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I really enjoyed this ethnography on what gives French women their je ne sais quoi. I loved how honest the writer was about alternately being envious and horrified by French (to be fair, for the most part, Parisian) values - so very postmodern anthropologist of her!
Enh. This book rarely moves past, "French women care about their looks! Have a different cultural outlook on affairs! Buy all kinds of beauty products!" Yes, things are a bit different in France. We get it.
In order to give a book a two a book has to make me mad, so this is a very, very low three stars.
In order to give a book a two a book has to make me mad, so this is a very, very low three stars.
This was a fast, easy read. I enjoyed some of the peeks into French culture, and I even picked up a few tips and things I intend to try out. But some parts of the book made me uncomfortable - like the author's brief flirtation with a married man while she's married herself, and the fact that she toyed with the idea of an adulterous relationship. Yes, I realize this is very "French" of her, but it still didn't sit well with my (very Canadian) morals. Aside from that, I found the book pretty fluffy - which I guess it was meant to be. I would have liked to learn more about the women she interviewed, what they really thought about the pressure to be perfect all the time and the incessant competition with other women.
Marking this as finished, but technically it's a DNF. I just don't want to read it. I thought it was in the genre of like "comedic autobiography" that tries to give questionable advice, but it was a nonfiction/self-help type genre and I don't feel that I need that kind of self-help. So, I'm not going to read it.