The Pleasing Hour [Paperback]

Lily King (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2000

The first novel from a new literary voice brimming with sensitivity and lyricism, The Pleasing Hour is the story of an American in Europe whose coming-of-age defies all our usual conceptions of naivete and experience. Fleeing a devastating loss, Rosie takes a job as an au pair with a Parisian family and soon finds the comfort and intimacy she longs for with their children and the father, Marc. Only Nicole, the children's distant, impeccably polished mother, is unwilling to embrace the young American. But when Rosie realizes that her attachments have become transgressions, she leaves for the south of France. There she learns about Nicole's own haunted past and the losses that link the two women more closely than either could have imagined.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The act of writing a first novel has a lot in common with being an au pair. Each is often accomplished by a young, overeducated woman who believes she is the center of the universe. This can make for dull reading, and sometimes for unattended children falling down staircases. But Lily King's fine first novel--about an au pair--neatly avoids the solipsism that often plagues coming-of-age stories. In The Pleasing Hour, 19-year-old Rosie has fled New Hampshire for France after undergoing an anguishing loss: she surrendered her newborn son to her infertile, married sister. Rosie is literally hollowed out, unable to see beyond her own pain. "Nothing in my body felt right. It seemed to be ringing with pain but there was no part of me that I could point to and tell her, Here, here's where it hurts."

In Paris she moves in with the Tivots: the unassuming, shambling father, Marc; the glamorous and unforgiving mother, Nicole; the beautiful daughter, Odile; the merry daughter, Lola; the momma's boy, Guillaume. Rosie steps into the highly polarized atmosphere of the Tivot household, unconsciously upsetting its equilibrium by throwing in her lot with Marc and Lola. And when the family heads off to Spain for vacation, the power balance shifts palpably, since Rosie is the only one who speaks Spanish. Even Nicole grudgingly admires her. What's more, Rosie notices Marc regarding her with the "relentless curiosity he'd had in his eye since we landed in Spain." On Mallorca, the two consummate their relationship, and the betrayal forces her to see beyond her own worries to the entrenched pains and allegiances of her host family.

King cleverly iterates this message in her narrative. She occasionally, deliberately, allows each member of the Tivot family to voice the story, and this opening-up of the narrative allows the world to flow into a novel whose themes might otherwise seem petty. In the end, the author doesn't perpetrate the dull crime of youthful self-involvement--she comments on it. We care for Rosie from the start, but we like her a lot more as she comes alive to the people around her. --Claire Dederer --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

A year in France brings a young American new reserves of sympathy and maturity in this poised, accomplished first novel. Nineteen-year-old Rosie, King's sensitive narrator, arrives in Paris on the first day of the school year, set for her job as the Tivot family's au pair. The other au pairs (in French usage, filles) are cosmopolitan students drawn to French culture. Rosie, however, has come here to flee her past: she became pregnant as a deliberate act of charity, giving up her baby so her infertile sister could have a child. But that decision has only heightened her omnipresent sense of loss. Her months with the Tivot family on their houseboat bring her new and difficult human connections: to the inquisitive, needy 12-year-old Lola and her younger brother, Guillaume; to their unhappy, astringent mother, Nicole; and to their father, Marc, with whom the reserved Rosie gradually falls in love. After Lola catches Rosie and Marc holding hands on a family trip to Spain, Rosie is sent to a small town in Provence to care for Nicole's Aunt Lucie, in her 90s. In chapters interspersed with Rosie's own story, Aunt Lucie fills in the background of Nicole's family, a grim account of inheritance and treachery during WWII. Expertly constructed, full of surprises, superbly paced and sweetly sad, King's book hardly reads like a first novel; her skilled observation and careful narrative voice prevent the wartime plot from seeming sensational, and keeps Rosie's saga of melodrama. In fact, the seamless integration of theme, plot and voice produces a rare sense of intimacy. Rosie's final discoveries about France, about families and about herself through Lucie, Lola and Nicole take her on an inward journey readers will feel privileged to share. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; 1st Scribner Paperback Fiction ed edition (October 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743201647
• ISBN-13: 978-0743201643
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,605,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lily King grew up in Manchester, Massachusetts. She received her B.A. in English Literature from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her M.A. in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. She has taught English and Creative Writing at several universities and high schools in this country and abroad.
Lily's first novel, THE PLEASING HOUR (1999) won the Barnes and Noble Discover Award and was a New York Times Notable Book and an alternate for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her second, THE ENGLISH TEACHER, was a Publishers Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year, a Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year, and the winner of the Maine Fiction Award. FATHER OF THE RAIN, her third novel, was published in July, 2010. A few weeks after publication, it won the New England Book Award for Fiction. It is a New York Times Editor's Choice, an Amazon Best Book of the Month, an Indie Next Selection, and on O the Oprah Magazine's 2010 Summer Reading List.
Lily is the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship and a Whiting Award. Her short fiction has appeared in literary magazines including Ploughshares and Glimmer Train, as well as in several anthologies.
For more information--reviews, interviews, appearance locations and dates, reading recommendations, and more--visit Lily at lilykingbooks.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling, intense novel beautifully written and composed, August 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Pleasing Hour (Hardcover)

Lily King's, The Pleasing Hour, brings you into a world that is at once familiar and compelling. The novel's subject, a young woman's struggle with her ties to her only family member (her older sister) and her personal and instinctive needs, covers many issues: infertility, adoption, marital dynamics, what we leave behind during the transition to adulthood. Rosie, the protagonist, is a complex character who is painted so completely in the novel that you can easily feel yourself inside her head. Ms. King perfectly captures the angst of the late teenage years, compounded by Rosie's unique situation. All of the characters are robust and interesting. Their voices are all believable and equally fascinating. I would have loved to read the story over from any character's perspective. The novel is written in a tight, beautiful prose. The descriptions are ones you want to read again and again, and the story flows easily through many twists. There is an exotic feel to the novel, which is set in Europe and moves from modern day to earlier in the century. I have not been so moved and transported by a novel in a long time. Ms. King is a talented storyteller. She provides the perfect balance of intimate details with a believable and compelling storyline. Her descriptions and characters remain in my head, and I look forward to reading more of her work.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly impressive novel, November 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Pleasing Hour (Hardcover)

It is a rare and gratifying feeling to be as transported by a book as I was by The Pleasing Hour. How lovingly and accurately Ms. King renders Paris as well as her characters. It seems hard to imagine that any demanding reader would not admire the poetic, honest language, the seductive and sad and ultimately liberating atmosphere of the story, the wonderful tale itself. This is a book to savor and reread.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Small Gem, November 22, 1999

By 

S. K. Boyar (Weston, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pleasing Hour (Hardcover)

Lily King's first novel opens up like a flower might in the southern town of Plaire where her first chapter is set. The rearrangements of time and place that King juggles allow for constantly changing points of view, until at the end of the short novel the reader sees below the surface of things. The prose is remarkable for its clarity and freshness. I look forward to reading it a second time and to introducing it to others.