Rating: 
Summary: A modern marterpiece
Review: I have greatly enjoyed all of Diane Johnson's books especially since "Le Divorce." Her style is unique and fresh, and the subject matter engrossing and captivating. I believe she is one of the great new voices of American fiction, even if her subjects involve Americans lost and bewildered by alien surroundings and customs. I agree, none of her novels are "fast" reads, if that is what is important to you. But I was engrossed from the minute I began savoring this and her other novels.
Rating: 
Summary: Johnson's other works are better
Review: I was disappointed with this novel. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Le Mariage or Le Divorce. Somehow I couldn't really connect with the main character and her mysterious and convenient millions, and the French and English characters were all shallow and not very likable. The ending was just too pat. This novel wasn't a complete waste of time, but it wasn't worth the precious little time I have for reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely an Affaire, not a Liason
Review: In addition to her usual sharp observations of cultural differences, Ms. Johnson has really nailed the complex differences in the inheritance laws of England and France, and makes good use of them in the story's development. The Affaire concerns questionnable activities of lawyers on both sides of the Channel. As others have noted, the ending is not so strong as the first 3/4 of the book; perhaps the publisher set a page limit.
Rating:
Summary: Amusing comedy of manners
Review: In L'Affaire, Diane Johnson writes another comedy of manners centered on the cultural differences between French folks and American folks. She expands her contrast to include a goodish number of Britons. Her third-person narrative centers around the
doings when a rich man and his young wife have a ski accident.
We are led through the viewpoints and lives of the man's children, as well as a newly-rich-in-dot-coms young California woman.
The comparison inevitable in reviewing this novel is that to Johnson's other cultural comedy, Le Divorce. Although L'Affaire has similarities sufficient to draw the reader who liked Le Divorce, this comedy of manners is rather different as well. Ms. Johnson's periscope view of people of some money and some culture provides a bit wider view here.
The world created by this novel is not intended to be quite the literal world in which we all live. Like a Wodehouse novel, the Johnson universe has some touchstones from "real life", but is instead its own constructed universe. Although Le Divorce arguably had some "skewed Jane Austen" touches, this novel is more Trollopeian in its approach. Although all characters are quite sympathetic, none are quite lovable.
This book is consistently diverting, and in parts quite amusing.
It rarely provides the "roar out loud" type of chuckle, but that's more a matter of design than flaw.Ms. Johnson's ear for language remains solid. L'Affaire is a quick interlude more than a lifelong memory, but well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: amusing but dark avarice bedroom manners romp
Review: In Palo, Alto, California, Amy Hawkins made a fortune in the dot-com boom. Feeling she owes for her fortunate life, Amy decides to improve herself before doing good deed. She heads to the Alps ski resort Hotel Croix St. Bernard in Valmeri, France where she plans to learn everything French in two weeks.
The good deed surfaces when she pays for the return of dying publisher Adrian Venn, injured in an avalanche to England. Venn's family gathers to carve up the estate with each expecting to trump the other. Amy finds herself in a loony bin as Venn's two adult children and his illegitimate French daughter expect to eliminate their father's young comatose (from the accident) American wife and their infant step-brother from the estate competition before the final battle royal between themselves. Even the solicitors from France and England are skirmishing over who does what to whom arguing which country takes precedence. Finally there are also the outside straphangers ready to take a slice. With all that and bed hopping, romance, and affairs while everyone disparages those damn Yankees Amy Hawkins has learned a valuable lesson that no good deed goes unpunished.
The key to this humorous coffin romp is the ensemble cast mourning their loss or celebrating their gain seem genuine as Diane Johnson provides a deep look at values. The story line is a comedy of errors with everyone misinterpreting the actions and motivations of everyone else because they constantly impose their values on how others will behave. Fans will appreciate this intelligent amusing but dark avarice bedroom manners Rape of the Lock.
Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: I agree with 'plodding and dull' from Amherst, MA
Review: It's plodding and dull. The premise had potential, which is why I picked it up, but was bored and zipped through it just to get it over with. Too bad.
Rating: 
Summary: L'Waste of Time
Review: My reading group wanted something light for our January read so we selected this book based on a newspaper review in which Ms. Johnson is hailed as a Pulitzer Prize contender. I doubt this book is going to win her any literary awards! L'Affaire had unlikeable, boring characters about whom I was completely uninterested. The plot was silly and bordering on the absurd without being even slightly humorous. Don't waste your money or time on this one.
Rating:
Summary: Fun
Review: No spoiler (I hope ) so read with caution - but I was enjoying the book until the last page conclusion - then I realized how much time I had wasted with a shallow unfullfilled character (Amy). She had not developed in any sense in the book even as she desired to improve herself and enrich her life. Disgusted by ending. Such an easy out for the writer - must have had a deadline.
Rating:
Summary: L'Affaire francaise: a life on the cusp.
Review: Not surprisingly, Pulitzer Prize finalist, Diane Johnson, has been compared to Henry James in her portrayals of Americans abroad. Like James, her writing is insightful and refined. In her follow up to LE DIVORCE (1997) and LE MARIAGE (2000), Johnson returns to the chasm of cultural differences Americans experience in France. L'AFFAIRE is a subtle and sophisticated comedy of manners that examines the exploits of Amy Hawkins, an inexperienced thirty-year-old Californian, on her quest for cultural self improvement while vacationing in the French Alps. In her escape from the freeways, Burger Kings, gas stations, traffic, garage door openers, war, religious fundamentalists, and ugliness of America (p. 330), and in little more than a month, Amy not only to learns to speak French, ski, and make cream soups, but she also lands herself in legal trouble by contributing to the death of a comatose patient, Adrian Venn. And--Mon Dieu!--if this isn't enough of international predicament for her, Amy's sexual course of "noisy moans and cries" into the wee hours, while becoming a "better-rounded person," results in an inner disappointment more commonly known as a broken heart. Witty and entertaining, this is an AFFAIRE with French culture to be savored. G. Merritt
Rating:
Summary: DELIGHTFUL AND DELICIOUS
Review: Perceptive and witty, popular novelist Diane Johnson struck it rich with "Le Mariage" and "Le Divorce" (later made into a top box office draw by Merchant/Ivory Productions and Fox Searchlight). Now, with "L'Affaire" Ms. Johnson creates a protagonist who also has the Midas touch - Amy Ellen Hawkins, a young attractive American who has reaped a fortune as a dot.com
executive. However, for Amy her vast wealth almost seems to bring more problems than pleasures. You see, Amy believes she must do some sort of payback for the blessings she has so unexpectedly and suddenly received. Thus, she first sets upon a course of self-improvement, "an almost superstitious way of placating the gods for her recent good fortune." Next, she hopes to find a cause, a sort of "mutual aid" to which she can devote a portion of her considerable assets. She opts for a stay at the Hotel Croix St. Bernard in Valmeri, France where in a few weeks she intends to master French (the language and cuisine) in addition to absorbing other cultural niceties. She has gathered that this particular hotel is "the choice of diplomats taking a break from Geneva, the occasional adulterous couple, well-off families with young children who like an early, assorted Eurotrash eccentrics bored with the relentless pace found in the larger hotels." She is correct. Among Amy's fellow guests are a portly Austrian baron whose business is real estate, a rather threadbare but erudite English poet, Robin Crumley, an impossibly attractive television reporter, Emile Abboud, and, for a while, an English brother and sister, Posy and Rupert Venn. Unfortunately, Amy's idyll is interrupted by an avalanche which takes the life of Adrian Venn, and renders his much younger wife, Kerry, comatose. Kerry's infant son and teenage brother, Kip, are marooned at the hotel. Of course, Amy takes it upon herself to help the hapless and helpless young ones. She befriends Kip and makes arrangements for Adrian to be transported to England. However, her disposition to be a do-gooder has unexpected results - when Adrian dies on English soil litigation of the most complicated nature ensues. Now, toss in romantic entanglements that have developed among the guests and you have, to put it mildly, some complications. In the words of Ms. Johnson these complications make delightful, fun reading. The author, a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and three-time finalist for the National Book Award, once again proves her mettle. "L'Affaire" is a bit of fluff laced with brandy - don't miss it! - Gail Cooke
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