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Le Mariage

by Diane Johnson

Summary

New York journalist Tim Nollinger and his fiancée, a Frenchwoman named Anne-Sophie d"Argel, are trying to recover a stolen illuminated manuscript that may have been acquired by Serge Cray, a film-maker in Paris, and his American wife Clara Holly. In this comedy of errors combined with French farce, Diane Johnson writes not exactly a sequel to her award-winning LE DIVORCE, but another comic novel about the same traditionally rich subject: hapless Americans in France. A New York Times Notable Book for the year 2000.

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Media Reviews

"[R]egardless of how cluttered the plot of LE MARIAGE may be or how littered it is with misleading portents and developments that never get resolved, the book is never dull to read. This is thanks to the cynical delight that Ms. Johnson takes in her characters...."    -- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

   -- New York Times

"Johnson's new novel, LE MARIAGE, is sturdy enough to hold its own, but it benefits from the renown of its more flamboyant, more surefooted predecessor, and therefore lives both in its glow and in its shadow....Johnson...is a philosopher as much as a novelist-an aphorist who distills the essence of cultural differences....In the end, it's Johnson's insights that account for the charm of these books, not her characters'."    -- Mary Hawthorne

   -- New Yorker

"LE MARIAGE is, if anything, a more polished performance than LE DIVORCE. Johnson, who has chosen to narrate this story in the omniscient third-person voice, maintains a greater sense of balance among the intertwining story lines and a firmer sense of authorial control."    -- Merle Rubin

   -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Readers of LE DIVORCE will recognize the Persand family and much else from that book: crimes passionnels, threatened and actual; stolen or misappropriated artworks that arouse and injure French national pride; the seeming inevitability of adultery; an American expatriate community railing against arbitrary and immovable French officialdom; even the presence in each book of an older female novelist. LE MARIAGE is not as ambitious in scope as its predecessor, less philosophic and mournful, less burdened by arguments over history and national responsibility. It is as if Johnson found herself with something else to say on her subject, but in a more comic and farcical vein."    -- Jean Thompson

   -- Chicago Tribune

"There are many pleasures to Diane Johnson's new cultural comedy, LE MARIAGE. It is serious, intelligent, witty, sporting, and even touching. But perhaps the most welcome pleasure of them all is that, like some dashingly sophisticated aunt from the big city, this novel is utterly charming."    -- Cathleen Schine

   -- New York Review of Books

Bibliographic Details

Publisher: Plume
Published date: 2001
Size: 5 x 8.25 inches
Weight: 0.6 pounds

Publisher's Notes

Frenchwoman Anne-Sophie, her American fiancT, a pair of American antique dealers, and a member of the local gentry combine to detail the theft of a valauble illuminated manuscript, but while on their search for the missing treasure, they are challenged by a murder, a disappearance, a wrongful arrest, and other comedic mishaps. Reprint.

Other Editions

• Hardcover - Penguin USA (2000) - from $1.00
• Paperback Reissue - Penguin USA (2001) - from $1.00

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