“Stylish… refreshing… a genuinely wise and humane novel.”—The New York Times Book Review
“A modern collision of French and American mores begins in near farce but ends in tragedy in Johnson’s bright, unsparing novel… Johnson is especially good at catching the class-bound, cool, utter self- assurance of the French upper classes, and the determinedly frank, aggressive innocence of their American counterparts… A shrewd, carefully detailed portrait of the ways in which Americans and the French continue to romanticize, denigrate, and misapprehend each other, contained in a well-paced, believably dramatic narrative.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Social comedy at its best.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review
“One savors each page… If one were to cross Jane Austen and Henry James, the result would be Diane Johnson.”—San Francisco Chronicle
Bay Area Reviewers Association Best Fiction WINNER
Commonwealth Club of California Book Award WINNER
National Book Award WINNER
