Wed, 01 Oct 2008
Le Dossier
trans Sarah Long, Le Dossier
How to Survive the English,
John Murray
If you're in the mood for a bit of English
bashing this could be just the thing but it
will give absolutely no joy at all to the likes
of Aussie Pommy haters as it will mostly be
incomprehensible.
The reason being that the viewpoint is from
a Parisian female of supposedly huge brain and
with an extremely privileged background - or so
the story goes. There's actually a fair chance
that this character is made up, but never mind.
In any case, the viewpoint is lofty enough to
resemble a caricature French person but this is
part of the fun.
All the usual culprits get a serve - women's
looks and dress (actually, everyone's dress),
the manners, the food, the shops (interesting
statistic in the book is that 80% of English
food is bought in supermarkets whereas the figure
for France is 5%), the health system (catch
Eurostar home!), the ways of English sex (basic,
brutish, and short) which is blamed on
Protestants, and of course, there's more, more,
more.
It is quite fun and I imagine will be read
mostly by English people.
(Baron K)
[]
permanent link
| 
pre Dec 04 reviews are here