Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.24 AVERAGE
3.24 AVERAGE
Misogynistic drivel - couldn’t get past the first few pages.
I wavered between giving this 2 or 3 stars and I might come back to change it. The only reason I went with 3 is that I realized how harsh I often am on travel memoirs which suggests that it's a genre I ought to give up entirely.
The first half of this book is hilarious. Loved it. If it had stopped at the end of December, I'd have no problem rating it 3 or 4. But the narrator is just such a whiney asshole that after a while it stops being funny and becomes grating.
However, I am heading off to Paris myself in a few months (also for a year...) so I decided to give this a whirl. In spite of the points that were a bit irritating, it was a decent, easy read. It was entertaining and somewhat informative, if nothing else.
The first half of this book is hilarious. Loved it. If it had stopped at the end of December, I'd have no problem rating it 3 or 4. But the narrator is just such a whiney asshole that after a while it stops being funny and becomes grating.
However, I am heading off to Paris myself in a few months (also for a year...) so I decided to give this a whirl. In spite of the points that were a bit irritating, it was a decent, easy read. It was entertaining and somewhat informative, if nothing else.
This book was not what I expected, but I enjoyed it all the same. I found it to be very accurate and quite funny! I'm sure the main reason i found it so funny was because I've spent time in France. It's a little more novel-ish than I expected, rather than just essays, but good all the same. The main character can be a prick at times, and the writing is a little crude sometimes, but an amusing satire on French (esp. Parisian) culture.
I found the main character, Paul West, to be rather sexist at times in his descriptions of women and dating, but I did enjoy his frank personality and British humor. This was a fun read.
My hubs and I had a trip to Paris planned this fall, but because a large portion of our population refuses to get vaccinated, we are stuck back in a COVID cycle, and the trip was canceled. It seems that we all must pay for their stupidity and selfishness, but it occurred to me: they don't do anything with their lives. Being an anti-vaxxer and a pseudo-scientist is the only interesting thing that has ever happened to them, and ruining everyone else's plans is just part of their fun. They can make our lives suck as much as theirs. To make myself feel better, I decided to take a vicarious trip to France by reading Stephen Clarke's "laugh out loud hilarious" fictionalized memoir, "A Year in the Merde".
Big mistake.
I don't want to travel in France with him. He stars as Paul West, a young British man and a sad sack, who is hired to work at a company in Paris for a year where he has intrigue with the boss and the boss's daughter. According to him, Paris is full of "merde" (shit). From its streets, to its government, to its people. When not insulting his coworkers, he is out trying to get laid while secretly insulting French women. And in true "foreigner-in-France" fashion, he even has a buying-a-house-in-the-country adventure, but everyone there is stupid, too. This is supposed to be funny and is also billed as "un-PC". People who say they are un-PC always think they are cool, edgy, and straight-talking, but really they are crass, crude, and lack subtlety. Clarke is the same in his humor--often overshooting the mark and landing in with the lowest common denominator. The only part I liked was a brief moment when he visited the Luxembourg Gardens and went to its little cafe with the green benches-- one of my favorite places, but then he insulted that, too.
My summation? Stephen Clarke is full of merde.
But, in his defense, he'd probably get the vaccine.
Big mistake.
I don't want to travel in France with him. He stars as Paul West, a young British man and a sad sack, who is hired to work at a company in Paris for a year where he has intrigue with the boss and the boss's daughter. According to him, Paris is full of "merde" (shit). From its streets, to its government, to its people. When not insulting his coworkers, he is out trying to get laid while secretly insulting French women. And in true "foreigner-in-France" fashion, he even has a buying-a-house-in-the-country adventure, but everyone there is stupid, too. This is supposed to be funny and is also billed as "un-PC". People who say they are un-PC always think they are cool, edgy, and straight-talking, but really they are crass, crude, and lack subtlety. Clarke is the same in his humor--often overshooting the mark and landing in with the lowest common denominator. The only part I liked was a brief moment when he visited the Luxembourg Gardens and went to its little cafe with the green benches-- one of my favorite places, but then he insulted that, too.
My summation? Stephen Clarke is full of merde.
But, in his defense, he'd probably get the vaccine.
Funny and entertaining. A good, non-serious story about a British man who is on contract in France. I still have to read the sequels, [book:Merde Actually], [book:Merde Happens], and [book:In the Merde for Love].
One of my favourite books, great insight in to french culture from the eyes of an Englishman
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
I wish I had not disliked this book as much as I did. The protagonist/narrative voice - which supposedly is some sort of self-insert of the author, or at least of his fantasies of who we would like to be - is absolutely insufferable. Don't get me wrong, this isn't my first book featuring a young, horny male protagonist. However, this man is supposedly in his twenties and assumed to be a bit of prodigy in his career as he is sent to France to manage a chain of teashops.
To be completely honest, I'm still unsure why I finished this book. It did take me nearly two years but for some reason something did keep me going and I admit I have a hard time dropping or letting go of books. There was some situational comedy that kept me entertained - after all, I'm German and enjoy a good joke on the expense of the French people just as much as our friends across the channel. 😉 Just kidding - I love the French! And yes, so does our protagonist, who also tells a brief story of strugglingf to adjust to life in England as he goes to visit his family at home. I actually enjoyed that part, as someone who has spent most of their own twenties as an ex-pat there were relatable bits in there. It is hard to overlook the way the protagonist sees every single woman he encounters as a sex object, weirdly enough even women he claims he isn't really attracted to. At the same time he is so vanilla and boring, it's absolutely unbelievable that all these accomplished and attractive Parisian womemn throw themselves at him the way they do! And it doesn't stop there: Even when he claims to be focused on something else, he thinks about women: "I was far too focused on [something] so that I almost didn't notice all the long-legged, well-dressed Parisian beauties strolling by the patio of the little cozy Parisian cafe where I was enjoying my morning coffee." And the (male) vendor across the street is handling dirty mushrooms? So sensual, almost like a sexual act.
It must be very exhausting to be this dude.
There is also some (thinly veiled?) homophobia and transphobia in two of the side plots/stories - there isn't any agression towards the queer characters but they are used at the butt of a joke, so be aware of that if you should still want to read this book.
To be completely honest, I'm still unsure why I finished this book. It did take me nearly two years but for some reason something did keep me going and I admit I have a hard time dropping or letting go of books. There was some situational comedy that kept me entertained - after all, I'm German and enjoy a good joke on the expense of the French people just as much as our friends across the channel. 😉 Just kidding - I love the French! And yes, so does our protagonist, who also tells a brief story of strugglingf to adjust to life in England as he goes to visit his family at home. I actually enjoyed that part, as someone who has spent most of their own twenties as an ex-pat there were relatable bits in there. It is hard to overlook the way the protagonist sees every single woman he encounters as a sex object, weirdly enough even women he claims he isn't really attracted to. At the same time he is so vanilla and boring, it's absolutely unbelievable that all these accomplished and attractive Parisian womemn throw themselves at him the way they do! And it doesn't stop there: Even when he claims to be focused on something else, he thinks about women: "I was far too focused on [something] so that I almost didn't notice all the long-legged, well-dressed Parisian beauties strolling by the patio of the little cozy Parisian cafe where I was enjoying my morning coffee." And the (male) vendor across the street is handling dirty mushrooms? So sensual, almost like a sexual act.
It must be very exhausting to be this dude.
There is also some (thinly veiled?) homophobia and transphobia in two of the side plots/stories - there isn't any agression towards the queer characters but they are used at the butt of a joke, so be aware of that if you should still want to read this book.
A somewhat bitter look at French life from a British perspective. I thought it would be more funny than it actually was -- like "A Year in Provence" but in Paris. Sadly, it wasn't. It had it's moments, but overall was too condescending towards France and French people for my taste.