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dainybernstein's review against another edition
5.0
Full review on Reader's Dialogue: http://readersdialogue.blogspot.com/2012/09/french-lessons.html
French Lessons is ultimately a hopeful book with a positive message about love, but for the majority of the book, hopelessness and despair drenches the pages. And I love how that's achieved - short, terse sentences, dialogue with very few taglines, quick repartee among the characters. It draws you in, especially Josie and Riley's stories, until their grief and wild desperation seep right into you and fill you up.
French Lessons is ultimately a hopeful book with a positive message about love, but for the majority of the book, hopelessness and despair drenches the pages. And I love how that's achieved - short, terse sentences, dialogue with very few taglines, quick repartee among the characters. It draws you in, especially Josie and Riley's stories, until their grief and wild desperation seep right into you and fill you up.
anciense's review against another edition
2.0
If you like to read about people having sex with people that are NOT the ones they're married to, this book is for you - but is nothing for me so I'm not going to finish it bye
kapphill's review against another edition
3.0
Cute novella surrounding the lives of three different women over the course of one day in Paris. One thing I really loved about this book was getting a little peak at Paris life! I also enjoyed the variety of the stories as each main character was quite different from the others. Perfect quick read that allows for a little escapism - recommended!
miajmu's review against another edition
2.0
I wanted to be transported to Paris by this book and I was for a little while... but mostly I was glad I wasn't in Paris because these characters lead incredibly depressing lives.
rebecavleal's review against another edition
1.0
French Lessons tells us about one day in the life of three french teachers and their respective students for the day in the magical city of Paris.
In the first story we meet Nico and his student Josie, an american woman spending a vacation in Paris to recover from the death of her secret lover. She arrived in Paris as a numb mess and Nico thinks he can fix her by falling in love with her while showing her the city of love.
The second story is about the playboy and also french teacher Phillippe and Riley, a depressed american woman currently living in Paris with her never-present-husband and their two kids. They get involved romantically and they have to sort it out in order to not ruin their lives, if they already aren't.
The main characters in third and last story are the beautiful teacher Chantal and Jeremy, the husband of a famous american movie star currently shooting some scenes in Paris. Jeremy believes he might be in love with Chantal and throughout their last day of lessons he is left in charge of finding out his true feelings for either his long-time-wife or his oh-so-young-and-beautiful-french-teacher.
In the end o the day they all have a decision to make and they will have to live with whatever decision they make.
I found it particularly hard to connect with this book mainly because the characters were so much older than me and I just couldn't relate to any of their lite stories.
I do believe this is a wonderfully written book, although a bit negative, and I might even be able to enjoy it more when I'm older. I found Chantal a particularly interesting character but besides her I thought the remaining characters were slightly flat and even primitive in their approaches.
In my honest opinion I believe this is a book for someone with a lot of life experience in order to be able to relate with the storyline.
In the first story we meet Nico and his student Josie, an american woman spending a vacation in Paris to recover from the death of her secret lover. She arrived in Paris as a numb mess and Nico thinks he can fix her by falling in love with her while showing her the city of love.
The second story is about the playboy and also french teacher Phillippe and Riley, a depressed american woman currently living in Paris with her never-present-husband and their two kids. They get involved romantically and they have to sort it out in order to not ruin their lives, if they already aren't.
The main characters in third and last story are the beautiful teacher Chantal and Jeremy, the husband of a famous american movie star currently shooting some scenes in Paris. Jeremy believes he might be in love with Chantal and throughout their last day of lessons he is left in charge of finding out his true feelings for either his long-time-wife or his oh-so-young-and-beautiful-french-teacher.
In the end o the day they all have a decision to make and they will have to live with whatever decision they make.
I found it particularly hard to connect with this book mainly because the characters were so much older than me and I just couldn't relate to any of their lite stories.
I do believe this is a wonderfully written book, although a bit negative, and I might even be able to enjoy it more when I'm older. I found Chantal a particularly interesting character but besides her I thought the remaining characters were slightly flat and even primitive in their approaches.
In my honest opinion I believe this is a book for someone with a lot of life experience in order to be able to relate with the storyline.
sederle's review
2.0
Meh. Had to read this for book club: cardboard characters, little to no plot, lots of sex scenes, which is not necessarily a bad thing but in this case it just got annoying. The best part of the book was the setting in Paris - I loved reading about places I had been before.
lisamquinn's review against another edition
4.0
Sometimes I find that when there are multiple story lines, things get jumbled up and it seems that the author has taken on too much.
That is not the case with French Lessons - everything is well plotted. It didn't annoy me once. (That's a compliment, btw!)
It also turned out that the accents on the audiobook didn't annoy me either - huzzah!
Lots of beautiful phrasing, and discussion about the power of language.
That is not the case with French Lessons - everything is well plotted. It didn't annoy me once. (That's a compliment, btw!)
It also turned out that the accents on the audiobook didn't annoy me either - huzzah!
Lots of beautiful phrasing, and discussion about the power of language.
jessford's review
3.0
This book was okay. I liked the story of Josie and Nico, but didn't care much for the other characters. I wish I knew French to know what they were saying to each other sometimes. For someone who knows Paris, it would probably be fun to hear about all the places they went. I don't think I would recommend this book to a friend, unless they had nothing better to read.
arisbookcorner's review against another edition
2.0
IQ "Young love teaches you how to love. You're so lucky. Most of us spend years trying to learn the ways of love." Chantal, pg. 16
I think I expected this book to be "deeper" than it was, it was really more about lust and its effects. Not that that's a problem but I was surprised by the content. I liked the explorations of Paris, especially because I felt like this book offered a grittier, less idealistic view of the French people. I did wish the book was more the tutors, the Americans or both. Instead we learn about Nico and a little bit about Chantal, but nothing about Philippe (the tutors). We learn a lot about Josie and Riley and a tad about Jeremy. I wanted more information about the tutors.
I was impressed that the author managed to keep judgement at bay during Josie's story of her affair with a married man, a man who seemed to really love her. Overall this is a very character-driven story and since the characters were not particularly memorable this book was simply alright. For a few pleasant hours it took me to Paris and I am never one to turn down a free trip to Paris.
I think I expected this book to be "deeper" than it was, it was really more about lust and its effects. Not that that's a problem but I was surprised by the content. I liked the explorations of Paris, especially because I felt like this book offered a grittier, less idealistic view of the French people. I did wish the book was more the tutors, the Americans or both. Instead we learn about Nico and a little bit about Chantal, but nothing about Philippe (the tutors). We learn a lot about Josie and Riley and a tad about Jeremy. I wanted more information about the tutors.
I was impressed that the author managed to keep judgement at bay during Josie's story of her affair with a married man, a man who seemed to really love her. Overall this is a very character-driven story and since the characters were not particularly memorable this book was simply alright. For a few pleasant hours it took me to Paris and I am never one to turn down a free trip to Paris.