Le Divorce (William Abrahams Book) (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Saint Ursula, Santa Barbara, Stuart Barbee (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Diane Johnson updates the transatlantic novel so gorgeously rendered by Henry James, Edith Wharton, William Dean Howells, and Nathaniel Hawthorne; evokes the spirit of such expatriates sojourning in Paris as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald; and mines the pathos of modern fiction in creating this wonderful and important novel. Isabel Walker, eerily reminiscent of James's Isabel Archer, is a young film-school dropout who travels to Paris to aid her stepsister, who is going through a divorce. Isabel's California cool, American freedoms, and feminist slants comingle, successfully and fractiously, with the customs, biases, and complex sexuality of modern Europe. The result modulates between introspection and hilarity, and a quick, Hollywood-inspired sweep of violent action in the end doesn't undermine the author's mastery of Old World vs. New--in fact, it provides an ironic scrim. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The voice of Tony Award-winning stage and film actress Neuwirth, who is well known for her Emmy-winning role as Dr. Lilith Crane on the television sitcom Cheers, embodies the wry humor and sarcastic wit of Johnson's accomplished coming-of-age tale. Pretty, young Isabel Walker, a California film school dropout, heads to Paris to help her pregnant, poet stepsister, Roxy, whose husband has just left her and their three-year-old daughter for another woman. Ostensibly there to "babysit" and support Roxy through her crisis, Isabel becomes embroiled in plenty of dramas along the way, including an affair with an elderly relative, a family fight over a valuable painting and a climactic scene at EuroDisney. Neuwirth's dry tone and sharp narration bring out the humor in this National Book Award nominee. While Johnson has an undeniable knack for capturing character quirks, satirizing the expatriate experience and detailing amusing "American imperfections," it is Neuwirth's vocal abilities that truly draw out all the warmth and weirdness of Isabel's voyage.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Plume; Later Printing edition (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452277337
• ISBN-13: 978-0452277335
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (123 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #657,510 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Makes a better movie, September 8, 2003

By	HeyJudy "heyjudy" (East Hampton, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

I read LE DIVORCE when it first had been published and, while I didn't hate it, I didn't like it much, either. I've never since bothered to read another book by author Diane Johnson since that time; admittedly, she seems to be doing just fine without me.

Generally, when one first reads a novel and then sees the movie into which the story is made, one inevitably says, "Oh, the book was better." Not so with LE DIVORCE.

Perhaps it is as much a tribute to the screenwriter as to the original author, but the film makes the story far more believable than the printed page did, and the characters also seem better developed. (Or maybe that's just due to the excellent casting and attractive actors who people the characters.) Even the climactic event which resolves the story seems, somehow, more plausible on the screen.

By all means, see the film if you're interested in this story. It will be quicker and far more pleasurable than reading the novel. And you'll be getting a swell travelogue about Paris at its most lovely, with its modern day aristocrats, thrown in for no extra charge.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ou La La, November 27, 2001

By	Denise Bentley "Kelsana" (The California Redwoods) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Isabel is from Santa Barbara, California. She has just arrived in France to help her pregnant sister when she finds out that Roxy’s philandering husband, Charles Henri, has flown the coop! Roxy finds herself depressed, alone and left to face the in-laws at their weekly Sunday dinner in the country. Needless to say she is not having a good day. It is time to start proceedings for “Le Divorce”.

While in Paris, Isabel, who has been a bit of a wandering spirit with little to no sense of who she is, becomes enamored with an elderly gentleman who guides her into the life of pleasure that Paris has to offer. She enjoys politics, art, and the opera. The world opens before her like an oyster that produces the most opalescent pearl. “Le Divorce” surges on and things get ugly and scandals abound. It all comes to a most unexpected ending that I will allow the reader to discover.

Paris is presented to the reader like a fine jewel on a silver tray. A wonderful look at a different culture and how they view Americans. Superbly written and intelligently played out, I can see why this book was a National Book Award Finalist. (...)

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars uneven quality but a pleasant read, January 12, 2005

By	erica "ejs192" (Amherst, MA United States) - See all my reviews

"Le Divorce" is the coming-of-age tale of a young American in Paris. Isabel, the narrator, has left her California life to live with her sister, Roxeanne, who is pregnant and whose husband has just left her for another woman. Isabel is introduced to her sister's in-laws, a varied and entertaining clan, and she takes on a slew of odd jobs that lend glimpses of the lives of Parisians and the Americans who live among them. She enters into a clandestine affair with a Frenchman and begins to develop her own opinions about what it means to be American or French, at home or foreign. Meanwhile the drama of Roxeanne's imminent divorce unfolds, entwining the two families in a dispute over a newly-valuable painting. As the plot rises, Isabel's family arrives in Paris to mediate, opposing forces clash more bluntly, and the situation becomes increasingly complicated.

All this complexity can be distracting; aside from the two central plots (the divorce and the affair) there are several subplots which appear at intervals and are never fully resolved. The final chapters of the book, rather than taking on the real work of finishing the story in accordance with its themes, create an artificial crisis, inconsistent with the book's tone and style, to provide a convenient resolution. The characters are sufficiently developed but not terribly likeable (the main character, in particular, is conceited and self-centered as well as naive). But, despite these drawbacks, the book is an enjoyable read. It is a pleasant mood piece, fun and frivolous. The Parisian setting and the enthusiastically described clothes and meals add a bit of exotic flair. At times, the story approaches the wry hilarty of an Austen-esque comedy of manners, and these are its best moments.