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3.24 AVERAGE
3.24 AVERAGE
Absolutely HILARIOUS. British humour at its finest. Not something I would read for the plot, but definitely and accurate portrayal of how a funny Brit would document his Paris experience. I read it just before visiting Paris, and a lot of it was exaggerated, but mostly accurate; I think we all exaggerate when we tell stories! His humour had me making light of my own merde in Paris. Highly recommend if you want a good laugh, and don’t take offence to easily :)
A funny entertaining book that I listened to during a road trip.
Paul West is hired to live in Paris for a year and help develop a line of tea shops there for his new boss, Jean-Marie. What ensues is a hilarious set of events for this poor English gentleman. He finds the workers lazy, the women sexually aggressive, the food strange, and his job, pointless. He eventually learns to cover himself by digging into his boss' affairs and turns things to his advantage in the end, opening the tea shop himself, getting out from under Jean Marie and forging a new, and hopefully profitable, life for himself.
The cover squib says this is for Francophiles and Francophobes and it is so true. I found myself even liking some of the things that happened to Paul - even though I am not really a fan of anything French! The plot made sense and was detailed and diverse enough to keep me reading. The inclusion of French terms was a bit distracting at first, but I then enjoyed them as much as the phonetical French-English attempts!
The cover squib says this is for Francophiles and Francophobes and it is so true. I found myself even liking some of the things that happened to Paul - even though I am not really a fan of anything French! The plot made sense and was detailed and diverse enough to keep me reading. The inclusion of French terms was a bit distracting at first, but I then enjoyed them as much as the phonetical French-English attempts!
Not really sure why this guy's year is worthy of a book.
This review was written for 'The Review Diaries'. To read the full review please go to the site: http://reviewdiaries.blogspot.fr/2014/10/review-year-in-merde-by-stephen-clarke.html
I’ve read a few other books by Stephen Clarke and really loved them; his writing is eloquent and frequently laugh out loud funny, and he tackles his subjects with both wit and an obvious deep love of the country and culture that he is writing about. It’s just a shame that he didn’t bring any of that to ‘A Year in the Merde.’
When I picked it up I didn’t realise it was a novel, so was expecting more of a travel memoir recounting a lot of the pitfalls of moving to France that people experience. What I got instead was a truly awful main character who is not only feeling displaced by his move to Paris, but is downright rude and obnoxious and makes no effort whatsoever to be anything other than disparaging and condescending throughout his stay.
I’ve read a few other books by Stephen Clarke and really loved them; his writing is eloquent and frequently laugh out loud funny, and he tackles his subjects with both wit and an obvious deep love of the country and culture that he is writing about. It’s just a shame that he didn’t bring any of that to ‘A Year in the Merde.’
When I picked it up I didn’t realise it was a novel, so was expecting more of a travel memoir recounting a lot of the pitfalls of moving to France that people experience. What I got instead was a truly awful main character who is not only feeling displaced by his move to Paris, but is downright rude and obnoxious and makes no effort whatsoever to be anything other than disparaging and condescending throughout his stay.
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Paul West is an English businessman who is sent to live and work in Paris for a year. Each chapter details a month of his new life, and as the book centers on observing (and skewering) French language and culture, it reads a bit like a work of creative non-fiction. The plot is rather thin, but much of the book is laugh-out-loud funny, and as Clarke himself is a British ex-pat living in France, I have to assume that the observations are fairly well-informed. I'm glad I speak French, as every page is sprinkled with often-untranslated French dialogue, but I think you could get by if you don't speak it.
white male moves to france and tries too hard to be quirky.