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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was so much fun to read - bubbly, bold, and truly funny at times. It was also surprising in its sexual candor, especially considering the time period it was written. Or maybe that's my naivety when it comes to literature of the 50s. The ending was a bit trite, seemed slapdash, or required by an editor, but everything else was unexpected.
funny
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Immediately captures a certain kind of American émigré voice. Author Elaine Dundy has created a charming, giddy narrator; a witty debutante abroad who confuses her emotions with what she thinks a girl in her situation should feel.
Sally Jay Gorce is determined to experience life, and she thinks she knows how to go about it - one must have affair with married man, drink oneself into hysterics in dirty clubs and fall hopelessly in love with caddish fool. Tick, tick, tick on the checklist! (But don't mention the checklist, because she's meant to be having a wonderfully unique European experience.)
In her quest to get the 'real' Parisian experience, Sally completely misreads the motivations of the people around her and gets into all kinds of absurd situations. Yet by the end she doesn't seem much the wiser. For better or for whose, she's just as all over the place as ever.
Sally Jay Gorce is determined to experience life, and she thinks she knows how to go about it - one must have affair with married man, drink oneself into hysterics in dirty clubs and fall hopelessly in love with caddish fool. Tick, tick, tick on the checklist! (But don't mention the checklist, because she's meant to be having a wonderfully unique European experience.)
In her quest to get the 'real' Parisian experience, Sally completely misreads the motivations of the people around her and gets into all kinds of absurd situations. Yet by the end she doesn't seem much the wiser. For better or for whose, she's just as all over the place as ever.
writing and narrative just aren't engaging enough to keep me reading. too much and not enough happens.
I wasn't sure whether I was going to enjoy this or not based on the early pages but with each page, I enjoyed it a little more so that by the end I found I had really enjoyed it.
Yes, Sally Jay Gorce strikes one as the kind of spoilt, ditzy American strolling the streets of Paris that you should dislike on basic European principles, but she's not. She's certainly not ditzy. She's smart. She's questing - as Max Ramage describes her - and she's a better friend - or even associate - than most of her Paris based compatriots. They seem to be a collection of parasites and artistic wannabes attracted to Paris by the illusion of its seriousness.
Sally Jay is funny too. Witty. Sharp on occasion. Flirty. (PS I think you need a certain level of intelligence to flirt well. It requires a lightness of touch that idiots can't do. But that's my theory and I'll let it sink or swim on its own.)
Anyway, I like Sally Jay. Probably more than she does herself.
So I liked the book.
Yes, Sally Jay Gorce strikes one as the kind of spoilt, ditzy American strolling the streets of Paris that you should dislike on basic European principles, but she's not. She's certainly not ditzy. She's smart. She's questing - as Max Ramage describes her - and she's a better friend - or even associate - than most of her Paris based compatriots. They seem to be a collection of parasites and artistic wannabes attracted to Paris by the illusion of its seriousness.
Sally Jay is funny too. Witty. Sharp on occasion. Flirty. (PS I think you need a certain level of intelligence to flirt well. It requires a lightness of touch that idiots can't do. But that's my theory and I'll let it sink or swim on its own.)
Anyway, I like Sally Jay. Probably more than she does herself.
So I liked the book.
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes