RollnSmoke Reviews: LE DIVORCE

Le Divorce by Diane Johnson (Plume, 1998). An amusing, quick summer read features Isabel Walker, a young American from Santa Barbara, who has recently dropped out of USC Film School to head to Paris to live with her step-sister, Roxy, who is pregnant and separated from her French husband who has run off with a Czech sociologist named Magda. Because Isabel is young and fun and seemingly “indifferent to her future,” the reader experiences the high culture and sumptuous food and worldly sights of Paris from an unpretentious, newcomer’s point of view. It’s not long before Isabel begins a secret affair with one of Roxy’s in-laws, a seasoned and accomplished 70-year old French political figure. A string of somewhat far-fetched tragedies, including a suicide attempt, a kidnapping and a homicide, jars the frivolous vibe of the first half of the book, and Isabel’s response to these events reveals her to be deeply flawed, narcissistic and greedy (8/10).