L'Affaire FROM THE PUBLISHER
"When Amy Hawkins, a young dot-com executive from California who has made her fortune at the top of the NASDAQ, overhears a pair of elderly - and thus much wiser - socialites decry the new generation for their incompetence in all things worldly, she sets off for Europe to find culture, her roots, and maybe a cause to devote her considerable fortune to. Amy starts her quest at one of the finest small hotels in the French Alps - a hotel noted for skiing and its famous cooking lessons - in the town of Valmeri." "A few days into her trip, Amy is nearly swept away by an avalanche (started, some say, by low-flying American warplanes). Two of the hotel's guests, esteemed English publisher Adrian Venn and his much younger American wife, Kerry, were not as fortunate as Amy. Both lie comatose in a nearby hospital. Learning that French and English laws dictate a very different division of money depending on where Adrian dies, Adrian's children - young, old, legitimate, and illegitimate - assemble in Valmeri to protect their interests should he not pull through." Amy, already suspect as an American, finds that her nationality freezes the social climate as she steps in to assist the family. In her innocence, Amy sets in motion a series of events in France and England that spotlight ancient national differences, customs, and laws. Add one or two small affairs that may topple carefully balanced alliances, and soon it is, as the French say, a situation.
FROM THE CRITICS
The New York Times
Don't imagine that L'Affaire is either a laugh-out-loud or get aroused-all-over kind of comedy or sex farce. Hardly. In the first place, the book moves very slowly -- you will learn a lot about cooking and the Napoleonic Code. Johnson divides her attention almost equally among a half-dozen characters, imbuing the plot with dramatic richness, but at the cost of intensity. This is a leisurely, almost old-fashioned novel of manners, really, and one needs to relax and accept that. There's no urgency of any sort -- sexual or narrative. In her prose, as in her tale, Johnson seems to be aiming for an elegant urbanity: She's never exactly witty, but she hopes to sound worldly-wise and often succeeds.
— Michael Dirda
The New York Times Book Review
Immensely amusing, L'Affaire has the same mischievous wit and graceful style as Johnson's earlier Parisian works, but it is broader in cultural scope (the British have arrived), more ambitious in its narrative form and decidedly forward-looking.—Caryn James
Publishers Weekly
In Le Divorce and Le Mariage, Johnson polished her skill for sophisticated social comedy involving the cultural disconnections of Americans in France. Here, she perfects it in a deliciously entertaining story of a group of people drawn together-and divided by-the sharply different laws of succession in France and Britain. Amy Hawkins, a beautiful, na ve, suddenly very rich Californian dot-com entrepreneur, comes to a posh ski resort in the French Alps as part of her plan for cultural self-improvement. When she generously pays for transporting the dying Adrian Venn, a publisher crushed in a landslide, back to his native England, her humanitarian gesture backfires with exquisite irony. Venn's two grown English children, his illegitimate French daughter, his new, much younger American wife and their toddler son become embroiled in a classic scenario of quarreling heirs, each seething with expectations at the expense of the others. Add a stuffy British solicitor who disdains French customs, his French counterpart who equally despises the English, an intellectual and TV personality who demonizes Americans, a lusty Austrian baron, a chic Parisienne hostess and other expertly drawn characters, and the comedy moves into high gear, but never at the expense of insights into human nature. Johnson's dexterity with plot builds astounding but credible complications, and she is adept at rendering a kind of fugal counterpoint in which each character misunderstands what each of the others thinks. Because love and money are never far apart in Johnson's oeuvre, four affairs take place, with mixed results. Johnson is more droll than Henry James, to whom she's been compared, and she's as witty as a modern-day Voltaire. Vraiment, L'Affaire, c'est irresistible! Author tour. (Sept. 29) Forecast: The August 8 release of Le Divorce from Fox Searchlight/Merchant Ivory will build instant interest in this novel, which should fly off bookstore shelves. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Long before George W. stirred up anti-French feelings in patriotic Americans, novelist Johnson had dissected Franco-American cultural misunderstandings and stereotypes with wit and flair in the delightful Le Divorce and Le Mariage. Her latest comedy of manners returns to familiar territory, this time throwing English attitudes into the mix. At an exclusive ski resort in the French Alps, English publisher Adrian Venn and his new, much younger American wife, Kerry, lie comotose in the hospital, the victims of an avalanche rumored to have been caused by low-flying American warplanes. Gathered at their bedside are Venn's two adult English children, his illegitimate French daughter, and Kerry's 14-year-old brother. When Amy Hawkins, a successful but idealistic young dot.com executive from California who has come to Europe to acquire a bit of culture before she starts her nonprofit foundation, generously pays for Adrian's transport back to England, she unwittingly sets off a legal avalanche. As French and English laws differ over questions of inheritance, Venn's heirs are soon embroiled in a classic family feud. Once again Johnson has concocted a tasty literary bonbon with fully drawn characters and incisive but hilarious insights into national differences. Bon appetit! [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/03.]-Wilda Williams, "Library Journal" Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
AudioFile
Blair Brown's voice--a balance of earnest and amused--is just right for this tasty trifle. American innocent Amy Hawkins, having made millions in Silicon Valley, has gone abroad to acquire language and culture. During her stay at a Swiss ski resort, an avalanche leaves a wealthy Englishman and his young American wife hovering near death at a local hospital. The man's potential beneficiaries gather. When Hawkins leaps in to help the family, lust, greed, pride, and prejudice wreak havoc. Displaying an impressive array of accents, Brown moves smoothly among an enjoyably flawed cast of characters. It's all a bit Jane Austen with a Gallic flair! E.S. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
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