Le Mariage

by Diane Johnson

Book Overview

"Like Jane Austen, Johnson delights in the worldly rituals surrounding courtship and marriage... she is a philosopher as much as a novelist."--The New Yorker

From the author of the acclaimed bestseller and National Book Award finalist Le Divorce, a sparkling comedy of manners once again set in the world of Americans in Paris

Anne-Sophie is a young Frenchwoman engaged to Tim Nolinger, an American journalist hot on the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452282268
• ISBN13: 9780452282261
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: Penguin Adult Hc/Tr
• Length: 338 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

For Lovers of Henry James; "light reading"

If you like reading the stories of Henry James and Borges and the novels of Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy, arguing the different merits of Aristotle and Plato and the different brands of feminism, and you like watching "One Life to Live" and "Bridget Jones" (yet don't want your friends to know you watch TV), but you need to take a vacation from your heavy intellectual life, you will love this book! Although I label this book as light reading, you will be bored if you don't possess the intellectual background to fully enjoy it. The great dinner scene near the end is masterfully done and reminds me of the scene in "Madame Bovary" that Nabokov raved about in his "Lectures on Literature." That being said, this is still light reading in the sense that the characters resemble their soap opera counterparts on TV because Johnson avoids going into long details about the characters' pyschological states. The drama comes from stock situations that you would find in soap operas and hard-boiled detective novels. I should also mention that if you are interested in animal advocacy or animal philosophy, you will find this book very interesting.

Wonderful

I have read all of Diane Johnson's novels in print, and I found "Le Mariage" to be typically brilliant. The only novel I've read of hers that I didn't care for was "Burning," and that was a pretty early one. My favorites are "The Shadow Knows," "Persian Nights," and "Health and Happiness." A lot of the complaints about "Le Mariage" fault its plot; I would not recommend reading Johnson for plot; read her for her amazing wit, syntax, word choice, and keen powers of observation (she's a genius, in my view). The only novelists I've read recently who are as good as her are Carol Shields ("Larry's Party") and Jonathan Franzen ("The Corrections").

Witty and sophisticated

Following "Le Divorce," a National Book Awardfinalist, Diane Johnson's latest novel, "Le Mariage," isanother comedy of manners set in the expatriate American community inParis. Johnson, who divides her time between Paris and San Francisco, casts an insightful eye over the cultural differences, wholesale assumptions and misperceptions of national character embraced by the French and the Americans who live among them.The story centers around the upcoming nuptials of American freelance journalist Tim Nolinger and his stylish French fiancée, Anne-Sophie. A horse-oriented antiques dealer, Anne-Sophie's bourgeois ambitions puzzle her famous novelist mother, Estelle, who cultivates a bohemian public persona while harboring highly practical concerns over Tim's ability to provide for her daughter...The novel's framework, with its increasingly zany and convoluted but believable plot lines, offers a solid scaffold for the dynamics of relationship that feed Johnson's witty observations on marriage, infidelity, morality, bureaucracy and cultural chauvinism. Her humor is dry and tart, but, for the most part, sunny. And her characters are delightful. A sophisticated treat.

Viva la diference

This author is having fun while she is making fun.Is her tongue in her cheek? Are Americans really that nuts for ice cubes? Do the French really take the plumbing and the built-in bookcases with them when they move? Le Mariage moves along at a pleasant and leisurly pace, while skewering everything along the way. You might not want to go to Paris or Oregon after you finish this book, but you will want to read Diane Johnson again. She is wickedly funny in a wacky,warped,warm way.

I loved Le Divorce and I loved this book!

It was so funny! So few books make me laugh out loud. The minute I saw it was available I ordered it immediately I so enjoyed Le Divorce.I love the Diane Johnson's writing style. THE BEST. I am going to re read Le Divorce now....