well-off families with young children who like an early, assorted Eurotrash eccentrics bored with the relentless pace found in the larger hotels." She is correct.

Among Amy's fellow guests are a portly Austrian baron whose business is real estate, a rather threadbare but erudite English poet, Robin Crumley, an impossibly attractive television reporter, Emile Abboud, and, for a while, an English brother and sister, Posy and Rupert Venn.

Unfortunately, Amy's idyll is interrupted by an avalanche which takes the life of Adrian Venn, and renders his much younger wife, Kerry, comatose. Kerry's infant son and teenage brother, Kip, are marooned at the hotel. Of course, Amy takes it upon herself to help the hapless and helpless young ones. She befriends Kip and makes arrangements for Adrian to be transported to England.

However, her disposition to be a do-gooder has unexpected results - when Adrian dies on English soil litigation of the most complicated nature ensues. Now, toss in romantic entanglements that have developed among the guests and you have, to put it mildly, some complications.

In the words of Ms. Johnson these complications make delightful, fun reading. The author, a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and three-time finalist for the National Book Award, once again proves her mettle.

"L'Affaire" is a bit of fluff laced with brandy - don't miss it!

My reading group wanted something light for our January read so we selected this book based on a newspaper review in which Ms. Johnson is hailed as a Pulitzer Prize contender. I doubt this book is going to win her any literary awards! L'Affaire had unlikeable, boring characters about whom I was completely uninterested. The plot was silly and bordering on the absurd without being even slightly humorous. Don't waste your money or time on this one.

Thank you, Diane Johnson, for being a true heiress to Henry James. When clueless Amy meets a cross-section of European, Paris-centric, upperish-crusted, slef-promoters, she shows both brash courage at sticking to her principals of mutual aid, and an open curiosity at how to, if not fit in, then at least not stick out. Unfortunately, her principals and new wealth always make her stick out, bringing into question what American generosity and world-involvement really are and lining her path of good intentions with one corpse and a number of disappointments from those depending on her. If there's a flaw, it's in the unexplored character of the novel's surprise villain -- but when an author is juggling at least eight points-of-view as seamlessly as Johnson is here, well...I for one am in a forgiving mood even if it means a miss on perfection.

Brava!

I found this book very tiresome. The writing was not especially witty or graceful, and the characters often seemed more like "types" than people. The book was neither as amusing as it might have been if the author had set out to write a comedy of manners, nor as intellectually and emotionally compelling as it might have been if the author had written about characters with depth and complexity. Use your money to buy a better book and your time to read something engaging.

I am mystified by other reviewers' ennui... this was Diane Johnson's best book so far, and she is a welcome writer indeed. In other books she has juxtaposed cultural mores one to one (usually French to American) but here she adds more to the mix, and it's, well, a heady brew. Even my husband, an avowed nonfiction reader and journalist who has little interest in fiction enjoyed this one.

Amy Hawkins, strikingly rich, blond and American, comes to believe she has no sense of culture. Having sold her share in a tech company that netted her an obscene amount of money, she takes herself and her good intentions off to France where she thinks she can learn things of value for meaningful living. While she waits for a suitable apartment in Paris to be fitted out for her, she dons a silver ski suit and hooks up with a handsome instructor at a small but highly fashionable resort in the French Alps. An entertaining couple of days into her stay, the weather turns wicked, loosing a cavalcade of snow that gathers itself into a dodgy avalanche, burying several skiers lacking the requisite speed to get out of its way. One couple, Adrian and Kerry Venn, are among the unfortunate stragglers, leaving their infant child and her teenage brother to fend for themselves in the Hotel St. Croix Bernard at the foot of the slopes.

While the couple lies in a coma, their combined children gather around with conflicting motives and with a common purpose: to protect their stake in the theoretical inheritance. Despite Kerry's signs of stirring, the outlook for Adrian is grim. Not sure whether or not to root for his survival, the children hover in an attempt to ensure their portion of the estate, which will be divided far differently depending on whether he dies in France or England. Never mind his desires stated in the will, and never mind his new wife. Laws are laws.

That's when benevolent American Amy Hawkins steps in to save the day. She believes airlifting the near-dead Adrian to the highly regarded Brompton hospital in England will give him a better chance at recovery, so she shells out the exorbitant sum for the trip. However, Amy's actions backfire on her. No one hails her as a heroine; in fact, they frown on her more as a meddler. She is, after all, American and the rumor has it that American warplanes caused the avalanche in the first place. Now this prying, uncultured --- albeit beautiful --- woman has interjected herself into the wretched family's personal tragedy. Even her earnest enrollment in French language and cooking lessons is viewed by the skeptical foreigners as vastly self-serving. What else would you expect of an American?

Meantime, with the snow swirling at the windows, the hotel guests seem to fall in love --- ... --- with the ease of skis sliding downhill. They find themselves amusing each other in highly inventive ways when they are not taking cheap potshots at one another. But their sights remain always on the treasure.

With a subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) humor that creeps up on you and overtakes you like the avalanche that overtook the Venns, L'AFFAIRE exposes a surfeit of life's absurdities. It explores the notion that traveling --- or worse, attempting to live --- abroad can become decidedly challenging.

This witty book reads like one would imagine a French soap opera. There's plenty of ... , social barbs, partner switching, an illegitimate child, a divorcee or two, and some royalty thrown into the mix for good measure. It is, as the English poet Robin Crumley (Hotel St. Croix Bernard resident) might have said, a rollicking good time.

--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers

It's plodding and dull. The premise had potential, which is why I picked it up, but was bored and zipped through it just to get it over with. Too bad.

Perceptive and witty, popular novelist Diane Johnson struck it rich with "Le Mariage" and "Le Divorce" (later made into a top box office draw by Merchant/Ivory Productions and Fox Searchlight). Now, with "L'Affaire" Ms. Johnson creates a protagonist who also has the Midas touch - Amy Ellen Hawkins, a young attractive American who has reaped a fortune as a dot.com
executive.

However, for Amy her vast wealth almost seems to bring more problems than pleasures. You see, Amy believes she must do some sort of payback for the blessings she has so unexpectedly and suddenly received. Thus, she first sets upon a course of self-improvement, "an almost superstitious way of placating the gods for her recent good fortune." Next, she hopes to find a cause, a sort of "mutual aid" to which she can devote a portion of her considerable assets.

She opts for a stay at the Hotel Croix St. Bernard in Valmeri, France where in a few weeks she intends to master French (the language and cuisine) in addition to absorbing other cultural niceties. She has gathered that this particular hotel is "the choice of diplomats taking a break from Geneva, the occasional adulterous couple, well-off families with young children who like an early, assorted Eurotrash eccentrics bored with the relentless pace found in the larger hotels." She is correct.

Among Amy's fellow guests are a portly Austrian baron whose business is real estate, a rather threadbare but erudite English poet, Robin Crumley, an impossibly attractive television reporter, Emile Abboud, and, for a while, an English brother and sister, Posy and Rupert Venn.

Unfortunately, Amy's idyll is interrupted by an avalanche which takes the life of Adrian Venn, and renders his much younger wife, Kerry, comatose. Kerry's infant son and teenage brother, Kip, are marooned at the hotel. Of course, Amy takes it upon herself to help the hapless and helpless young ones. She befriends Kip and makes arrangements for Adrian to be transported to England.

However, her disposition to be a do-gooder has unexpected results - when Adrian dies on English soil litigation of the most complicated nature ensues. Now, toss in romantic entanglements that have developed among the guests and you have, to put it mildly, some complications.

In the words of Ms. Johnson these complications make delightful, fun reading. The author, a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and three-time finalist for the National Book Award, once again proves her mettle.

"L'Affaire" is a bit of fluff laced with brandy - don't miss it!

- Gail Cooke

In L'Affaire, Diane Johnson continues her stories about the foibles of marriage and the interesting dynamic of Anglo-American/French relations.

In this book, a wealthy Englishman and his fairly recent, very young American bride are caught in an avalanche while skiing at an Alpine resort and fall into comas. His child out-of-wedlock, his children from his former marriage, and his relatives from his current marriage have to figure out where to transport him for medical care, with the knowledge that, if he dies, inheritances will be different depending on the country in which he dies. At the same time, the main characters are involved in romances and dramas in their own lives.

Johnson's view of the romance of French affairs is running through, and, strangely, she seems to have the least insight into her American characters (whether they are expats as in previous books or visitors as they are here). They seem to be knowledgeable in areas where they would have no knowledge and to be complete imbeciles in other areas.

However, I read this on the beach on vacation, and it did make for good beach reading. So if you are going to read it for pure fluff, go ahead and buy the book.