A Year In the Merde by Stephen Clarke
publication date: 2004
pages: 276
ISBN: 978-1-58234-591-8
This ostensibly fictional novel really wanted its readers to accept the realism and accuracy of its pages. The blurb on the back described the book as a “hilarious, almost-true tale.” The quote at the front, taken from a preface to another book, extolled: “Its pages form the record of events that really happened.”
In the book, the author – a British man living and working in Paris, France – introduced us to the character Paul West – a British man living and working in Paris, France. Paul West was a British businessman hired as a consultant by a French company to help open a string of British tea shops in France. Both West and the author explained French daily life in a superior and joke-filled style.
The topics satirized most often were: labor strikes, the Parisian shrug, French women’s sexuality, and hypocritical isolationism. The most effective mockery surrounded anti-war liberals, who seemed to be against war only insofar as it was trendy and simple. For example, when West met with his friend to discuss West’s lack of sex life, the two companions first:
dispensed with the war (“It’s always civilians who suffer,” “Why do so many people swallow the line that politicians feed them?” and so on) and then got down to the meat of the matter.
There were a few other funny passages, such as this description of Parisian apartment-dwelling:
I was also sick of my neighbors, as most Parisians are . . . At 7:00 a.m. alarm goes off, boom, Madame gets out of bed, puts on her deep-sea divers’ boots, and stomps across my ceiling to megaphone the kids awake. The kids drop bags of cannonballs onto the floor, then, apparently dragging several sledgehammers each, stampede into the kitchen . . . meanwhile the toilet is flushed, on average, fifty times per drop of urine expelled.
The author was also very good at melding the French and the English languages. There were many passages where the book played with French and English homonyms and idioms.
However, most of the book fell flat. Here was his simplistic and jokey description of his boss’s residence:
It overlooked the Bois de Boulogne, the immense wooded park where toffs go riding and Brazilians earn the cash for their sex-change operations. About as exclusive a Paris address as you can get.
A lot of the jokes and observations foundered, but also the plot was poorly explained and confusing. Because almost everything in the book was a joke, I wasn’t sure what was actually happening or what was an exaggeration. For example, at one point, West is awakened by armed gunman at his door. But were these man “armed” in the same way that the Parisian neighbors mentioned above carted sledgehammers around with them? Or were they actually toting guns? It turned out they literally were wielding rifles, but by the time I figured that out, the scene had lost all of its dramatic tension.
I didn’t find A Year In the Merde entertaining, but I’ve not been to France. Maybe those more familiar with the subject would find the book more pleasurable.
3/6: more good than bad
other reviews:
The Uncustomary Book Review
The Bookbag
Pulse
