Rating: 
Summary: Seduced by Paris
Review: I don't know if Sarah Turnbull author of "Almost French" could be described as 'spoiled' as one reviewer suggests, but I do know that reading the memoir of her years adjusting to life in Paris provides enough proof to allow me to categorize her as 'adventurous' perhaps, 'impulsive', throughly 'enamoured' with her adopted city and possessing that "je-ne-sais-quoi" that gives us pause.
Meeting Frederic while on a journalistic assignment in Bucharest throws a curve ball in Australian-born Sarah's easy-care wash-and-wear lifestyle where getting dressed up means making sure there isn't any caked mud embedded in the soles of her Doc Martens. On a romantic whim, she takes Frederic up on his offer to visit him in Paris, and suddenly Sarah finds herself living in the City of Lights where her honed communication skills become meaningless in the whirlwind of French.
Language is not the sole barrier keeping Sarah outside the proverbial candy store window with her nose pressed up against the glass. She doesn't quite understand the French social situation where quiet mannered restraint is the order of the day. In chapter after chapter of amusing Anglo-Saxon vs. French/Latin anecdotes and speculations, Sarah allows us a sparkling glimpse of her personal epiphanies: how acquiring a dog allowed her otherwise forbidden entry, why wearing sweatpants in the street lowers the standards of an entire city, how she could NEVER eat low-fat again, how the Latin interpretation of the law leads to furtive games played opposite the French authorities, how wording something in seemingly flowery language lands her the money needed to sponser her journalism course and why becoming "almost French" isn't nearly as important as "just being yourself." Sarah is certainly not 'spoiled', she's just a victim of intense culture shock. Her revelations are imparted with a cozy friendly narrative sprinkled with just enough dialogue to imbue each character with some depth. I would like hear more from her in a further book as the shock wears off or new shocks electrify with new situations.
Readers expecting the details of Sarah's personal relationship with Frederic, her future husband, to be spun out like a rich romantic fairytale, be warned; even though the book is subtitled love and a new life in Paris, the love portion remains private; she relates only that they met in Bucharest, connected and suddenly were living together in France. The reader catches glimpses of Frederic as the quintessential Frenchman; the memoir focuses on Sarah's adjustment, not to Frederic, but to his country and its occupants. It makes for charming light reading and is recommended to all who like travel essays and don't mind a change from finding the provincial country idyll to discovering the heartbeat of a city.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful read, but a little irritating at times
Review: I flew through this like a box of peanut butter M & M's! It certainly rang true and was witty, entertaining and romantic, (It would make a somewhat entertaining movie, too) Although Sarah tends (in my opinion) to whine a bit, "I don't actually *live* in Paris, i'm two metro stops away, oh noo! Tragedy!" I can understand her puzzlement and anger, but I think she should have considered herself damn lucky she had a well established, wel-to-do French boyfriend. Some Australian women who go to live in Paris don't have anyone to support them, spend money on them or let them live in modern spacious apartments. Apart from this, "Almost French" is a very good read. Read it on your way to Paris on that long flight.
Rating: 
Summary: Enchanting
Review: I found this book simply enchanting. I have a boyfriend who is parisian and we are thinking about moving Paris, so the book really opened my eyes on some aspects of life there. It is a close look "behind the scenes" that makes this book not only funny and romantic, but also real. For anybody who has ever dreamed about life in Paris - this is a book for you!
Rating:
Summary: very nice read
Review: I found this book very enjoyable. I have always had a secret desire to live in France. The author described her transition from visitor to resident in a wonderfully descriptive manner. I feel that I have a much better understanding of the sometimes distant behavior of the French.
Rating:
Summary: I loved this book
Review: I loved Sarah Turnbull's Almost French. She seemlessly turns her hand from journalism to writing personal anecdotes in the first person. Her style is easy to follow and my eyes seemed to fly through the book. I don't quite understand why so many people want to know more about Frederick. This is a book about Sarah and her personal journey from Sydney to Paris. I think if there was more about Frederick it would have detracted from the true plot. The book has given me courage to follow my heart. Sarah followed hers to Paris and this book maps her (often hilarious and often upsetting) journey. I particularly enjoyed the chapters when Frederick was in Australia, it was enlightening to see my own city (which I thought of as beautiful and laid back) from the view of a Frenchman.
This is a book i have read a number of times and have reommended to many.
Rating: 
Summary: Superficial
Review: I picked up this book in preparation for a vacation in France and anticipated gaining insight into French culture. The book, however, is a 300-page sob fest with the author asking over and over and over again "why don't they like me?" This may be interesting for someone who never lived overseas and had to adjust to a new culture, and it may be interesting to those looking for a love story, but do not buy this book with the idea that you will gain insight into French culture. You will, however, learn about a spoiled Australian woman.
Rating: 
Summary: God, what a whiny b*tch!
Review: I started this book when I was on a plane for my first-ever trip to Paris. What a mistake that was! This whining of this self-absorbed petulant brat put me in an instant bad mood. I had to put this book aside halfway through as it was making me dread my trip! Don't waste your time or money.
Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have developed an interest in things French and found that this book answered a few of my questions.Turnbull moves to Paris from Sydney to live with a man she hardly knows. The book chronicles her odyssey from naive foreigner to a more self-assured woman living in Paris. She will never be French but she has learned to navigate the obstacles in her way. Some things she addresses: - Womens role in society. While expected to be intellegent, she is also expected to be low-key and slightly demure in public. - Cocktail parties. She attends one where no one really mingles. She learns the French are really rather shy when meeting new people. - Dress. The French value quality over quantity. - Dealing with French officials. Turnbull relays a few harrowing stories while trying to process papers for work and learns a few ways of dealing with government workers. One thing - Turnbull is Australian so her treatment from the French is probably not as bad if she were American. Very interesting read.
Rating:
Summary: Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris
Review: In an unpretentious manner, the strong yet empathetic Turnbull relates the transition from her Australian home to a new life with her French fiance, adding a good twist of dry, self-deprecating humor. A freelance journalist, Turnbull has a knack for describing the salient and entertaining episodes succinctly yet vividly, which prevents the story from descending into monotony. From meeting her husband's extended family to attending haute couture fashion shows, Turnbull candidly assesses her new environment. She also takes the stereotypes of French culture, such as the obsession with aesthetics, acknowledges their basis in reality, and then delves deeper to find an explanation for each. Turnbull's love for her husband tempers the frustration and humiliation she experiences while mastering not only the language but also the idiosyncratic rules and customs of the French. This enjoyable and insightful book is suitable for public library collections
Rating:
Summary: Sarah Turnbull Has Written an Eminently Readable Memoir
Review: In the mid-1990s, Australian journalist Sarah Turnbull met a French attorney named Frédéric in Bucharest and followed him back to Paris, where they lived together and eventually married. End of a familiar story, right? Wrong. Turnbull, a born reporter, has given her book an apt subtitle: not "Life and a New Love in Paris," but "Love and a New Life in Paris." For, as Turnbull accurately observes, in her case it's the love that brings her to a new life and not vice versa. Turnbull provides brief glimpses into how love grew between her and "Fred," including descriptions of a huge mirror from which he patiently scraped paint with his thumbnail; for the most part he remains an opaque figure. There is no doubt whatsoever that this idiosyncratic pair are in genuine swing-from-the-gilt mirror love --- after all, she does move to another country for him and he makes enormous and touching attempts to introduce her to his family and his culture --- but Turnbull seems to have made a conscious decision to draw a veil over their love life, both emotional and physical. Her intention is not to describe a romance but to detail her own transformations --- from single woman to spouse, and from Aussie to "almost French." The "almost" modifying "French" includes a large amount of agonizing awkwardness. The near-universal tourist experience of Parisian rudeness is magnified hundreds of times for someone like Turnbull who chooses to stay on past the usual week or two. "A week might not be long enough," muses the author after her first dinner in Fred's apartment, but she still maintains enough natural savoir-faire to take a breather and travel for several months. After that however, "I return to Paris. The way I see it, there is really no alternative ... if I don't go to France, I might regret it forever." What makes Turnbull's recounting of her Parisian existence eminently readable is that there is so much she might regret by actually staying. She freely admits that when she returned to Paris and Fred's apartment, she had no friends or family, little language ability, and few job prospects. Her initial setbacks (stacks of rejection letters from editors, dinner party embarrassments, and difficulty in communicating with her new love) lead Turnbull to feeling "confused, guilty even, that I should feel unhappy in a place that looks like paradise." Being unhappy away from familiar things is an age-old theme for females who follow their hearts to new lands --- but while the theme is ancient, Turnbull isn't. She is a thoroughly modern woman whose frustrations spur her on to find solutions. Before long she has entered a prestigious journalism program, encouraged Fred to buy a new apartment in the Montorgueil district, and actually learned to tolerate the suffocatingly hidebound atmosphere of Fred's provincial family seat at Baincthun. Unlike Adam Gopnik's PARIS TO THE MOON, in which author, wife and child are all expatriates who will return home at some point (however reluctantly), ALMOST FRENCH is a book that clearly presages a sequel (perhaps WHOLLY FRENCH) --- or does it? One of the freshest things about Turnbull's great adventure is that, while she wholeheartedly throws herself into loving and living in a different country, she never abandons the self she created for the nearly thirty years before coming to France. In the last chapter, after their marriage, Turnbull reflects on the adventure that is just beginning. While it is clear that Sarah and Fred have many adventures to come, it is equally clear that she may never be completely French. Vive la différence! --- Reviewed by Bethanne Kelly Patrick from Bookreporter.com
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