At times great, at others only so-so

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	• Le Divorce (William Abrahams Book) Diane Johnson Plume, 1998 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 119 reviews view larger image
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At times great, at others only so-so

While the idea of running off to Paris appealed to me, the story had its moments where the characters turned me off. I never really bought into Isabelle's relationship with a man so much older than her. There never seemed to be a genuine attraction, and I almost disliked her for her self-absorption. Her sister was also self-centered, and not exactly an empathetic character. The best thing about this book is the backdrop of Paris. Johnson did a wonderful job of making me feel like I was there, I just wished I'd enjoyed the characters that brought me there a little more. On the whole, I didn't dislike the book, I just expected more.

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Where's the Sequel?

This book annoyed me like no book has ever done before. I liked it at first, because it has lots of fabulous insights, description, and dialog. Here are some examples:

"Mrs. Pace was a mighty person. She said what people were. And if she said someone was a fool, that didn't necessarily mean she held it against them. It depended on what kind of fool."

"I have the impression that French people will tell an American things that they wouldn't tell each other. Among themselves, a certain set of conventions obtains, a certain competitive mistrust, real-life reticences from which we are exempted by our cheerful barbarousness."

"'The French love things more for their beauty or their totemic significance than for their value,' Roxy agreed.
'Whereas Americans affect disdain for material objects, as if it weren't quite nice to collect, or have,' Ames Everett said. 'Yet they are great consumers. The French are materialists without being consumers. I respect that.'"

"There is nothing your mind can do with a fact as immutable and unacceptable as death, anyway."

Each chapter also begins with a quotation that is somehow related to the action in that chapter. I wrote so many marginal notes -- Diane Johnson raises questions about everything. I like books that raise questions. And I prefer books that leave existential questions unanswered. Plot questions are another matter.

I'd warn you that this review contains spoilers, but I can't do that. That is just the issue that frustrated me to the point of writing this review. I had to warn you: There is no possible way to give away the ending, because there isn't one. We have a dead guy, a young widow with a newborn baby, an affair that may or may not be ending, an important painting that got sold to who knows whom, and more. One day I turned the page wondering how all these interesting subplots might be resolved or intertwined, or at least wound down to some sort of equilibrium, but instead of finding a concluding chapter, there was a note about how the book was typeset. (This gesture is usually of interest to me, as a designer, but this time it just pissed me off.) Did I get a defective copy, missing its final chapter?

So I logged onto Amazon thinking there must be a sequel and I'd better find it fast. There isn't one. That's it. Not a single one of the storylines was tied off.

Normally I like books that mirror life, and offer insight into it, but this is ridiculous! Even the chapters of my life end more conclusively than this book. I don't necessarily need a happy ending (though it might be nice, what with the lighthearted attitude of this book), but at least something! Anything!

I've decided to keep Le Divorce in my library for two reasons:
1) It does contain wonderfully accurate quotations and all my eager underlining (in pencil) and notes on the purpose of life and cross-cultural relationships (I have French relatives and a Swiss husband).
2) I can't sell it on Amazon Marketplace for more than a nickel.

So read it if you want to be entertained and think a lot, and learn about the French, and then be angry and feel like you are hanging over the edge of a cliff holding on by your fingernails... indefinitely. You don't even get to fall to your death and be done with it. Grrr.

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Better than the movie

This beautiful book is so much better than the movie. The ending is completely different. Like Diane Johnson's other novels, she expects her reader to be educated in literature, not just Voltaire and other French writers, but American ones, too, and even ancient Greek philosophers. If you haven't read Henry James's "The Portrait of a Lady," at least watch the movie version. Also like her other books, Johnson writes about the differences between American and French laws (obviously those concerning divorce). Her portrayal of two step-sisters is poignant. In fact, their relationship is the focus of the novel. While Isabel's idealistic sister, Roxy, gives in to weeping and feeling sorry for herself, it's really Isabel who needs to weep over her destroyed childhood. Like many children of divorce, Isabel has learned to be emotionally distant (almost like an existential film) and to be the strong American girl who can take care of herself. Isabel's falling for an older man is related to her mother's failed marriage. It's explicitly stated that Isabel takes after her mother. If her mother failed at finding love and Isabel is just like her, just think what that would do to a young woman's psyche. It's no wonder that Isabel tries to find an alternative to marriage. One reads the book to see if Isabel will suceed. I love how Johnson wrote the novel from the point of view of Isabel. It's the voice of an ingenue that captures all the levity and sadness of a young woman blossoming into an adult. I also liked the ending. The big plot question is: Will Paris defeat the sisters and send them home, or will they somehow learn to stand on their own feet and defend their ground.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

In Le Divorce, Diane Johnson delightfully recounts the adventures of two sisters from California who make a modern pilgrimage to the City of Light. Pregnant and abandoned by her French husband, Roxeanne Walker de Persand turns to her younger sister, Isabel, for support, while the powerful Persand family exerts subtle but firm control over her decision whether or not to divorce. Complicating matters is the disposition of a family heirloom, a painting in Roxy's possession that is suddenly discovered to be worth millions. In the midst of a variety of schemes, the stakes are suddenly raised by a crime of passion, disrupting everyone's motives and plans. Not since Edith Wharton penned her brilliant portraits of Americans abroad has an American novelist so perfectly captured the possibilities and perils of succumbing to the allure of Paris. *Le Divorce was a hardcover bestseller appearing on the Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Publishers Weekly, and Newsday bestseller lists. * Le Divorce received outstanding reviews. * The hardcover is in its 8th printing with over 50,000 copies in print. *Plume is embarking on a major Diane Johnson backlist reissue program with one out-of-print title to appear each month between February and June 1994.

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