Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris

Rating:
Summary: A truly fabulous read.
Review: Turnbull takes every day life events and turns them into a witty and inspiring tale. A must read for anyone living overseas or just if you fantasize about it.

Rating:
Summary: Loved it -- and I'm a "I moved to...Provence/Tuscany/" cynic
Review: What I loved about this book was voice of the writer in that you got the good and the bad about living in Paris. It didn't matter whether she was Australian -- or American -- or Russian. Her honesty was unquestionably refreshing when you look at so many of the -- frankly -- turgid and non-realistic books that are out there about (mostly) Americans adapting to foreign countries. Alice Steinbach, a Baltimore-based Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, wrote one that I thought was borderline offensive and I never cared for Frances Mayes' tales either. Just so you know where I stand:)) They both write in a fairy-tail like manner which is a turnoff. Turnbull tells it like it is and between the lines you can really feel her loneliness.

I enjoyed the book so much I sent a copy to a good friend (American) who lived in Paris, now lives in London, hates it, and misses Paris with all her heart (she didn't have the assimilation problem that Turnbull had but I think she might be unusual in that way!).

In a personal sense, I also identified with Turnbull's challenges. I'm a fairly recent bride of a man from Finland...and the language is even more difficult than French (it's not even remotely a part of the romance languages). His family only speaks Finnish. They are warm and welcoming but there's that limit (we can't communicate). I particularly identified with her struggles of being "invisible" (the chair concept about which she was advised did not help me either). One afternoon at a lunch party I felt as if I had regressed to being five years old -- and included at a dinner party given by my parents where I really didn't understand a word of the conversation and wondered why I was there! Well, now I know...but still.

Yes, I do wish I'd gotten more of a sense of why she was giving so much up to be in Paris...the relationship details were too sketchy and that would have made the story really...evocative. But I still loved it...and it was a pleasure, not to mention an eye-opener, to read.



Rating:
Summary: Oh la la. . . .
Review: While in Paris an American tour guide recommended Almost French. I've just finished it, and what a delightful, candid book. I thoroughly enjoyed Sarah Turnbulls's style of writing and laughed out loud in so many places. Having moved 500 miles for a man I knew six months, I can draw a small comparison, but to move to a country where you don't speak the language, whose cultures are so different - what a challenge! Ms. Turnbull writes with so much honesty and wit and some of her experiences were hilarious, the sweat pants being one as are her outings with Maddie, her Westie. Oh the French do like to dress - we could certainly learn something from them. Read Almost French - you won't be disappointed.